BIO
Jeanette Trujillo-Lucero is a native of Denver and one of the most recognized dance performers in Colorado. She is a versatile dancer with experience in ballet, tap, jazz, and musical theater, but her specialty is Spanish and Mexican Dance. She has performed as a soloist in Colorado’s most prestigious theaters, museums, and historic venues, and with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. She is known by the stage name “La Muñeca” (The Doll) for her delicate, petite stature. In costume, she swirls in a flaring Spanish dress and skillfully executes her Flamenco footwork in red shoes and impeccably plays castanets with her graceful hands. This is the image she is most known for.
Jeanette has received many honors, including Living Legend of Dance, Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, and Outstanding Woman of Colorado. She is a Latina Trailblazer and has received many Lifetime Achievement Awards for her community service. She has a lifetime of study in dance and other subjects from the University of Colorado, Loretto Heights College, and Red Rocks Community College.
In 1972, she was instrumental in staging the very first “Fiesta Colorado” performance at Denver’s historic Cosmopolitan Hotel. She started training other dancers, leading to the Fiesta Colorado Dance Company being formed in 1997. It would become one of Colorado’s most highly recognized dance companies.
Jeanette has danced all her life and given thousands of children the joy of dance, changing the lives of those who have studied and danced with her. Her life’s work will continue through the thousands of dancers she has taught, some of whom are among the best in the world. She has been a seed for learning and the link between generations of Hispanic dance.
One of her legacies is the Fiesta Colorado Folklorico Stage, on which folkloric dance groups from throughout Colorado share the full spectrum of the Latino arts in Newsed’s “Celebrate Culture / Cinco de Mayo Event” in Denver’s Civic Center Park. This is just one example of the cultural inclusion she gives to the community.
The La Voz newspaper has called her “A Diamond in the World of Dance.”