Grace Arts Live

Address:
3476 McCulloch Blvd.
Lake Havasu City, AZ  86403

Phone:
(928) 855-8272

Email:
grajac@graceartslive.com

Grace Ann’s Grandmother, Bernardina Etcheberria, performing on stage at a community gathering, 1926.

Grace Ann Etcheberria grew up in a first generation Basque family in San Juan Capistrano, California and schooled in the Mission School.  She and her sisters were immersed in the Spanish/Basque and Mexican cultures.  They grew up with a great sense of family, traditions, and artistic culture.  Louie Etcheberria, Grace Ann’s Dad, was a farmer where she remembers fondly riding tractors with him in his fields and being a total tomboy.  And it was from her Mom, Prudencea Arbonies Etcheberria, where she learned to dance at a very young age.  Prudencia was a kindergarten teacher and taught traditional folk dances to Grace Ann, her sisters, cousins, and friends.

 
Prudencia Etcheberria, Grace Ann’s Mom, with her students.  Grace Ann second from right.

March 19 is the traditional date for the annual return of the swallows’ to Capistrano Valley from Goya, Argentina.  It’s known as St. Joseph’s Day and Swallows Day which was, and still is, a widely celebrated event in San Juan Capistrano.  Dressing up in traditional Spanish costumes and performing Spanish and Mexican folk dances was Grace Ann’s family’s way of honoring their hometown and celebrating St. Joseph’s Day.  Each year they looked forward to the religious celebration at the Mission Church and the secular celebration of the cities large parade that Grace Ann and her family either watched or participated in. Doing so year after year has ingrained her heritage deep into her heart and soul.

President Nixon and wife Pat next to King and Queen - Ronald Sanchez and Grace Ann Etcheberria - at the Swallows Day Celebration 1969.

At age ten, Grace Ann attended the Lynn Morris Dance Workshop School of Dance.  There she studied ballet, pointe, and jazz under Lynn Morris who also got her involved in performing musicals with the South Coast Lyric Opera Association.  At ages thirteen and fourteen, Grace Ann was a dancer in “Oklahoma”, Liat in “South Pacific, the understudy for Lisel in “The Sound of Music” starring Marni Nixion and a dancer in “The Marriage of Figero”.

 
Her high school years were spent at San Luis Rey Academy, a private parochial girl’s school at the Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, California. She feels she was blessed to be there at the perfect time.  One very special nun, Sister Brenda Montiel, had just begun a Creative Arts Program (CAP) and all Grace Ann’s academics revolved around the arts.  She spent four years there under Sister Montiel’s direction as well as many other warm and talented teachers. She performed in several high school plays and was given the opportunity to choreograph some as well.  It was a time of great learning, creative thinking, and fun.  Grace Ann’s mother passed away the summer between her freshman and sophomore year.  It was a devastating time for her and her family and was so blessed to have the academy sisters and the arts to help get her through.  This is where her respect for and cultivation of teaching began.

President Nixon and Prudence Etcheberria