Cihtli Ocampo

Described as a “...powerful dancer” by Dancemagazine, Cihtli Ocampo uses dance to transmit emotion and facilitate a deep connection to ourselves, each other and our environment. She began her dance studies at the age of eight in San Diego, CA, and she began teaching and choreographing at age twelve. At seventeen she moved to New York City to study at the Ailey School and Steps On Broadway where she trained intensely in Dunham, modern (Graham & Horton), jazz, tap, ballet, floor barre and Alexander Technique. At nineteen Ms. Ocampo began teaching ballroom for Arthur Murray Dance Studios while immersed in the club scene in NYC. In her twenties she changed her focus to flamenco and Spanish dance and began performing nationwide and teaching flamenco in the NYC public school system. She was a member of Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, Danzas Españolas and The American Bolero Dance Company based out of Carnegie Hall.

Upon receiving a Fulbright Scholarship for the study of Flamenco and Spanish Dance in Spain, Cihtli moved to Andalucía where she spent the next eleven years immersed in Gitano (Spanish Roma) culture, performing and touring with many of the world’s most important flamenco artists including the Farruco family, Ines Bacan, Chano Dominguez, Concha Vargas and Manuel Molina. In 2004 Ms. Ocampo was featured in Tony Gatlif's film Exils (Best Director, Cannes Film Festival 2004) and in 2006 she co-founded Arte y Pureza Flamenco Company, an international touring and arts education company dedicated to diffusing pure, roots Flamenco Gitano worldwide. She has been featured in several films, scores of videos and she has choreographed over 50 original works for stage and film including the rock opera Spanish Day, the opera Carmen, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Flamenco Macbeth (KCACTF Selection 2020).

Over the last two decades Ms. Ocampo has developed the Steps Last Methodology For Teaching Dance rooted in a genre’s rhythm, history, source of inspiration and improvisation. She has taught at and created original works for UCSB, UCSD, Santa Monica College, Pomona College, and CalArts. In 2024 Ms. Ocampo joined CSUDH as an Assistant Professor where she continues her life-long commitment to self-expression and cross-cultural understanding through the arts. She teaches Flamenco, Modern, Tap, Jazz, Social Dance, Composition, and Somatics & Conditioning. She has a BA in Political Science from NYU and an MFA in Dance from Hollins University where her thesis was an exploration of the Steps Last teaching methodology as a way of existing in the vanishing point and finding permanence through ephemerality.