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Our Team

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Rebeka Moreno is a graduate from Arizona State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Performance and Movement with a focus on Dance and Theatre. She also holds certifications in arts education (pedagogy). 

 

She has over 20 years of experience performing Mexican folklore dance (danzas tradicionales Mexicanas) and has achieved multiple dance certifications throughout her career. She currently performs with our professional dance team and continues her advanced studies in danza folclorica Mexicana.

She is fun and energetic and her classes are always packed with dance insights and techniques that keep our students engaged and having fun while learning. 

She is a professional salsa and cumbia dancer as well among the many styles of dancing that she loves!

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Esau Bonilla (Kassy)  is our school coordinator with over 15 years of experience as an instructor. 

 

He holds various careers in photojournalism, media production, marketing, technology consulting, music and martial arts.

He started learning Mexican folklore dance at the age of 7 in Mexico City and attended the Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli where he further learned music theory and traditional Mexican dances from our Director Ana Bonilla. 

He also studied classical guitar at the University of Arizona and continued his musical studies under three of today's finest musicians, Philip Hemmo (composer and acclaimed classical guitar performer), Raul Castillo (which is considered to be the greatest Mexican vihuela player of our generation), and Victor Cardenas Garcia (El Pato), the vihuela legend that created all the traditional manicos (right hand techniques) that exist today in mariachi music, and along with El Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan turned mariachi music into a worldwide phenomenon.

He is also a certified black belt Taekwondo instructor and currently teaches our martial arts program at our school to help our students further develop their fitness levels, promote their self confidence and self defense skills. 

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Hector Moreno is our professional Mexican folklore dancer instructor for all of our advanced Mexican folklore dance levels

He has been dancing danza folklorica Mexicana for over 24 years! He holds many professional and instructor certifications from Mexico City, Veracruz and Quintana Roo.

He is constantly preparing our advanced students with fresh repertories of dances and choreographies to bring the beauty of the Mexican culture to all our events.  

 

He is also a bachata and cumbia instructor and is currently furthering his dance studies in Irish dancing.

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Jehu Bautista es our professional Nahuatl language instructor. He is a native Nahuatl speaker.  Our dance academy's name, Ollin Yoliztli is in Nahuatl so it was only natural for us to want to share more about the beautiful Mexican culture with the world through Nahuatl language classes. 

In 2019, Jehu published the nahuatl manual by the name, Yolitahtol (Lit. the language that rebirths).  He has been a lecturer at the Universidad de Guanajuato and at the Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad León.

 

Jehu is also currently furthering his studies at the Master's degree level in language didactics and Indo American Cultures at National Pedagogical University (Universidad Pedagogica Nacional) en Veracruz, Mexico,

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Perla Palomares Ruiz is our professional strings instructor for our mariachi music program (Arizona Mariachi Music Academy).

 

Perla began her studies at the age of 9 years at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (National Conservatory of Music) as a professional violinist studying under Enrique Espín and continuing under Pastor Solís.  She continues her master level studies under Marta Olvera, currently. 

 

She has participated in intensive seminars with Eduardo García, working together with instructor, Jorge D lese y Viera Koulkova. She has also participated in musical interpretation workshops under Leopoldo Téllez y Adolfo Ramos.

 

Her chamber music work has been supervised by Norberto Nandayapa y Gonzalo Ruiz Esparza and she completed post graduate work in advanced vocal techniques under Isabel Gentile y Roberto Abbondanza.

 

Her choir career has allowed her to perform at the Santa Cecilia Festival (del Centro histórico) and at the 2nd Músic Festival of sacra de Pamplona, Colombia.  Performing in works such as Carmina Burana, Elixir de Amor, the Eighth Symphony of Mahler, Mesías de Haendel, Cantata de los sueños (Songs of Dreams) by Arturo Márquez, the 2 y 13 symphonies of Shostakovick, the 150 year celebration of the national Mexican hymn.  

 

She has performed in all of these as part of the National Conservatory of Music (Conservatorio Nacional de Música) choir accompanied by David Arontes and Mexico's finest orchestras such as the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, amount others. 

 

She also has performed as a vocal soloist at the chamber of Tepecuicatl, in the auditorium Ilhuicalli Tepoztlán and at the Italian institute in Coyoacán, Mexico. 

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Edgar Sánchez is a professional music arranger and music producer, graduated with a degree in Music from the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas (Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas).

 

He has participated as an musical arranger for various artists such as Alejandra Avalos, Héctor Gamaliel, Antonio Puga, Maxie Rodríguez, etc. Edgar has worked as an arranger for various mariachi groups such as Mariachi Arce de México, Mariachi Luceros de mi Tierra, Mariachi 7 Mares, Mariachi Manantial de Salvación, Mariachi los Potrillos, Mariachi Juvenil Zamora, among others.

 

He obtained first place in the instrumental song category and was the winner of first place award in arrangement in the popular song category of the Manuel Barroso contest, organized by the music faculty of the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas.

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Maestro Moises Arroyo Carballo has a degree in Orchestral Instrument (Violin), He is a composer, arranger, and mariachi director.

 

He specializes in teaching violin as an orchestral and solo instrument. He is also a professional violinist in mariachi music.

 

During his career he has held various positions as music teacher at elementary and high schools and directed solfège and mariachi harmony courses.

 

Apart from being a professional violinist, he has also worked in the transcription of musical arrangements for mariachi music and accompanied artists such as Vicente Fernández, Antonio Aguilar, Placido Domingo, Pablo Montero, Ana Bárbara, José Julián, Valente Pastor, Humberto Herrera, Ireland Valenzuela, María Elena Leal Beltrán, Maribel Guardia, Alicia Villa Real, Oscar Cruz, among others.

 

Among his professional achievements, in 2022, Maestro Moises became the founder and producer of the first National Mariachi Festival in Zacatlán, Puebla., in which 8 members of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan and Master Harp Instructor. Iván Velasco, professor at the Veracruzana University attended.

 

During his first festival over 220 mariachi musicians from all over Mexico and the United States gathered attended.

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