Los Lupeños Academy Instructors teach dance steps and culture

Maestro Rudy Figueroa

Maestro Rudy, as he is affectionately known, has been a performer and instructor of Mexican Folk Dance for many generations. He is a lead instructor with Los Lupeños Academy and has taught throughout California and in Mexico for various audiences including Danzantes Unidos, San José Mariachi Festival, and the University of San Diego’s Summer Program in Guadalajara. He directed the children’s group, Niños de Aztlán, for six years and was an instructor for Hilos de Plata, a senior dance group. Maestro Rudy has been teaching baile folklórico since 1972.

Maestro Rudy began his folklórico career as a dancer with Los Lupeños de San José in the 1970s. He studied under the direction of Co-founders Susie Cashion and Ramón Morones. Maestro Rudy has studied other dance genres such as Spanish, Okinawa Folk, and Classical Japanese. One of his most memorable experiences as a folklórico student was when he was taught by Maestro Tizoc Fuentes at an ANGF Conference in San José. Some of his favorite Mexican regional songs are from Yucatan, Veracruz, and Oaxaca. Maestro Rudy is also a talented floral designer and enjoys costume design. Teaching many generations of families in our Academy, Maestro Rudy takes pride in seeing how his students have blossomed as dancers. “You can tell who is a dancer by the way that they carry themselves”.

Maestro Steven Gastelum

Steven Gastelum has been teaching with Los Lupeños Academy for two years. He began dancing at Stanford University in 2012 with the Ballet Folklórico de Stanford. This group was completely student-led and run, which gave Steven the opportunity to learn how much work it takes to manage a folklórico group “behind the scenes.” He co-directed the group for two years, teaching classes, purchasing costumes, organizing workshops with maestros, and directing annual shows.

Concurrent with his last two years directing at Stanford, Steven began dancing with Los Lupeños’ performing company in 2016. With Los Lupeños, Steven had the opportunity to perform on many exciting stages, including Disney’s California Adventure, the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, and alongside mariachi singer Steeven Sandoval. Steven loves to perform dances from the huasteca region and Nuevo León.

Steven has a Masters in Chemical Engineering and works as a Process Engineer at a battery startup. He loves to travel and try the local food in every country he visits.

Maestra Monika Angeles

Monika Angeles has been teaching with Los Lupeños Academy since 2017. Just like many of our students, Maestra Monika wanted to connect more with her Mexican culture and family. She began her folklórico career 15 years ago as a dancer with Aztlán Academy then joined Grupo Folklórico Luna y Sol de San José State University. Maestra Monika has taught on and off for the last 10 years in various San José elementary school programs and with Raices de México from Palo Alto before joining Los Lupeños Academy. She also has experience in ballet and salsa dancing. Maestra Monika has participated in various workshops such as Danzantes Unidos, University Folklórico Summit, and various Mariachi Festivals to enhance her skills.

Maestra Monika has fond memories of performing for the Warriors Halftime Show during Latino Heritage Night in 2017 and 2018. Her favorite regions to perform are Tamaulipas Huasteca and Veracruz. Besides dancing, she enjoys crafting, painting, sewing costumes, and watching movies with friends. As an undergraduate student at San José State University, she studied Child and Adolescent Development. She is currently a Science Lab Instructor at The Tech Interactive and looks forward to pursuing her Masters in Chicano and Chicana Studies. “I owe so much to my maestros for all they have taught me. Sharing our beautiful culture with students of all ages brings me joy and I hope that they may pass down what they have learned to future generations.”

Maestro Samuel Cortez

In addition to directing our two dance companies, Los Lupeños de San José and Los Lupeños Juvenil, Maestro Sam oversees the artistic content of our Academy, lending his wealth of knowledge to peer instructors and staff. Maestro Sam occasionally provides instruction in some of the advanced classes.

Read more about Maestro Sam on the Artistic Director page.

Maestro Oscar Benavidez

A Salinas, California native, Oscar Benavidez began his folklórico dance career with Tonatiuh Danzantes del Quinto Sol. He attended Hartnell College where he received his AA in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in performing arts. After graduating, he became the Artistic Director for the folklórico group at Hartnell. He later became the Artistic Director of the group at California State University Monterey Bay. He was also a guest teacher for the Monterey Arts Council where he taught students K-12. After moving to San José to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Dance at San José State University, Oscar joined Grupo Folklórico Luna y Sol de San José State. After a year with the university group, he went on to be a part of Los Lupeños de San José. Oscar involved himself with many teaching programs and folklórico associations as part of his continuous desire to learn more about Mexican folk dance such as the Asociación Nacional de Grupos Folklóricos, Asociación Nacional de Maestros de Danza Popular Mexicana and Danzantes Unidos, among others. Maestro Oscar has also taken master classes by instructors in México. His training in Mexican Folklórico allows him to properly teach his students about dance technique, safety in dance, historical background and regional styling. Maestro Oscar enjoys teaching and has a great passion for Mexican folklórico.

Maestra Imelda Chávez

Imelda Chávez began dancing in Los Lupeños’ Escuela de Arte y Cultura at the age of 7 years old. She saw the group performing at the fairgrounds and fell in love with the twirls of the colorful skirts. After taking a few years of classes, Imelda was invited to join the performing youth ensemble Los Niños Lupeños. That experience gave her the goal to enter the adult Performing Company which she did when she was a teenager. As part of Los Lupeños, Maestra Imelda performed in many places and in many venues for over 25 years including multiple mariachi festivals in San José as well as the First International Mariachi Festival in Guadalajara in 1994. She toured with Los Lupeños in England and Ireland. She also performed in dozens and dozens of small shows all over the Bay Area and California. Some of her favorite performances were the Cinco de Mayo plays that Los Lupeños would perform for elementary schools. The excitement from the children was the most memorable to her. One of Imelda’s favorite regions to perform are dances from the state of Veracruz. As an Academy Instructor Maestra Imelda feels that it is important for a good performer to have knowledge of all of the steps and choreography so they can easily jump into any spot. Confidence and stage presence are also important and these are things that she wants to bring out in her students.

Maestra Jasmín Velázquez

Maestra Jasmín shares dances from the different states and regions of México with all types of students but especially with kids where she loves to get them excited about their culture as their appreciation grows and grows. She herself has danced since 5 years old all the way through high school at Lincoln where she helped choreograph the intermediate/advanced class in her senior year. Maestra Jasmín is a member of Los Lupeños Performing Company since 2019 where she performed in the 50th Anniversary GALA concerts. She loves dancing Jalisco with a passion because it’s where her ancestors were from. Maestra Jasmín says “Dance is a huge part of who I am because it shows me how even the slightest things can mean so much. All the hard work and effort goes into everything we do making it worth so much more”. She is planning a career in the medical field.

Asistente de Instrucción
Dominic Ortiz

Dominic Ortiz began dancing in Los Lupeños Academy at a very early age. He saw his mother dancing and wanted to be just like her. After taking years of classes, Dominic was invited to join the youth performing ensemble, Los Lupeños Juvenil. That experience solidified his goal to enter the adult Performing Company where he currently rehearses and performs. Not only was he dancing with Los Lupeños, but in his 4 years of high school he was a member of the Lincoln High School’s folklórico dance team, Xochitl Cultural.

During his senior year, he became one of two captains on the team as well as a teacher assistant for the Intermediate Folklórico class where taught the class some basic technical exercises and expressed his love for folklórico. Teaching both the Intermediate class and the dance team made him realize he wanted to move forward teaching the dance genre he loves.

Dominic feels that a good dancer is not only about their technique, but their dedication and time with dance. He says “It is also important to know the traditions that the dancers are learning. Confidence and presence are very important when a dancer is out on stage showing off what they are representing in their culture”.