Manuel was born in the flamenco world at the age of 14 when he had his professional debut under the wing of José Galván, at the now-closed Sevillian tablao ‘La Trocha.’ He performed as a member of a group called ‘Nuevas Raíces.’ Also performing that night were the already well established Israel Galván, Rafael Blanco, ‘El Mimbre’, María del Monte and Juana la del ‘Revuelo.’

Although it was José Galván who started Manuel Betanzos in his career as dancer of flamenco, two other teachers played a decisive role in what were to be Betanzos’ achievements in dance,they were Maolo Marín and Mario Maya. He assimilated the great virtues of these two men in order to be able to transmit,to pass on those virtues. At the same time, he always tried to expand and improve his defining artistic and academic qualities by taking part in courses given by some of the greatest teachers in the art of flamenco such as Ana Mari Bueno, ‘la Toná’, Matilde Coral, ‘el Güito’, Merche Esmeralda y ‘Manolete’, among others.

Before fully embracing the teaching aspect of the flamenco dance, Manuel Betanzos learnt what is needed to form a perfect artistic development. This experience has allowed him to take on the enormous and difficult task of teaching something as abstract and diverse as flamenco. He has learnt that it is not enough to simply learn a whole set of movements, however well, if one doesn´