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Flamenco is undeniably a part of New Mexican culture, and there is a large community of flamenco performers, teachers and students who call Albuquerque home. If you ask a member of that community just how good the dancers, singers and musicians are, they will likely tell you that the level of talent, the quality of the schools and the opportunities for growth and advancement in the field are second only to Spain — where the origins of flamenco can be traced back to the city of Andalusia nearly 300 years ago. Tierra Adentro of New Mexico (TANM) charter school offers flamenco programs to students as early as sixth grade. In fact, studying dance, music, and visual arts is a requirement at TANM. The University of New Mexico is one of the few colleges in the world that offers a degree in flamenco dance.
The level of skill and talent in The Duke City was put to the test when Eloy Gonzales and Madison Olguin, two flamenco artists studying in Albuquerque, competed at the Concurso de Talentos Fundación Cristina Heeren held in Sevilla, Spain, and were awarded scholarships for guitar and dance, respectively. They were both students at TANM charter school, the Conservatory of Flamenco Arts at the National Institute of Flamenco and members of Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company.
Gonzales, a 26-year-old guitarist who was born and raised in Albuquerque, joined Yjastros when he was 19 and has already traveled to Spain with the company when he performed at the prestigious Festival de Jerez. It was the first time an American flamenco company was invited to participate. Gonzales says that the name Yjastros — which means “stepchildren” — was chosen because New Mexicans are the “stepchildren of Spain.”
“[The scholarship] offers a path for me to get a student visa and be able to move to Spain,” Gonzales says, “I have to go somewhere where the bar is even higher. And I would go out on a limb and say the only place in the realm of Flamenco where the bar is higher than here in Albuquerque is Spain.”
Gonzales was introduced to music at an early age, but it wasn’t until he was 12 and attending TANM that he began seriously studying flamenco. It is also where he met Madison Olguin, with whom he will continue his professional relationship and friendship at Escuela Fundación Cristina Heeren in Sevilla this year.
Olguin started at TANM in sixth grade and continued on to the Conservatory of Flamenco Arts. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from UNM in 2023 and is the recipient of the Friends of Dance scholarship and the Princess Grace Award for dance performance. Earning her degree is an important personal accomplishment for Olguin not only because she has made it as a dancer, but because the experience has been formative mentally as well.
Olguin recalls looking at her reflection in the mirror and saying, “‘I’m going to get better, I’m going to grow, I’m going to do this, I’m going to be working with the people that I love and we’re gonna grow as a community.’”
“I especially feel the dance program was where I found myself, and where I thought, ‘Okay, I’m not here because someone’s telling me to be here. It’s because I want to be here.’ It’s when I also started finding my independence,” she says.
In the scholarship competition, both Gonzales and Olguin were judged on their improvisational skills. Gonzales says he participated in a “flamenco dance and accompaniment” competition. He submitted a video where he played guitar with a singer performing a cante — or solo — and another video where his guitar playing accompanied a solo dance performance. After he was selected as a finalist, he participated in a live competition where he had about 10 minutes to plan an improvised accompaniment performance with professionals in the field, before playing live for a panel of judges.
Olguin’s competition was similar, but she was required to improvise a dance solo with musicians provided by the Concurso de Talentos Fundación Cristina Heeren. She says, “I couldn’t repeat anything that I did in the semifinals for the finals. It’s also a tablao competition. Tablao is structured improvisation. So, it wasn’t set choreography.”
Olguin is overseas now, preparing to put her skills to use on the world’s largest flamenco stage, and the experience hasn’t fully set in yet.
“I’m here in Sevilla, I go to the Hollywood Bowl, I go back to Albuquerque, I have to fill out all my visa paperwork and then I’m moving to Spain. So it all just happened really fast, and without any time to really think about it,” Olguin says.
Gonzales has similar thoughts about the prospects of continuing his journey in Spain.
“I can’t believe it,” he says. “I’ll believe it when I’m getting off the plane and not with a return ticket.”