Producer Nora López and Miguelito. August 24, 2006 10:28pm

It's 8:37am as I type these words. Yeah, another early morning for me. Last night (Thursday) after my gig at Andalucía, I headed to Taberna to catch the show featuring flamenco artists from Southern California (where I grew up): singer Jesus Montoya, his wife dancer Suaya Montoya and dancer Richard Chavez. They were joined by DC flamencos Richard Marlow on guitar and Behzad Habibzai on cajón.

If you've heard this story before just scroll down to the pics...anywayz, I got my first start in flamenco during my last year at California State University, Fullerton. I was majoring in classical guitar and I met this girl on campus named Elizabeth who was half Spanish and half French--a totally hot babe ;-) and to top it off she played flamenco guitar and accompanied flamenco classes at the Blanca Luz Academy in Buena Park. Long story short...she taught me some flamenco but eventually left the studio and I ended up taking her position playing for dance classes there. Richard Chavez was one of the dance students and was, like me, just getting started in flamenco.

So Richard and I knew a lot of the same flamencos back then but I soon graduated and left California to move here to DC. Although I did go back in 1996 for two weeks to perform with the Blanca Luz Academy in which Richard performed a few choreographies with his fellow students. He remained in the L.A. area progressing from student dancer to professional. He met and began working with Jesus Montoya who eventually brought him here for this weekend performance at Taberna. So us California flamencos hung out last night reminiscing about the good times and I got to catch up on the L.A. flamenco scene. Welcome to DC Richard!