Three generations to share art tradition

by Jessica Del Curto

Daily Lobo

Nationally known flamenco dancer and UNM professor Eva Encinias-Sandoval understands the value of blending family and art.

With five generations of flamenco dancers in her family, she grew up without a distinctive separation between the two. Friday night an audience will have the chance to witness the Encinias family art form.

Outpost Productions presents an evening of flamenco dancing featuring Eva, her children, Marisol Encinias-Ibarra and Joaquin Encinias, and her grandchildren.

"It will be three generations of our family dancing onstage," Eva said. "One of the things I am trying to encourage to the New Mexican community is to educate them to the fact that flamenco is a family tradition passed on from generation to generation."

Encinias and her children are natives of New Mexico and all three renowned performers began dancing at an early age. They learned flamenco dance and culture from Eva's mother, Clarita Garcia de Aranda. Joaquin Encinias even began performing in his grandmother's troupe at age five.

According to his biography, Joaquin got his first flamenco lesson, "listening to his grandmother sing in her garden."

After traveling to Spain and Mexico to study flamenco, Eva returned to New Mexico and earned a degree from UNM's Department of Theatre and Dance. Learning diverse dance forms from around the world in the university setting led Eva to create more than 30 original flamenco works performed to non-traditional music.

Eva has been a UNM faculty member since 1976, when she was hired to introduce flamenco to the University. Later, she helped UNM form the only graduate and undergraduate flamenco focus programs within a dance degree in the country. Her daughter Marisol also teaches flamenco at UNM.

Last year, Outpost Productions put on a similar Encinias family show, which was received with much enthusiasm, Encinias said. As long as she can still dance, she plans to perform with her family.

"Directing, teaching and presenting don't really allow me the opportunity to perform," she said. "But I have such wonderful memories of my mother and I and my children dancing together. I felt as long as I could, I needed to do the same."

Friday's performance will feature solo and ensemble works by the Encinias family.

"Flamenco is to be enjoyed by everyone," Eva said. "It will be a wonderful celebration of family and how the family is integrated into an art experience. It's all relevant."