Embodied memories, teachings, feelings, movements passed on from one person to another. I have ingrained in my dancing body memories of my fabulous aunt, Sanjuanita Martínez-Hunter Ph.D., who was also my first dance teacher. Yes, I inherited her knick-knacks and collectibles, but these are all just trivial pieces of material items in comparison to what I have truly inherited. I inherited her bodily knowledge.

Since my aunt was my first dance teacher, one of my earliest memories is of my sister and I taking my aunt’s creative movement class. All I remember is sitting in a circle with my legs crossed, putting my feet together and making “butterflies” with my legs. Later, as a student at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and a member of the UT Ballet Folklórico I registered for her Mexican ethnic dance, modern, and ballet classes. Here, I learned her zapateado (footwork) exercises that I continue to use today in my own teachings. We danced with piano accompaniment, and I remember how she seamlessly bridged dance and music. I remember her wild enthusiasm, her words of encouragement, and her love of teaching dance. I feel that I have her teachings etched within my soul.

Sometimes when I teach a difficult zapateado sequence or try to motivate my dancers, I catch myself repeating my aunt’s instructions or using her teaching tools to explain myself to my dancers better. Most importantly, I remember her dances and movements that I have archived within my body. Whenever I teach a few of her favorite choreographies I keep the movements that are distinctly hers especially those that emphasize the elongated arms, the x pattern formations, the leaping to the air, the intense zapateado sequences. I often ask my dancers to identify the movements that are uniquely hers, wondering if they can recognize them. These movements define her dance legacy and mine. These embodied memories of my aunt’s teachings, movements, and choreographies were transmitted from aunt to niece and teacher to student. They were passed on to me directly from her.

Some of these embodied memories in my own dancing body were passed on to me by my aunt’s students (Michael Carmona and Roy Lozano) who I learned so much from. Within their choreographies are traces of my aunt’s teachings that are very hard to pinpoint exactly but are still present. Even more difficult to trace are the embodied memories of aunt’s dance teachers such as Alura Flores de Angeles “Godmother of Mexican Dance,” Neo Gutiérrez, Blanche Flores Leyendecker, Elizabeth (Ruby Roy) Galo, Frances Gonzalez Scarff, Dr. Anne Schley Duggan that she held archived within her body. I never took a dance class with any of these legends, yet I know that I carry a bit of their teachings within me that were passed on to me from my aunt.

These embodied memories are reminders of the ways in which through dance we transmit our bodily histories from one person to another. As dance teachers we carry within us the bodily memories, histories, and legacies of our teachers. I continue to teach these dance movements to my own students with every single lesson, calling upon the embodied memories of my aunt to inspire and guide me. We all do the same.