Malaga-born flamenco dancer Luci Montes passes away at 73, master of flamencos

Malagueña de la Trinidad, a dancer of pure heritage and above all, a teacher of teachers who mourn her today. Flamenco bids farewell to Luci Montes, a traditional dancer who honed her skills in the tablaos before passing on everything she learned through her school. The artist passed away yesterday at the age of 73 due to cancer.

Over the last three decades, she devoted herself to her academy, which moved through various locations, training several generations of flamenco artists. But before that, Luci Montes traveled half the world with her dance, rooted in the Malagueña school she learned from a very young age.

As noted in Gonzalo Rojo's book, 'Malagueñas Women in Flamenco,' Lucía Montes Silva was trained in the academies of masters Rosén and Galiani, and in that of Angelita Didier, where she learned flamenco dances and those of the bolera school. She was one of the few who in recent years maintained the nuances of the Malagueña school, preserving the broken turns taught to her by Angelita Didier.

As a child, at the age of nine, Luci Montes went on an artistic tour of Spain with the company of La Niña de la Puebla and Luquitas de Marchena, achieving her first successes then. She soon began working in the tablaos of the Costa del Sol, such as the Tabarín Club and El Mañana party room in 1960s Torremolinos. Later she performed at La Pagoda Gitana and the Tablao Fiestas de Marbella, soon moving to Ana María's; and in the Pimpi and La Gran Taberna Gitana of Málaga.

In 1969, she toured Europe on a promotional tour for the Costa del Sol and participated in the International Fair in Denmark. At 23, she married the dancer Mariano, and together they formed the group Raza Show, which included Juan Nieto, Totana, Cándido de Málaga, Andrés el Paquiro, and Tomatito, who at the time was working in the Gran Taberna Gitana. Later she created the group Los Zorongos and subsequently the ballet Jara.

Like most flamencos of her generation, Luci Montes took her art around the world. According to Gonzalo Rojo, she worked throughout Canada and the United States, toured Europe on several occasions, and also danced in Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Morocco, and other African countries. At 16, she even performed on the stages of the Scala Theater in Milan and the Frankfurt Opera House.