Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is winding down its Folklórico program after 27 years as Director Francisco (Paco) Nevarez-Burgueño retires.
Nevarez-Burgueño has been with the organization for more than two decades. He said it was a difficult choice to retire, but he needs to take care of his aging mother.
He plans on splitting his time between his home in Carbondale and Mexico, where his family is from.
“I never thought this [was] going to be the end of the program,” Nevarez-Burgueño said. “I was thinking it's going to be easy to find somebody to take over the program and to keep teaching. But everything happens during this administration, and since January, it's not so easy for us Latinos.”
Nevarez-Burgueño said most professional Mexican folkloric dancers are based out of the country and work VISAs have become more difficult to get under the Trump administration.
There is also an increasing cost-of-living in the Roaring Fork Valley and cuts to federal arts and culture funding.
While it costs money to participate in the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Folklorico is completely free, and Nevarez-Burgueño said the program serves primarily Latino and low-income students.
Nevarez-Burgueño worries about what will happen to these students who use Folklórico as an after-school activity to connect with their culture.
“I’m watching my students right now, the ones who [have been] with me since they were in kindergarten,” he said. “What's going to happen with them? They already have the love for the dance. What's going to happen with all these youth?”
Folklórico will continue its performances and programming throughout the remainder of 2025, and Nevarez-Burgueño plans to continue consulting at Aspen Santa Fe Ballet after his retirement.
Folklórico was founded in 1998 with a goal of introducing Mexican folkloric dance to the Roaring Fork Valley, where it did not really exist before.
Since then, Folklórico has grown to teach 240 students annually in Basalt, Carbondale and Santa Fe public schools.
The award-winning Folklórico ensemble has performed regularly across the Western Slope, as well as the Western U.S. and Mexico. Their dancers have also attended international dance festivals in Costa Rica, Peru, Greece, Cuba and Argentina.
“This program has been like a melting pot in the whole Roaring Fork Valley, and it's a successful one,” Nevarez-Burgueño said. “I have a hope this is not gonna be ending totally. But if it's gonna end, it's gonna end. And it's sad because it's a community program.”
