SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
SANTA FE, N.M. — Flamenco will take center stage across New Mexico in 2026 as Santa Fe-based EmiArteFlamenco presents Amor, Quejío y Vuelo, a production built around love, heartbreak, resilience and personal transformation.
The production, whose title translates to “Love, Lament and Flight,” follows the emotional journey of a woman who falls deeply in love, experiences the pain of loss and ultimately discovers the strength to move forward.
Rather than telling that story primarily through words, Amor, Quejío y Vuelo uses the traditional elements of flamenco — dance, song, guitar and rhythm — to explore the changing emotions of the central journey. The production moves through moments of connection and memory to absence, grief and, ultimately, hope. (Emi Arte Flamenco)
The 2026 production is scheduled for performances around the state, including engagements at the Inn and Spa at Loretto and Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, Hotel Encanto in Las Cruces and Old Martinez Hall in Taos. The Taos performance is scheduled for Sept. 5. EmiArteFlamenco says the production will conclude the year with a week of performances at the Eldorado Hotel and Spa. (Emi Arte Flamenco)
At the center of the company is Santa Fe flamenco artist La Emi, who began studying the art form at just four years old through the María Benítez Institute for Spanish Arts. By age 10, she was performing with the institute’s youth company, Flamenco’s Next Generation, and at 12 began teaching in Northern New Mexico public schools. (Emi Arte Flamenco)
Her training eventually took her to Spain, where she studied with artists including Gala Vivancos, Carmela Greco, Belén López, Mónica Fernández, La Choni, Anabel Moreno and La Popi. Her performance experience includes appearances in Madrid, Granada and Sevilla, as well as work with several flamenco companies in New Mexico. (Emi Arte Flamenco)
La Emi is also the founder and executive director of EmiArteFlamenco Academy, which works to introduce children and adults to flamenco through education and performance.
The professional company itself dates to 2014 and brings together local and international dancers and musicians. EmiArteFlamenco describes its broader mission as preserving and promoting flamenco’s history and culture in New Mexico while using the art form to strengthen connections within the community. (Emi Arte Flamenco)
That connection has particular significance in Santa Fe, where flamenco has developed a longstanding presence in the city’s performing arts scene. Tourism Santa Fe has described the city as the “Flamenco Capital of the Southwest,” highlighting the generations of dancers, singers and musicians who have helped establish the art form in Northern New Mexico. (Santa Fe)
This year’s EmiArteFlamenco lineup reflects that mix of New Mexican talent and artists with national and international experience.
Among the featured performers is Vicente Griego “El Cartucho,” a Dixon/Embudo native who has devoted much of his career to cante flamenco, or flamenco singing. Griego has toured internationally, performs with Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company and serves on the faculty of the University of New Mexico’s Department of Theatre and Dance. (Emi Arte Flamenco)
The company’s roster also includes dancers, singers, guitarists and percussionists whose backgrounds stretch from New Mexico to Spain and other parts of the United States. Together, they provide the different elements that make flamenco distinctive: the relationship between movement, voice, guitar, percussion and the performers’ response to one another onstage.
For Amor, Quejío y Vuelo, those elements serve a larger story about the emotional progression from love and loss to strength and renewal.
It is a story EmiArteFlamenco hopes audiences will recognize in themselves — using an art form rooted in tradition to explore experiences that cross cultures and generations.
Tickets and additional information about the 2026 performances are available through EmiArteFlamenco’s show page.
