Julia Chacón Flamenco Theatre
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JULIA CHACON is the founder, director, and choreographer for Flamenco Theatre. She was a finalist for the 2021 and 2019 Mayor’s Arts Award, the 2019 Arizona Governor’s Arts Award, is a two-time Artist in Residence at the Musical Instrument Museum, and 2024 marked her company’s seventh year on the season programming of Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. A doctoral candidate at Arizona State University, she recently co-authored Crossing Collaborative Borders: The Making and Becoming of ÓRALE! by David Herrera Performance Company and El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, with Karen Jean Martinson, published in a special movement issue of Theatre Survey. In 2021, Julia curated the historic exhibition “Spanish Legacies,” with Scottsdale Arts Learning and Innovation curator, Brittney Arnold, at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts highlighting 75 years of Spanish dance in the Phoenix Valley. Julia served as Chair of the Dance Advisory Committee at Scottsdale Center from 2018 until 2023, advocating for opportunity for Arizona dance artists.
Trained extensively in Spanish dance, ballet and modern dance, Julia toured as a soloist with flamenco companies based in New York, Madrid, Seville and Santa Fe for over a decade, performing in Spain, throughout the USA, Colombia and Mexico. She founded her troupe in 2008 and has taught flamenco at Arizona State University as well as master and guest classes at Louisiana State, Duke, North Central College, the Institute for Spanish Arts, and Harvard. She has led arts education programs in schools across the US. She presented at conferences such as TEDX LSU, the National Dance Education Organization, and the American Society for Theatre Research. Julia was featured in Dance Studio Life Magazine and has been on the Travel Channel with Samantha Brown. Her choreography was performed in the 50th Anniversary of the Shanghai Opera House in China.
Julia was named a Master Artist and awarded a Folk Art Grant by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs of New Mexico. Recent press includes Phoenix Magazine’s Monthly Top Ten, an interviewed by VoyagePhoenix; a five page spread in Images Arizona Magazine, and events listed in the top picks of Scottsdale Magazine and the New Times “Things to Do.”
Julia has executed flamenco arts education programs at schools across the Phoenix Valley districts and instructs students of all ages in the private sector. She is former lead teaching artist for “Project Olé,” where where she helped develop curriculum for arts education programming implemented throughout the five Burroughs of New York and across the state of North Carolina.
Born in New Mexico, Julia was raised in Arizona. She holds a BFA in Dance (magna cum laude) and BS in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico, an MFA in Dance and MA in Creative Enterprise and Cultural Leadership from Arizona State University, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Theatre & Performance of the Americas. She received a JEDI award from the ASU Graduate & Professional Student Association in 2021 for her work in advancing justice, equity, diversity and inclusion through advocacy and research and was recognized as a Notable Graduate Student upon completing her master’s degrees in 2022.
Professional Influences
Julia has shared the stage with master artists Jose Galván, María Benítez, Carmen Ledesma, José Méndez and many others. She founded Flamenco Theatre (formerly Inspiración Flamenca) in Santa Fe, NM in 2008. Her flamenco maestros include el Ciro, Manuel Reyes, and Rafaela Carrasco, with whom she studied at the Amor de Dios school in Madrid; José Galván, with whom she studied and performed extensively in Seville; U.S. based artists Lydia Torea, and Eva Encinias Sandoval; and somatic dance master Bill Evans, who provided her with a movement framework that remains fundamental to her practice. Prior to and subsequent with her early Spanish dance training, Julia trained for 15 years in ballet with various instructors. She has taught ballet and flamenco at Arizona State University.
Company Mission
Flamenco has the power to bridge communication and convey expression across all boundaries. It is the mission of Julia Chacon Flamenco Theatre to empower performing artists with professional performance opportunity and to inspire audiences to find connection, compassion, and a deeper understanding of the human condition through artistic expression.
Flamenco Education programs
Julia has taught nationally in private studios and art-education programs. She has written six Spanish Dance curriculums implemented in New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Arizona schools. She has touched the lives of thousands of children through classes, lecture demonstrations, and curriculum development.
Building a Flamenco Community in Arizona
Since moving to Arizona in 2013, she has served on the Advisory Committee of Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Discovery Series (2014-2015 season); chaired Origination, a Festival of Native Cultures; presented six full-house concerts at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and Peoria Center for the Performing Arts; volunteered for the City of Scottsdale; teaches arts-education workshops in schools Valley-wide; and has collaborated with Scorpius Dance Theater, Indo-American Culture Connect, Movement Source, and other Arizona dance companies. Dedicated to service, she was Chair of the Dance Advisory Committee at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, and has served on various graduate student boards at ASU.
(Updated February 2023.)
Click here to view and download Julia’s CV!
Inspiracion Flamenca 