Pilar Rioja has been celebrated world-wide as the Queen of Spanish Dance. She was born in Mexico in 1932 to parents from the Rioja region of Spain, and she was encouraged to dance from her earliest years. While she studied many dance forms in both Mexico and Spain, one of her greatest influences was Manolo Vargas, who performed several times at the Pillow in the 1950s and 60s with Ballet Espanol Ximenez-Vargas. Rioja credits Vargas with teaching her that “in Spanish dance one’s whole body comes into play – one’s whole being from the feet to the fingers.”
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