(noticia) Flamenco! A Cubanita's journey into the fanciful dance of Spain

BY FABIOLA SANTIAGO

CHARLES TRAINOR JR./HERALD STAFF
For Niurca Marquez, flamenco is her thing.

At age 7, Niurca Márquez had already been stamped with the seal of the cherubic, chubby Cuban girl: ``gordita.''

No matter how endearingly the word is used in the culture, her weight affected her self-image. Abuela's solution: Take ballet lessons to ``grow into shape.''

''Classical ballet for 10 years was not exactly pleasant,'' Márquez says.

But one of her teachers was a Spanish dancer. As Márquez developed and turned into a teenager, the dancer saw something special.

''You have a lot of fire in you,'' she said to Márquez, encouraging her to study classical Spanish dance, and two years later, flamenco.

''Esto es lo tuyo,'' her teacher said.

Flamenco is your thing.

(leer +) [vía herald.com]