OUR TEAM

I began dancing folklorico over 40+ years ago, when I was in the 6th grade. Dancing was an amazing escape for me where I didn’t have to worry about anything but what I was doing at that exact moment. My body and mind were challenged constantly, and the pride in finally getting a new step or routine was such a great feeling. It was there that I learned so many life lessons like commitment, tenacity and discipline as well as gained self-confidence.

These are the things I hope to pass along to every student that passes through Floricanto’s doors. This is a safe space to learn, to try, to dream, to risk and not be judged. 

As Artistic Director, it is both my obligation and pleasure to continue on the path that Floricanto has been on for decades. To uphold the culture and traditions that our organization holds dear. Floricanto has helped me flourish from student to dancer to teacher to administrator and now to Artistic Director. This is not a position I take lightly. I hear my ancestors’ whispering words of encouragement and hope. I am here to honor them and serve our community.

-Christie Matsuda-Rios

Gema Sandoval, along with the company, is the winner of the 1994 and 1995 Horton Award for the Staging of Traditional Dance, a year 2000 fellow of the California Arts Council's Fellowship in Dance Program, a winner of the Irvine Foundation's California Dancemaker awards for 2001. Sandoval and her company are also the proud recipients of a New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Creation and Project production grant for 2003-04, for Fandango Without Borders. the recipient of the 2006 Irvine foundation's Dance Creation to Performance Fellowship for Un Zapateado Chicano also funded by the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture.  In 2015 she received the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Award and the Achievement Award from the Danzantes Unidos Statewide Organization, in 2016 the Soy Mexico Award from the Coalicion de. Grupos Folkloricos Southern California.  Most recently, in 2022 she received the DANCE/USA National Fellowship for the creation of her latest work Mujer-Ayer, Hoy Y Siempre, a collaboration among Sandoval, Christie Rios, her daughter and Mimi Rios, her granddaughter.

Gema retired as Artistic Director in 2023.