Marisol Encinias

Marisol Encinias is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of New Mexico. She received her MFA at UNM and began formal study of dance at age 5 with her grandmother, Clarita Garcia de Aranda. Encinias is a teacher, performer, and choreographer. She is the Executive Director of the National Institute of Flamenco, a nonprofit arts organization founded by Eva Encinias, her mother, in 1982. She is Artistic Director of Festival Flamenco Alburquerque, the oldest and largest flamenco festival outside of Spain. Her scholarly and creative productions center on the art and cultural expression of Flamenco in national and international spaces. She has also presented her academic and performance work at international venues, which uniquely situates Flamenco in New Mexico. Marisol has taught Flamenco on various college campuses and public high schools. She helped found a charter school, Tierra Adentro, that offers a culturally relevant and academic success model in New Mexico. Her new work, titled FLAMENCO FANDANGUERO (premiered April 2024), is a work of flamenco and son jarocho dance and music theatre. Encinias focuses on work that centers Latin American history and heritage, asserting decolonized theory and practice in flamenco. Encinias seeks to activate the community, foster unlimited possibilities, and make a substantive difference in the lives of people in her New Mexico community through flamenco.