IF THE SUNLIT FLOORS OF AN OLD Territorial-Style adobe could talk, they would speak of a flamenco legacy born in the North Valley home. Three generations of Encinias family members danced here, mastering traditions from their Spanish heritage, repeating steps in kind with those of their ancestors. The floors would tell stories about the percussive footwork that was beaten into their grain, the whooshing whispers of swirling flamenco skirts, the clicking of castanets, and the joy of a family who continues to dance the flamenco that lives in their blood.
From the 1950s until her death in the late ’80s, Clarita Garcia de Aranda Allison taught her family—and the wider Albuquerque community—from this home studio, known as Clarita’s School of Dance. She instructed her daughter, Eva Encinias, in the art, and later her grandchildren, Marisol and Joaquín Encinias. “One of the most important things for me as a child was my grandmother’s studio,” says Joaquín. “Dance was something you did in your house; it was a part of your family.”
Garcia de Aranda Allison brought flamenco to the community beyond teaching, regularly performing at public events like the Old Town fiestas. Her cultural dance infused her family with the kind of skills and spirit that, seven decades later, continues to nurture a living flamenco practice and a dance community unlike any other in the country. The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, for example, offers a bachelor’s degree in dance with a concentration in flamenco—the only degree of its kind in the United States. The degree program is overseen by the National Institute of Flamenco, which Eva founded in 1982.
Yjastros dancers Isabella Nuanez (facing the camera) and Ysabela Trujillo perform the caña.
Photograph courtesy of Thaïs Coy.
“My mother is carrying on this practice she did with her mother and taking it to another level,” says Marisol, who serves as executive director at the institute. The National Institute of Flamenco hosts dance classes for students of all levels at the Conservatory of Flamenco Arts and has dancers who perform year-round at El Farol in Santa Fe and at Tablao Flamenco inside Hotel Albuquerque. Its biggest project is the annual Festival Flamenco Alburquerque, which brings artists from around the world to perform, host workshops, and collaborate in the Duke City. The 2025 festival, happening June 20–28, marks the event’s 38th year. Its name honors the city’s original Spanish spelling with the extra r.
The combination of year-round classes, the nation’s biggest flamenco festival, and the only accredited university degree in flamenco makes Albuquerque an epicenter for the art. It’s an optimal environment for dancers to learn and thrive—and for Chicano and Hispano dance students to connect with their heritage in a tangible way and study it beyond the dance floor. Some graduates of the UNM dance program are continuing traditions practiced by their ancestors for generations.
Elena Osuna, Andrea Lozano, and Roxana Jian are in Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company.
Photograph courtesy of NIF/Thaïs Coy.
FLAMENCO WAS BORN IN ANDALUCÍA, SPAIN, in the mid-1800s, during a time of massive change and migration, and borrows from a wide array of musical traditions and cultures that mingled in the Iberian Peninsula during that time. In it, you can trace African and Indigenous influences, Middle Eastern and Sephardic sounds, Yoruba and Congo music, and overtones of Spanish and Romani songs. “All of these things make flamenco this really unique evolution,” Marisol says. “After hundreds of years of cultures mixing and transatlantic voyages, that’s where flamenco is born, in that space.”
When a flamenco dancer takes the stage—at the Tablao, during Festival Flamenco, or in a workshop—a hush comes over the audience. The dancers, in flowing skirts that flare into billowing floral shapes with their movements, use intricate footwork to keep a percussive beat in time with the music. They are both dancer and drum, movement embodied. Statuesque poses, balletic arm positions, and fierce expressions come together to make a flamenco dancer a unique expression of the accompanying music. In some traditions, the dancer’s fingers click castanets (little hollow wooden shell-shaped handheld instruments) adding a higher note to the beat.
Joaquín Encinias founded Yjastros.
Photograph courtesy of Thaïs Coy.
Having a degree focused on flamenco allows students to delve beyond technique—to examine the dance form as a complex cultural, historical, and political entity. “My mother was able to take it outside of its performance realm to a place where it could be studied,” Marisol explains.
The final component of the Albuquerque flamenco scene that flows from the efforts of the Encinias family is Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company, founded and directed by Joaquín. Some graduates from UNM’s flamenco program go on to dance with Yjastros, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary. In 1999, Joaquín set out to create a new kind of flamenco company in New Mexico. At the time, many local companies were centered around a principal dancer and named in their likeness, like the María Benítez Dance Company in Santa Fe. “I felt my addition to my mother’s project could be this choreography-led company,” he says.
In the decades since its founding, Yjastros has built a repertory of nearly 70 original choreographies and hosted choreographers from around the world. The company has danced barefoot—a novel idea in the world of flamenco, which is defined by its percussive steps—and blended genres like contemporary dance and Spanish folk into traditional flamenco technique.
Marisol Encinias is the National Institute of Flamenco’s executive director.
Photograph courtesy Pat Barrett.
“It speaks to where flamenco is right now,” Joaquín says of the company today. “There’s a big rebirth of people examining the roots of flamenco and the influences of other forms it includes.”
Joaquín is especially proud of Yjastros’s younger dancers. In November, the company performed the celebratory anniversary program Plata, which featured two dancers freshly graduated from the university. “It’s like having two freshmen play in a championship game,” he says. “It shows what we have been able to do in cultivating young dancers to do a really great job.”
Isabella Alderete, a 24-year-old freshman dancer at Yjastros who had the spotlight during Plata, performed the caña, perhaps the most important dance in flamenco. It requires skilled footwork and coordination to move both the bata de cola (a skirt with a flowing train) and the mantón de Manila (a big shawl) in time with the choreography. A shining example of a performer who’s been cultivated by Albuquerque’s world-class flamenco education, Alderete started at the Conservancy of Flamenco Arts with Eva when she was just five years old. She went on to graduate from UNM’s flamenco program in May 2024 and was invited to join Yjastros in August. “The programs here have helped me nurture myself to become the most advanced dancer I could imagine being,” Alderete says. “Culturally, being from New Mexico, the programs helped me fully embrace myself.”
Spanish dancer Eduardo Guerrero González at Festival Flamenco Alburquerque in 2024.
Photograph courtesy of Thaïs Coy.
Dancing in a professional company feels surreal for her. “I have achieved this childhood dream,” says Alderete, who relishes the annual opportunities afforded by the Festival Flamenco Alburquerque. During the fest, Alderete takes classes with guest artists in the morning, watches performances at the university in the afternoon, and spends evenings at Tablao Flamenco, where artists dance improvised sets.
“It’s a week of rejuvenation I wait for every year,” Alderete says. “It’s the best of the best.” With hundreds of flamenco steps and movements memorized from years of training, artists like Alderete and the Encinias family relish the opportunity to dance freely and create in the moment—to play.
“When you’re dancing flamenco, you’re dancing as a musician,” Marisol says. “You take the music into your body, and your body becomes the instrument to perform and illustrate the music.”
Maria Manuela used to nap in a red-velvet-lined guitar case while her father, the late flamenco guitarist Ruben Romero, played on stage at the Taos Inn.
Looking for the roots of flamenco in Santa Fe? Explore the life and legacy of legendary dancer María Benítez.
FLAMENCO A GO-GO
The 38th annual Festival Flamenco Alburquerque showcases performances and workshops hosted by more than 90 guest artists from Spain. Local favorites, including Yjastros, perform alongside guest artists. National Institute of Flamenco executive director Marisol Encinias is particularly delighted to bring the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía to the Duke City this year. Based in Seville, the 30-member company tours the world to represent Andalusian flamenco and performs two programs at the festival, one of which is based on a story by the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca. “I am really excited to work with the Spanish government to present this work here,” Marisol says, adding that it’s been in the planning stage for five years. She also gave us a few tips for first-time festivalgoers.
Stay up late. “The tablaos are really high energy,” Marisol says of the improvisational works. “A lot of the guest artists from the festival participate and get to work with people they don’t normally get to work with.”
Learn more. “We offer flamenco appreciation classes during the festival,” Marisol says. “They’re a great intro to flamenco and what it’s all about.”
Hit the finales. “The two final performances, the fiestas flamencas, are gala performances where many of the festival’s artists come to perform on one stage,” she says. “They are jam-packed.”
