By Brian Seibert
María Benítez, an American dancer and choreographer who founded a renowned Spanish dance company, significantly contributed to establishing New Mexico as a center for flamenco, passed away Tuesday at her residence in Santa Fe. She was 82.
Her son, Francisco Benítez, the only immediate family member left, confirmed her passing and did not provide details on the cause.
Born in Minnesota, Benítez spent most of her childhood in Taos, New Mexico, where she began ballet training at the age of 10. At 18, she moved to Spain to learn Spanish dance. In 1965, she met Cecilio Benítez, responsible for scenography and lighting at the Fontalba Theater in Madrid. They married soon after, and she returned to New Mexico with him, where she commenced teaching and performing Spanish dance at El Nido, a bar in Santa Fe.
The Benítezes created a dance company initially named the María Benítez Spanish Company, later rebranded to María Benítez Teatro Flamenco. In 1976, they relocated to New York City, dividing their time between there and Santa Fe. The troupe became the resident company at the Lodge at Santa Fe and held summer performances in a cabaret theater designed after Spain’s flamenco tablaos, eventually named in her honor.
“She helped establish New Mexico as a center for flamenco, not only in the U.S. but globally,” Nicolasa Chávez, the deputy state historian of New Mexico and author of “The Spirit of Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico” (2015), said in an interview. “People traveled from far and wide to watch her performances” — including, as Chávez remembered, ballet luminary Mikhail Baryshnikov.
“It took years to cultivate an audience,” Benítez disclosed to The Santa Fe New Mexican in 2015.
During the 1970s and ’80s, Eva Enciñias-Sandoval was developing a parallel flamenco scene in Albuquerque: she initiated a flamenco festival, a flamenco institute, and the flamenco concentration at the University of New Mexico, the only one of its kind in the nation. Thanks to the contributions of Enciñias-Sandoval and Benítez, New Mexico became recognized among enthusiasts as the flamenco state.
The Benítez company drew top emerging talent from Spain and collaborated with notable figures such as Spanish dancer and choreographer Mario Maya and the Italian-American star José Greco. It performed nationally, participating in renowned events like the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts and the American Dance Festival in Connecticut. In the 1980s, it almost annually graced the stage at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan; by the 1990s, those performances were reduced to every other year.
When the troupe performed at the Joyce in 1984, Anna Kisselgoff, then chief dance critic of The New York Times, hailed Benítez as “the leading American-based Spanish dancer,” noting that she demonstrated “you don’t need to be Spanish to perform Spanish dance.” Benítez, she remarked, “brings us the finest of the indescribable quality that characterizes flamenco as an art form.”
Subsequent reviews often highlighted Benítez’s endeavors to showcase flamenco in innovative ways. In what another Times dance critic, Jennifer Dunning, described in 1989 as a cooler style “that highlights the refinement of the art over its passionate earthiness.” Six years later, praising Benítez’s supple and expressive torso along with her graceful extensions of hands and fingers, Dunning dubbed her “the most feminine of flamenco dancers.”
Benítez’s “magnificent gift,” Tobi Tobias noted in New York magazine in 1984, “is to inhabit her performances so wholly that, during her extended solo segments, she seems to embark on a journey to another realm, transporting the empathetic audience along with her.”
“This is a trait shared by great dancers,” Tobias added, relating her to legends of American modern dance and Russian ballet. “Benítez’s flamenco is reminiscent of Martha Graham in ‘Clytemnestra’ and Ulanova as the dying swan.”
María Woesha Díaz was born in Cass Lake, Minnesota, on April 14, 1942. Her father, Josue Díaz, was a Puerto Rican federal employee. Her mother, Geraldine (Decoteau) Benítez, was a teacher with Chippewa and Oneida roots who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs across various locations before the family settled in Taos, New Mexico.
In 1974, Benítez and her spouse founded the Institute for Spanish Arts, a nonprofit educational organization, in Santa Fe. A youth company, Flamenco’s Next Generation, showcased performances at schools and celebrations throughout New Mexico.
“Her teaching approach extended beyond just the steps,” Chávez explained. “She imparted the culture and history, providing generations of students with a deep comprehension of Spanish dance and flamenco. Many dancers who began with María now lead their own companies.”
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Benítez participated in and choreographed numerous productions at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, including two versions of “Carmen.” The latter, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, was broadcast as part of the PBS “Great Performances” series. She also collaborated with the Dallas Opera and the Santa Fe Opera and later served on the Santa Fe company’s board.
After retiring from performance in 2006, a succession of her protégés continued in the Benítez theater: first Juan Siddi, followed by Antonio Granjero and Estefanía Ramírez, and then Emmy Grimm, known professionally as La Emi.
Cecilio Benítez passed away in 2014 at 80.
“You want to convey a power of what you are expressing from your heart,” Benítez told New Mexico PBS in 2013. “And it must originate from the heart.”
