There aren’t many people from outside of Spain who would tell you they knew they wanted to dedicate themselves to flamenco before even having taken their first class.

But that is what happened with Cristina Hall.

Cristina grew up around the arts.

Her mother took her to see all different types of performances.

Following in the steps of her big sister, she began studying violin. She played for eight years and even went to an arts high school.

But she felt unsettled.

One day she lay on her bed and asked for something she could call her own, some way to express herself.

The next day, seemingly out of nowhere, something inside of Cristina told her she needed to dance flamenco.

Not knowing where the idea had come from, she grabbed the Yellow Pages, found a teacher, and went to take a class in downtown San Francisco.

“I remember, the first class that I ever took, as I was paying for the class, I had a flash, that I was gonna be doing this for the rest of my life…

I knew, from that moment, before even taking the class, this is my life.”

Wow.

After studying for awhile in San Francisco and saving her money, Cristina bought a one way ticket and moved to Spain.

That was over twenty years ago, and she’s never looked back.

You can listen to Cristina tell her story here.

“I knew, from that moment, before even taking the class, this is my life.”

— Cristina Hall

While Cristina immersed herself in flamenco culture, she has never shied away from expressing her individual creativity.

In this way, she stands apart from many other foreign artists.

Watch her dance below:

So where does Cristina gain her inspiration?

“My need to dance is from my need to express myself.

Usually inspiration comes from things that I’m feeling or living in the moment that I need to get out and release…

Also art, painting because I feel like painting is movement on a canvas, colors, nature, human experiences because these are things that we can all relate to…

Music in general inspires me, everything; life itself is very inspirational.

But I feel like it usually comes from something that’s more internal within myself that I feel I need to release.”

Watch the full interview with Cristina here.