We were voted as Orange County's Best Flamenco Dance Classes
according to OC Weekly Best of Orange County issue this week.

GRACIAS!

OC WEEKLY
www.ocweekly.com

Best Flamenco Dance Classes
Claudia de la Cruz Flamenco Institute

Grand Central Art Center, lower level
125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana
(714) 543-1370

At Tierrita Flamenca, a flamenco-dance company populated by little girls with slick black hair, long colorful skirts and hand fans, the girls are encouraged to have attitude. The baby troupe is the brainchild of Claudia de la Cruz, who runs the Claudia de la Cruz Flamenco Institute at her “underground,” lower-level studio at Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center in downtown Santa Ana. She created the dance company in 2004 after she noticed that some of the students in her kids’ classes were harboring dreams of becoming professional flamenco dancers. The institute offers classes in the form, which evolved from Moorish, Sephardic and Gitano musical traditions in southern Spain, to children as well as adults at all levels. Students can learn everything from traditional Sevillanas to castanet and palma (palm) techniques. Those who become addicted to what de la Cruz calls the “flamenco lifestyle” can audition for her adult dance company, Tierra Flamenca, after one year. After several years, she says, students may be invited to join her professional dance company, which tours nationally.

“If I don’t dance, I die,” says de la Cruz, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, with family roots in Jerez, Spain. De la Cruz’s institute gets our hearty olé: If we didn’t have the mighty little piece of Andalucía that she brings to OC, surely we would die.

THANK YOU ORANGE COUNTY FOR YOUR LOVE AND UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT

¡Ole!

Claudia de la Cruz

The Best Flamenco School in Orange County

Tu Ciudad Magazine "The Best of Orange County" issue includes Cultural Stage of Art as the
Best Flamenco School in Orange County. Look under "Zapateado".
Keeping its finger on the pulse of the city, Tu Ciudad has been exploring Latino life and culture in L.A. since its debut in June 2005.

ZAPATEADO- Learn this and other flamenco steps at the Cultural Stage of Art. Director Claudia de la Cruz also leads her own dance company Tierra Flamenca. Vale!