Member Spotlight: Melinne Owen
In 1986 the Santa Fe Opera had a gala performance to celebrate their thirtieth year. They invited leading singers to perform and they invited Maria Benitez to dance. I was working as the Costume Shop Coordinator and was asked to be her dresser. While she performed, every stage hand, electrician, props running crew and dresser crowded the wings to watch her dance. They did not do this for the singers. I had already met Maria because the Head Costumer was a good friend of hers and had been making her dresses for years. Every summer the Costumer took me to see Maria at The Lodge.
In 1976 Maria was performing at El Nido Restaurant and she was in Act III of La Traviata. She would do the first half of her show, jump into the police car waiting outside the restaurant, and rush to the opera with flashing lights and no siren. The police car would take her to the back steps of the stage where she would dance and then she was back into the police car to go back to the restaurant to continue her show.
When Maria retired I helped her sort her dresses at an elementary school where she taught little girls. I would wait in my car until her classes finished. I enjoyed watching the little girls come out and get into cars usually driven by their fathers.
My husband and I enjoyed flamenco in Spain and Cuba where we got to know a Cuban flamenco dancer, Irene Rodriguez. We went to Festival Flamenco Alburquerque at the Hispanic Cultural Center and every place in Santa Fe that offered flamenco. During a Festival performance there was an advertisement on the screen for a store with flamenco supplies. I wanted to buy a mantoncillo for Irene so I went to your store in your old center. My favorite memory of NIF is walking in on past classes of girls pounding their little heels.
A few years later Irene and her mother came to visit Santa Fe during the Folk Art Market. While they were visiting we went to every flamenco venue in Santa Fe including the Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet at the Lensic. I made arrangements for us to go backstage. The dancers had lots of fringe attached to their dresses. Irene and I turned to each other and whispered “the fringe.” When we went backstage the dancers showed her how to use the fringe. I ordered some for her. A Cuban diplomat visited the next Market and took the fringe and fabric back to Cuba in the diplomatic pouch. That fringe is now back in the States where Irene’s mother attached it to a dress she wore during a performance for the Los Angeles Opera, without an audience.
I made an appointment for Irene and her mother to meet with Marisol and her mother, Eva. My husband drove them as I was too busy with the Market to go. The Institute had just moved into their new space and everyone loved the experience. I have since looked in the window of your gorgeous space. Someday I hope to visit.
One of our favorite experiences is to go to Albuquerque and stay in the Albuquerque Hotel or Hotel Chaco and go to Tablao Flamenco Albuquerque, where we share a bottle of wine and tapas. We have done this many times. We were at your fund raiser and heard Jim Long. We have since tried to stay in his hotels all over New Mexico.
By being a member of the National Institute of Flamenco, people can stay informed about this wonderful organization and support what NIF is doing for children and cultural preservation.
