Yinka Esi Graves

Yinka Esi Graves is a British Flamenco dancer, practitioner and educator whose choreographic work explores the links between Flamenco and other forms of corporeal expression in particular from an African diasporic and contemporary perspective. 

Yinka co-founded the contemporary flamenco company dotdotdot dance in 2014. Company’s works include I come to my body as a question, Sampled 2017 in collaboration with spoken artist Toni Stuart, and Clay (2015) with former Alvin Ailey dancer Asha Thomas. 

Yinka has featured in seminal film works including Miguel Angel Rosales’ award-winning documentary film, Gurumbé: Canciones de tu Memoria Negra (2016), the first Spanish film to highlight the influence its African population had on Spanish culture, particularly Flamenco.  Graves’ first solo piece, The Disappearing Act, premiered at the Nimes Flamenco Festival in 2023 and will be touring in Europe and the United States in 2023-2024