Meet this year's Featured Artists

La Emi began her flamenco journey at the age of four and has emerged as a teacher and performer acclaimed for her artistry and craft.
La Emi started studying flamenco with the María Benítez Institute for Spanish Arts (ISA) when she was four years old and began working with the Institute’s youth company, Flamenco’s Next Generation at the age of 10. Just two years later – when she was only 12 – she started teaching within the Northern New Mexico public school system. She began teaching for Moving Arts Española in 2005 and ISA in 2006.
As a performer, La Emi has danced on stages from New Mexico to Spain, appearing in the production of “El Pintor” at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque (2010), Entreflamenco, the company of Antonio Granjero and Estefania Ramirez, at the Lodge at Santa Fe (2011, 2012 and 2015), Juan Siddi Flamenco Santa Fe (2013, 2014 and 2016) and Compañia Chuscales y Mina Fajardo (2010-2014). She also danced with the National Institute of Flamenco in their Summer Season at the Lodge at Santa Fe in 2017.
In 2011, La Emi was nominated and selected as one of the 12 young and emerging artists in Pasatiempo.

​In 2012, she received the Santa Fe Mayor’s Melissa Engestrom Youth Artist Award for Excellence in the Arts. 
La Emi studied intensively in Spain with Gala Vivancos, Carmela Greco, La Popi, José Galván, Juana Amaya, Yolanda Heredia, Iván Vargas Heredia, Torombo, Rocio Alcaide Ruiz, Monica Fernandez and many others. She has performed under the direction of Carmela Greco, José Galván, and Torombo and at major venues including the Carmela Greco Seminario de Flamenco y Danza Española and Café de Chinitas in Madrid; Cuevas Los Tarantos in the Sacramonte of Granada and the Teatro Alameda Festival Flamenco in Sevilla.
La Emi founded her non-profit EmiArteFlamenco Academy in 2019 where she continues to teach and is the director. She also performs in many venues throughout the country.
La Emi began her professional career with Heritage Hotels & Resorts in partnership with the National Institute of Flamenco in the summer of 2018 and produced with them a second summer season in 2019. In the fall of 2019, La Emi launched her independent company, with a series of performances at The Lodge at Santa Fe.
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From Dixon/Embudo, NM, Vicente is devoted to Cante Flamenco. In 1999, toured internationally with José Greco II and mentored by Alfonso Gabarri, “El Veneno”. Griego is a pupil of guitarist (Jose Valle, Chuscales) and singer, José Fernández. Griego performs with Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company, and EmiArteFlamenco. He is lead singer in the Rumba Flamenca band, ReVoZo. Griego’s a faculty member in the department of Theatre and Dance at the University of New Mexico