Historia de un Amor

A dancer for most of her life, one of intern Jackie Botts’s favorite stories so far was her interview with Linda Vega and Rose Marie Cruz, which forms part of this week’s cover story. “I’d seen dancers from their studios at Fiesta, which Montecito School of Ballet also danced at,” she said. Jackie found the flamenco divas as colorful as their students’ multihued dresses, bantering and riffing off each other’s remarks. Cruz recalled how one year, her instructor Jose Romero had taught her the bullfighter’s noviera dance only one night before they performed it together at Fiesta Pequeña. Vega laughed and related all the times she’d fallen, drumming the table they were sharing at Crushcakes to demonstrate how she’d once slapped the ground and clapped her hands to turn a disaster into a performance at the famed El Cid flamenco club in Los Angeles. ¡Olé!