Internationally acclaimed as a performer, choreographer and director, Maria Benitez is recognized as one of the finest exponents in her field - Spanish dance and all that it embraces. Ms. Benitez is best known for the work of the company she and her husband Cecilio founded and direct - Maria Benitez Teatro Flamenco. With a long standing reputation for excellence, the company's history includes performances at festivals and major concert halls in all 50 states, Canada, Germany, Holland, Spain, Austria and 12- week summer seasons in Santa Fe, NM since the early 1970's. The Institute for Spanish Arts (ISA)
Institute for Spanish Arts was founded by the internationally acclaimed flamenco dancer María Benítez and her husband, Cecilio. The mission of María Benítez, Teatro Flamenco and the Institute for Spanish Arts is to preserve, strengthen, and disseminate our rich and diverse artistic Spanish heritage as expressed through music, dance, visual arts and other art forms which are deeply rooted in New Mexico’s traditional legacies.
The Institute for Spanish Arts (ISA)
From its base in Santa Fe, the historic Spanish capital of New Mexico and New York City, the Institute seeks to bring its arts and educational programs of the highest quality to diverse audiences throughout the United States and abroad.
The Institute for Spanish Arts currently operates three major programs:
- María Benítez Teatro Flamenco: Under the artistic direction of María and Cecilio Benítez, this company of professional dancers and musicians presents powerfully diverse and demanding repertory for music and dance with the rhythms of flamenco at its core. Teatro Flamenco performers come from throughout the United States and Spain. Teatro Flamenco is recognized as one of the nation’s leading performing arts groups, with appearances in New York’s Joyce Theatre, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Vienna, etc. Since the late sixties to the present, the Company has performed for approximately 1.18 million people in approximately 2,526 venues throughout the country and abroad not including various TV appearances such as PBS Specials, Perry Como Show, Boston Pops among others which take the audioence count to at least 7 million. Besides making a significant cotribution in preserving New Mexico’s Spanish/Hispanic/Latino heritage, the Institute has made a profound impact to the economy of Santa Fe and New Mexico through 34 Santa Fe Summer Seasons that continue and on-going national touring.
- International Spanish Dance & Music Workshop: The two-week summer workshop has evolved into an annual event serving 200-250 students from throughout the United States and several foreign countries. Using company members, three to four additional teachers and a Master Rep Maestro, the students take classes in flamenco, Spanish classical dance, Cante, Guitar, Guitar Acccompanying Dance, Percussion (cajon) and three levels of children’s dance and guitar classes which includes some 60-80 scholarship students.
- The Spanish Dance in the Schools Program: inaugurated in the Fall of 1994 brings instruction in Spanish dance and flamenco guitar to Santa Fe school children, in response to an increasing demand that originally grew out of the Summer Workshop.