August 23 – “La Emi” returns to Heritage Hotels & Resorts with a new flamenco show on three stages in northern and southern New Mexico.

Emmy Grimm, who goes by the nickname “La Emi,” is a well-known flamenco artist and teacher. She was a resident artist at The Lodge at Santa Fe and produced a show there for six years until Heritage sold the property last fall. Grimm is now starting a new chapter with her professional company, EmiArteFlamenco, at another Heritage property, the Inn and Spa at Loretto, 211 Old Santa Fe Trail, in Santa Fe.

“I’ve performed at The Lodge on and off for 23 years,” Grimm said. “I started dancing there when I was 10, with María Benítez’s youth company Flamenco Next Generation. From then on, I worked with all the companies that worked there. I worked with Juan Siddi, I worked with the National Institute of Flamenco, I worked with Entreflamenco. So when I was able to perform there with my company, it came full circle and we performed for six years. It was a really beautiful chapter of my life.”

Grimm said she has enjoyed working with Heritage and plans to stay with the hotel group. She will perform at the Inn and Spa at Loretto through Sept. 1, Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Performances will continue later in the fall, Sept. 27-29 and Oct. 4-6. The winter schedule changes to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 26-31.

Grimm and her flamenco company will travel north to Taos to perform at El Monte Sagrado on October 18 and 19. EmiArteFlamenco will then travel south to Las Cruces to perform at Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces on October 24 and 25.

“I’m very happy to be working with Vicente Griego and his band Revózo,” said Grimm. “Now the show has a full band. We’ll have a violinist and a drummer, we’ll have two guitarists who will take turns, we’ll also have a male dancer and two other female dancers. It’s not just a dance show, it’s a music show.”

Grimm will have a new solo appearance in the show, which she has been working on for about two and a half years.

“It’s a very deep style of flamenco called Soleá and it actually means loneliness,” she explained. “It’s something you can only understand once you have more life experience. I think I’m just at the beginning of this journey into this new dance. I’m very excited to perform it for the first time.”

Grimm will also perform a bolero duet to a love song.

“It’s about love and the challenges of love, and will it work? Will it not?” she explained.

The show is characterized by ups and downs and expresses many emotions.

“We’re starting with a tango, and it’s a very happy piece, joyful, playful,” said Grimm. “We have the whole troupe, four dancers, our violinists, our drummer, our guitarist Vicente, and it’s going to be an energetic number.”

There will be a dance with bastones, which are walking sticks, and another dance with the famous bata de cola, a train-dress with castanets.

“We’ll have an opening with a number where I dance and play violin,” Grimm said. “We’re really bringing in the world of a band and the world of a dance company. So you get two shows in one.”

When Grimm is not performing, she teaches through her nonprofit EmiArteFlamenco Academy. Her mission is to empower children through the art form of flamenco. Her academy offers a residency program teaching flamenco singing, guitar and dance at several New Mexico public schools in Chama, Española, Hobbs, Peñasco, Santa Fe, Taos and Tierra Amarilla, as well as at Monte de Sol Charter School in Santa Fe.

Grimm continues to hone her flamenco skills. At age 21, she began traveling to Spain to study flamenco. At first, she stayed for three to six months to study. Now she goes to Spain for a month and a half every year to train.

“My teacher, Gala Vivancos, is incredible,” Grimm said. “I’ve been training with her for about four years and I feel like the journey never ends. And that’s the beauty of flamenco: you never arrive. You have to fall in love with the journey because it’s a never-ending journey. There’s so much to learn and I think that’s the beauty of it.”