Texas Woman’s University celebrates the fire and passion of Latin culture this weekend with the Latino Dance & Music Festival, featuring the TWU International Dance company and guitarist and composer Ernesto Garcia de Leon, a Mexican musician who has worked with Denton classical guitarists Pedro Haley and Carlo Pezzimenti for years.

The weekend festival begins with a concert featuring de Leon, who appears with local university musicians, and culminates with the premiere of de Leon’s Fantasia Tropical, Op. 66. The piece is written for a quartet of classical guitars — Dennis Harris, Brian Rowe, Haley and Carlo Pezzimenti — with clarinet (Ricky Reeves), flute (Oscar Arturo Osorio) and percussion (John Osburn).

Haley said the piece is one of the biggest guitar compositions he’s encountered. It’s about 30 minutes of music, with six movements lending a symphonic feel to the project.

The university dance company will perform La Pasion de la Vida (“The Passion of Life”) by choreographer Sarita Salinas. The piece is set to music by Ojos de Brujos and Luis Linares, and is based on flamenco. Salinas, a TWU alumna, teaches dance at George Carver Magnet High School in Aldine. Dancers Jessica Baker and Karla Mercado are senior dance students at TWU, and Rubi Trevino is a TWU dance graduate. Mercado is studying Spanish dance in Mexico.

Finally, in the TWU Art Building’s West Gallery, artists Sara Cardona and Maria Teresa Garcia-Pedroche have a joint show called “Flora.”

Cardona, a Dallas artist and an art teacher at Richland College, uses geological survey maps to make ornate ink drawings of flowers, bird-like forms and flourishes that recall Euro­pean embellishment. She uses collage and stitching to add depth and interest to the work.

Garcia-Pedroche offers five sets of four photographs of a bird of paradise plant against an azure sky. She brought a cutting of the plant to her mother — who was living with a terminal illness at the time. Garcia-Pedroche photographed the plant for a month, sharing the photos with her mother. The flower died the same day her mother did.

—Lucinda Breeding

What: A weekend of music, dance and art

When: An evening of classical guitar will be at 7:30 p.m. today. Special guest Ernesto Garcia de Leon performs with local artists at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The festival culminates with a dance performance and the premiere of de Leon’s Fantasia Tropical at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Today’s and Friday’s events are at the Redbud Theater Complex at Hubbard Hall on the TWU campus. Saturday’s performance is at Margo Jones Performance Hall, on the first floor of the TWU Music Building at Oakland Street and Pioneer Circle.

Details: Today’s and Friday’s performances are free. Tickets for the Saturday performance are $5.

Guitarist and composer Ernesto Garcia de Leon will present a free question-and-answer session about Mexican folk and pop music and its influence on the classical guitar. The session will be at from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 2255 N. Bonnie Brae St.