Rosie Chavarria Peña, a native of California is the founder of Relámpago del Cielo, Grupo Folklorico. She began dancing at the age of 5 with Lilly Aguilar, an original cast member of the Padua Hills Players. Classes were later offered through the Department of Parks and Recreation near her home in East Los Angeles. Her primary training was in Spanish dance, Flamenco and Mexican folk dance. At the age of 17, Ms. Peña gave back to the community by teaching with the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation as well as the Lilly Aguilar Dance Studio. It was during this time that she also began dancing professionally where she performed at all of the popular concert venues of the time such as the Philharmonic Auditorium, The Hollywood Bowl, San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, The Million Dollar Theater and all the major hotels such as The Ambassador, Beverly Hills and Biltmore. She toured throughout California, Canada and Hawaii and she had the opportunity to work with major Spanish, Mexican and American stars of the era such as Andres Segovia, Pepe Guizar, Juan Mendoza El Tariacuri and Mauricio Jara to name a few. During her late teens, Ms Peña partnered with Augustine del Razo and later with the recently arrived Florencio Yescas and Mario Cervantes, those individuals who first introduced Danzas Aztecas to the Southern California region. Together they comprised part of the resident company of the newly formed California Heritage and Pageantry Association. She traveled extensively throughout Mexico where she studied not only with the better known teachers and institutes but in the smaller towns where she focused her research on the gente del pueblo. She has taught and/or provided lecture-dance seminars for the Fullerton, Newport-Mesa and Santa Ana Unified School Districts. She has also taught at Ohlone, San Jose City, Chapman and Santa Ana Colleges. She retired as Artistic Director for Relámpago well over fifteen years ago however, she continues to act as a consultant.
