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.

April Member Viewing: Noche de Cadíz y Sevilla

As a benefit of a NIF membership, we offer viewing access to previously recorded performances! Members are granted access to a recorded Tablao performance the first Saturday of each month.

Viewing access to the performance of Noche de Cadíz y Sevilla from Festival Flamenco Alburquerque 2020 will be available Saturday, April 3.

Viewing pass goes live Saturday April 3rd at 10:00AM mountain time and is valid for 48 hours.
If you have not received your link and password, please email Caro@nifnm.org.

To learn more about becoming a member, click here. Have questions? Reach out to Stephen Wynne, Development Manager at Stephen@nifnm.org or Caro Acuña, Assistant Development Officer at Caro@nifnm.org.

The National Institute of Flamenco does not share these recordings with the public. The opportunity to view them is an exclusive membership benefit.

Board Spotlight: Helen Maestas, Board Chair

Helen Maestas, NIF Board Chair

Helen grew up in California and moved to New Mexico in 1996 to attend the University of New Mexico where she double majored in Political Science and Communication. While in college, she made a call in response to an internship posting to work alongside then New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman. That one phone call and opportunity were the start of what has become a 20 year career in public service working for New Mexico on the staff's of U.S. Congressman Tom Udall, U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Martin Heinrich, and Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins. In 2017, she joined the staff of Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and continues to serve as his Deputy Director for Constituent Services/Boards & Commissions. Helen is married to Christopher D. Maestas, and is also known as "Carmen's Mom".

Not long before leaving California, Helen attended her first Flamenco performance at a tiny theater in Pacific Grove, CA. The performance was full of life and energy and unlike anything she'd seen before; she knew right then that Flamenco had to be a part of her life. Once she arrived at UNM, she was thrilled to discover that she could study Flamenco and began taking classes with Ms. Eva. However, it didn't take long for her to realize that she's better at supporting than performing. Still, she vowed that if she ever had a child, they would become a Flamenco dancer! And so it was. Helen's daughter, Carmen started dancing ten years ago at age 3 in the Conservatory's Baby Flamenco class and danced until earlier this year deciding to focus more seriously on violin.

Helen and her family are proud to support the National Institute of Flamenco and believe strongly in its mission to share the art of flamenco through artistic excellence in performance and teaching. As a "Flamenco mom" and aficionado, Helen has witnessed first hand the incredible power of a high quality Flamenco education and credits Carmen's self-confidence and discipline as an artist, dancer, and musician to the training she was provided by her teachers at NIF's Conservatory of Flamenco Arts.

She is especially proud of NIF's quick (but by no means easy) pivot as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic from an in-person to virtual presentation of the Institutes annual Festival Flamenco and the role that NIF has played during and since the virtual Festival in convening Flamenco organizations and leading artists from around the world in conversation on the need to build a better safety net for working artists.

Member Spotlight: Wayne Ching

When I lived in Baltimore I saw my first flamenco performance by a master group, the Edwin Aparicio Flamenco Dance Company, from Washington, D.C. They performed close up to audience on a wood floor accompanied by guitars and singers. I was struck by the way the performers visibly communicated with each other during the performance. I loved the sweat, the energy, the music, the stomping, the music, the costumes, and tradition.

Q: How did you hear about the National Institute of Flamenco (NIF)?

A: On a Saturday in 2016 I was driving 3,200 miles across country from Baltimore, Maryland to Medford, Oregon and had to pass though Albuquerque. At the Welcome to New Mexico state-line rest stop I glanced at a tourist brochure mentioning the National Institute of Flamenco. I thought, "I've go to see this, maybe they can stir me up like Edwin Aparicio." So, I exited I-25S in ABQ, and when I figured I was lost in Old Town I made a U-turn and found 1620 Central Avenue.

Wayne Ching, Member since 2016

I parked my car a block away and started following the sound of flamenco guitars and clapping coming from what looked like a storefront. As I peered into the storefront I could see and hear a circle of parents surrounding 15-20 kids, some in costume, others not, being taught flamenco steps and attitudes by a confident lady the kids respected (later I learned she was Eva Encinias!).

I was invited inside to sit with the parents watching their children dance and was inspired not only with the dance instruction (with 2 live guitarists) but also how they were learning how to get along with each other!

Q: What made you want to become a member?

A: I want to support NIF for community building and future generations to experience and enjoy. Not only for Festival Flamenco Alburquerque every June, but I believe it's just as important for the charter school after school performance to flourish, the flamenco classes for kids (where they learn through dance how to express themselves, stay focused, socialize, all in a group with other kids). It takes all of the NIF staff to keep things growing in a unique Albuquerque/Regional/National way for all to join and engage.

Q: What has been your favorite NIF memory?

A:

1. The Saturday morning kid's dance class at the Central Ave location led by Eva Encinas and 2 guitars!

2. The opportunity to attend a demo and Q & A session with Irene "La Sentío," one of the visiting guest artists.

3. The Zorongo video by the young people from the After School program

4. Attending an Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company rehearsal.

5. The April 2020 event outside the charter school where all the students had a chance to perform in costume.

Q: Why do you think others should consider becoming a member?

A: Well, come to a performance, take a flamenco music or dance class, get close at the Tablao, meet NIF, ask to talk to the ladies who make the costumes. You don't need to be Spanish (or speak Spanish) to enjoy flamenco because it is a way of life. Flamenco expresses human experiences about life, death, passion, covid19 boredom, flowers, sheep, goats, love, lying, empty beds in the morning, faithfulness, bravery, yearning, hope and more. But last and not least, community building for now and the future.

Before I met NIF I did not know a flamenco community in this country. Now I know it is the NIF community. In the future when we build settlements/communities on Mars, we will need flamenco to build community!

Q: How has NIF or the art of flamenco impacted your life?

A: There are many things I can do well and things I cannot do well. Well, Flamenco is one of the things I cannot do that NIF does so well. So, while I cannot do flamenco, I enjoy every aspect of the performance and community building. NIF uplifts and inspires me. Thanks. ¡Ole!