Music and Dance Company
Medianoche is a dance and music company based in San Francisco.
Medianoche appropriates the structure, vocabulary and meaning of Flamenco in a personal manner to create original, contemporary North American pieces, under the direction of Marie Deschênes.
Medianoche accommodates itself with what there is, but makes it its own.
Marie Deschênes
Dance & Direction
Marie started her dance training with ballet at the age of 3, and later followed with Flamenco in Spain. She also has training in
music (voice and percussion) and in acting.
She founded Medianoche in 2007.
A grant holder from the Canada Art Council, she has performed at venues like the Montalvo Arts Center, the Montréal Jazz Festival, Église du Gesù, Nuits d'Afrique Festival and the Upstairs Jazz.
A natural pedagogue, she teaches dance in San Francisco and Montréal.
Marie's poems have been published in Moebius literary magazine from Éditions Tryptique, and have been put to music by contemporary composer Isaiah Ceccarelli for the Bréviaire d'épuisements, released on Ambiances Magnétiques Label.
She studied philosophy at UQÀM and University College London.
Chris Cucuzza
Guitar & Composition
Chris studied music at Berkeley University in California, and later specialized in Flamenco in Malaga and Sevilla, Spain.
He has performed in numerous venues in the past 20 years, with many flamenco artists, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Montreal, Canada.
In 2015 and 2016, he performed at the prestigious Montreal Jazz Festival, with percussionist Miguel Medina.
His current projects are musical composition, in collaboration with dancer Marie Deschênes, while also performing in flamenco tablaos, presenting mostly his solo work.
Miguel Medina
Percussion, guest collaborator
Miguel is one of the most interesting and talented flamenco percussionist in North America, and the world.
His training in music in Mexico led him to Paris, where he developed his skills and accompanied modern dancers, preparing him to his career in flamenco.
A fantastic improviser with a great artistic sense, Miguel plays in numerous bands in Montréal and everywhere in Canada.
He also directs short movies for his own company, rhizome films.
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.