dance
BY DANTE ZUÑIGA-WEST
Taste of India
Buffet Lunch Special
$8.99 all you can eat.
7 days a week.
✪ Voted Best Buffet
Campus Location
Now Open!
844 E 13th ave
(old Sakura location)
-Eugene Weekly Readers
Student Lunch
Buffet Special
✪ Voted Best
Indian Restaurant
-Eugene Weekly Readers
✪ Best Indian
Restaurant In Town
$5.99 (to go only)
-Register Guard Readers 2010
Catering available • Full menu available to go • Delivery through Pony Express
2495 Hilyard St. • Eugene, OR 97405 • ph & fax (541) 485-9698 • ph only (541) 485-9560
Cottage Theatre presents
C
Maestra de Baile
Local flamenco dance teacher continues to pass
on her legacy
S
he stands no more than four feet
eleven inches, her smile creased
with exquisite wrinkles. A master
of her craft, her morena complexion glows
when she speaks of it. “I’m 67 and I’m still
dancing,” she says. Martita Santiago has
performed and taught fl amenco dance for
roughly 50 years; about 20 of those have
been in Eugene.
Flamenco is a dance made popular in
Spain during the 15th century. Though
often affi liated with Andalusian gitanos
(gypsies), Moorish, Sephardic and
Byzantine cultures are thought to be
infl uential to the development of the
art form. Postcolonial Latin America,
particularly Cuba has contributed to
fl amenco dance as well. It is no great leap
of understanding that the dance would fi nd
its way to the United States and into the
cradle of a little girl in New York in 1944.
In Spanish Harlem where Santiago grew
up, men would often take to the streets
with their cajóns — wooden box drums
that are a staple of fl amenco music. When I
asked her how her journey in dance began,
Santiago confessed that her mother found
her dancing in the crib. Later, at age four
her mother would dress her in traditional
fl amenco garb and take her out to wherever
the men were playing their cajóns. “People
would throw coins and money,” she says,
“Sometimes that was how we ate.”
The daughter of a merchant seaman,
the building Santiago lived in was slated
to be torn down and the family moved
to San Francisco as Harlem broke and
rebuilt. In S.F., Santiago danced her way
through high school. “I couldn’t speak any
English,” she says, and as a result she was
placed in programs for the developmentally
disabled. It was only through her dancing
in school-sponsored events that she gained
agency for herself.
Her professional training took place at
San Francisco’s Academy of Ballet where
she studied all forms of Latin dance. As a
professional Santiago built an impressive
resume, the highlight of which was an
invitation to dance for President Kennedy.
In the afternoon of her life, after
mothering eight children and settling in
Eugene, Santiago’s journey has continued
as maestra. “I’ve kept my dancing up after
eight kids, now I am trying to pass on my
curriculum,” she says. Her bursting pride
cannot be overlooked as she speaks of her
children, particularly her daughters, who
take after their mother in being impresario
dancers.
Rebuilding her own studio after a bat-
tle with black mold, Santiago is currently
teaching beginning classes in fl amenco
dance at the Reach Center, Tuesdays, from
7 to 8 pm. She encourages newcomers but
stresses discipline.
ew
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
A Musical Thriller
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Hugh Wheeler
From an Adaptation by Christopher Bond
Directed by Tony Rust
April 8, 9, 10* ● 15, 16, 17* ● 22, 23 ● 28, 29, 30, May 1*
*matinee
700 Village Drive • Cottage Grove • www.cottagetheatre.org • 541-942-8001
COUPON
55 SILVER LN.
654-0603
1211 ALDER
686-9598
COUPONS GOOD UNTIL
APRIL 14 TH , 2011
11AM-MIDNIGHT SUN-THU
11AM-1AM FRI-SAT
11 AM -10PM DAILY
SERVING DELICIOUS NEW YORK PIZZA BY THE SLICE AND BY THE WHOLE PIZZA PIE
2.00
OFF
ANY 18” LARGE
$
®
COUPON
COUPON
NOW 2 LOCATIONS! A SY'S NEW YORK PIZZA
FREE LARGE
SODA
2 SLICES
W/ PURCHASE OF
COUPON
BLOGS.
EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
EUGENE WEEKLY MARCH 31, 2011 37