Escucha Profunda / Deep Listening
Leticia Aravena (La Leti) is a Latinx dance artist, choreographer, and educator with extensive experience in flamenco, folklorico, contemporary and somatic movement.
Born in Córdoba, Argentina, trained in Spain and the U.S., she honors the Gypsy/Andalusian roots of flamenco while integrating her Latinx heritage, contemporary influences, and cross-cultural collaborations. Her work blends traditional dances with contemporary exploration to create performances and arts education rooted in rhythm, movement, authentic expression, and shared humanity.
She began her artistic training at age five in Córdoba at the Escuela Integral de Danza under Graciela Pérez de Ceva, studying ballet, tap, and flamenco, and continued training and performing through her teenage years and into adulthood — deepening her technique across flamenco, ballet, folklorico and contemporary dance before founding her own artistic practice. She is the founder and artistic director of La Leti Flamenco (established in 2006, originally founded as Leticia Aravena Dance and Movement), operating under Walking in Beauty LLC.
Over the years, she has performed on national and international stages, toured globally with music and dance ensembles, led cross-cultural collaborations, mentored artists, and taught students across a wide range of ages and experience levels. She develops performances, educational programs, and initiatives that use dance, music, and storytelling as pathways for cultural expression, connection, and healing.
From 2006 to 2018, Leticia was a soloist, choreographer, and arts educator with the Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, performing nationally and internationally — including, in 2016, at the Marquina Theater in Madrid and the Tomás y Valiente Theater in Fuenlabrada, Spain. She has performed at renowned venues including the Auditorium Theatre and the Harris Theater. Her original duet, Aludir Lo Que Fue, was selected for the 2014 Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Inside/Out Series. Since 2013, she has collaborated as a dancer, choreographer, and vocalist with Surabhi Ensemble, including two global peace tours — to Senegal, Vietnam, Spain, and Portugal in 2019, and to India in 2025.
Leticia has been a guest artist with the Chicago Chamber Opera (Carmen, Vanesa, María la O) and the Chicago Summer Opera (María de Buenos Aires, performing Argentine tango), and has performed multiple times at Instituto Cervantes' Chicago Flamenco Festival, with a return engagement planned for 2027. She continues to perform as a soloist, directing and producing her own work, alongside cross-cultural collaborations.
As an arts educator, Leticia has taught dance for approximately 15 years across Chicago-area schools, universities, and cultural institutions. Since February 2026, she is a full-time Fine Arts Dance Teacher (K–8, Bilingual) at Jovita Idar, an Acero Charter School, building the school's Latinx and Ballet Folklórico Program from the ground up.
Leticia's practice is one of deep listening — to the body and to the inherited rhythm of the present moment. In 2026, that practice led to a City of Chicago DCASE Individual Artists Program (IAP) grant, awarded to support her newest investigation, titled Duende. Rooted in the Latin American diaspora, the project traces the intersection of flamenco, contemporary dance, and somatic movement — the body as an archive — exploring flamenco's concept of duende, the raw and embodied artistic truth, through her lens as a Latinx immigrant and diasporic artist, tracing that truth across cultures, through the body and its lineage.
