Csaba Ökrös and Assuntina Gessa met in 2016 while they were training in flamenco, he in guitar, she in dance. Together, they continued their explorations of flamenco in Spain while playing as a guitar/dance duo in third places in the northeastern part of France. Their first shows, first created as delegated production, then carried by the Minera company that they founded in 2024, brought together artists from Latin music, contemporary dance, jazz and rock.
Their desire is to feed on the encounter of flamenco with different musical and choreographic aesthetics.
Assuntina Gessa
A self-taught flamenco dancer of Italian origin, Assuntina Gessa trained in flamenco dance for over 15 years and flourished in parallel in graphic design, then she devoted herself to live performance from 2016. She integrates body and rhythm techniques by regularly training with other dancers and develops her own technical working method and choreographic language in contact with musicians, including guitarist Csaba Ökrös with whom she brings together a group of artists. Together, they created the show Minera Nueva (Baboeup Productions) in 2018 at the S.M.A.C. Café Music as part of the Festival International Arte Flamenco Mont-de-Marsan, then Caravela (2021). She collaborates with Kader Fahem Trio as a dancer. To extend the flamenco gesture, she works on the close relationship it implies with other disciplines: rhythm, singing and dramatic expression, and she is currently discovering contemporary dance which constitutes a new opening for her. She collaborates with the Logos Company as a Dancer-choreographer on the pieces Huellas (2022) and Compte à Rebours (2022). In 2024, she founded the Minera company, creating the show Regreso "Tablao" (2024).
Csaba Ökrös
Flamenco guitarist of Hungarian origin, Csaba Ökrös was immersed as a child in traditional Hungarian music, of which his father was one of the representatives, and he played his first notes on a violin. In France, he joined the M.A.I. course in Nancy in 2008 and played in several contemporary music groups. He then entered the Metz Conservatory in the classical and then jazz sections and studied flamenco at the same time, for which he was passionate. He accompanied flamenco dance classes and trained with several guitarists including Rafael Sègre in Nancy and Manuel Fernandez in Granada. With Assuntina Gessa, he toured with a small guitar-dance form and then created with her the shows Minera Nueva (2018), then Caravela (2021). His influences are those of new flamenco with which he mixes an energy from rock and a gypsy soniquete. Csaba explores different musical genres that permeate his compositions (Hungarian music, Cuban sòn...). He currently plays in the Afro jazz group Kalifa Mougnou, in Sea sex and son. He founded the Minera company with Assuntina Gessa and created with her the show Regreso Tablao (2024).
Artistic approach
Surrounded by a solid artistic and technical team and thanks to the support of partners, Csaba & Assuntina develop creations where the artistic identities of each meet around the same rhythmic language, the famous claves specific to flamenco: the compas. A certain transgression of traditional codes is sought in connection with the personalities of the artists, around the rhythmic interpretation that results from it, and the aesthetic and choreographic research.
In connection with its creations, the Minera company develops a research and transmission axis, by reaching out to audiences, imagining meetings, workshops and shared creations, and offering regular flamenco classes.