Karina Yao’s life changed forever when Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca’s words about flamenco “opened a thousand petals” in her heart. What began as a language student’s curiosity in Taiyuan, China, became a decade-long journey to master Spain’s fiery dance form – proving passion knows no borders. 🔥
📖 Discovering Lorca’s poetry in 2012 sparked her obsession. Within months, she was in Seville, mesmerized by the raw emotion of flamenco: “In China, we don’t express ourselves through movement like this. But when I dance, I feel free.”
💃 Flamenco wasn’t just steps – it was a language. “You learn the ‘grammar’ first – the rhythms, the footwork,” says Karina, who now teaches at Madrid’s La Corrala studio. Her classes attract Chinese women craving self-expression through swirling skirts and thunderous zapateado foot stomps.
🎶 Years of piano training helped her decode flamenco’s complex rhythms. Today, she tours globally with Flamenco Sin Fronteras, a multicultural troupe blending Chinese, French, and American influences. “It’s about sharing stories,” she says. “My Chinese roots and Spanish soul speak the same emotional language.”
🌟 For Karina, flamenco is more than dance – it’s proof that “art can make tightly closed flowers bloom anywhere.” And her students? They’re learning to let their petals fly. 🌸
