Dance class changed life of Calo Flamenco director

Calo Flamenco artistic director Martin Gaxiola started performing later that most dancers.

"I was studying to be an accountant at Arizona State University and needed to take an elective course," said Gaxiola during a phone interview from northern California. "My older sisters had danced, but I had no male role model, but decided to try it out."

The class changed his life.

"While I still got my degree in accounting, something had changed for me when I stepped into that class," Gaxiola said. "I mean, I was 21 when I took my first class, but I felt a sense of deja vu.

"However, if you told me when I was in high school that I would become an artistic director for a flamenco dance company, I would have laughed in your face."

What seduced Gaxiola was the skill and energy needed to execute what some would call exotic and passionate steps and movements.

"I knew that I had to do this," he said. "So in 1994, I made my first trip to Spain."

That mecca was a bit of a failure, Gaxiola said. "I spent three months in Madrid and couldn't get my body to do what it needed to do. I felt totally defeated."

Two years later, Gaxiola, after reassessing why he wanted to dance flamenco, returned to Spain and went to Sevilla, in the southern part of the country, which is known as "the cradle of flamenco dance."

"I had realized that the dance was actually a lifestyle and I needed to change how I looked at life and how I approached the art form," Gaxiola said. "So I took another chance and things fell right into place."

The dancer never looked back. Upon his return to the United States, he began performing, landing gigs with the Maria Benitez Teatro Flamenco company in Santa Fe, N.M.; Flamenco Ole! in Philadelphia; Flamenco Y Mas in Tucson, Ariz.; Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Company in New York City and Lydia Torea's Artes Bellas and Zona Flamenca, both in Phoenix.

Gaxiola formed Calo Flamenco in the early 2000s and held its first concert at the 2004 Arizona Dance Festival.

"Working with all those other companies, namely the Teatro Flamenco company, geared me up to becoming an artistic director," he said.

In addition to a roster of 10 dancers, Calo Flamenco has a group of fine musicians, led by director Chris Burton Jacome.

"I am fortunate to have one of the best flamenco music directors in our company," Gaxiola said. "He is a genius."

When Gaxiola choreographs, he keeps his audience in mind.