She was also introduced to her two most influential mentors, Melissa Cruz and Fanny Ara, clocking in over 100 collective hours of private instruction. With this dance studio, she was able to produce multiple theater productions and study with talents such as Antonio Granjero, Antonio Hidalgo, Juanaire, Maria Juncal, Briseyda Zarate, La Tania, and Genoveva. Though many interests came and went, Flamenco is what stuck, and with Gracie Wilkins and Antonio Granjero, she opened in 2004 The Spanish Institute of Dance, a flamenco-based dance studio (later Alegria Dance & Performing Arts Center). Her first flamenco venture outside of the Rodriguez Academy brought her to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1998, to the Maria Benitez Flamenco Festival for an intensive, week-long workshop with Inmaculada Ortega. She begged her mother for classes, until finally in 1995, she was able to start classes with Rogelio Rodriguez. Immediately she went home, threw on a long skirt and dreamed of being a flamenco dancer. Laura Siebert, a Houston native, first experienced flamenco in 1988 by watching a class at The Rodriguez Academy of Dance.
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