Interview with Antonio Márquez. bailaor flamenco

Interview
with

ANTONIO
MÁRQUEZ

ANTONIO MÁRQUEZ,
Winner of the Premio Tanit of the Consell Insular
of Ibiza, presents his work “Tenth Anniversary
of the Antonio Márquez Company” in
Madrid.

Compañía Antonio Márquez
11 and 12 of August at the Matadero de Madrid.
Veranos de la Villa.

“In dance, ‘it
can’t be done’ doesn’t exist”

by Manuel Moraga

He’s just returned from an important
tour of Italy, and without skipping a beat, returned
to Ibiza, where he spent his infancy, to receive
the Tanit prize awarded by the Consell Insular
in recognition of lifetime achievement. And to
round off the week, the 11th and 12th he is presenting
his work “10 Aniversario” at the Matadero
in Madrid within the series Veranos de la Villa.
That’s the intense pace Antonio Márquez
keeps up, one of the most committed performers
in Spanish dance, at home and abroad – it’s
no accident he is one of the few who can boast
having received the prestigious Nureyev prize.
Amid all the activity, we managed to catch the
dance warrior in a moment of calm.

What
does a prize symbolize for you?…a starting point
or a break to relax?
I’m very excited about the prize because
although I came to Madrid early on, at the age
of seventeen, I already had a good foundation
from Ibiza thanks to my teachers Paco Torres and
María Martín. I’m delighted
to return to the place I grew up, where my parents
live and my friends shared my pranks, like when
I stood up and started dancing in the middle of
a mathematics exam… For all these reasons, this
is perhaps one of the prizes that has meant the
most to me. As far as taking a rest…no, no rest.
It’s a pat on the back that encourages you
to keep struggling and validates your efforts.

You’ve managed
to cross the ten-year mark with your company.
That’s no small achievement considering
what this profession is like.
The fact is, it’s hard having so many people
in a group, and all of them getting along. This
is one of my priorities, giving stability to the
company, but on a human, personal level. Now I’ve
managed it, and when we’re on stage, it
shows. There isn’t a single day they aren’t
giving their all. But we’ve been working
at it for eleven years. That’s why I revived
several choreographies I liked best to commemorate
the tenth annniversary – at the Matadero
Currillo and me are also going to dance alegrías,
Currillo set the choreography, it’s really
nice.

“I keep
learning that I have to keep learning more and
more”

What made you decide
to make your own company?
I don’t think I ever really decided to do
it, I never had that goal. The person responsible
for all this was the maestro José Granero.
One day in Seville he said to me: “you’re
still young, you’re a hard worker and love
the art, why don’t you form a company and
we can carry out this work we want to do together?
It wasn’t much different from what I was
used to at the Ballet Nacional de España.
And so we did it. My right-hand man was a person
I believed in and who was capable of making the
project happen. We charged ahead and were fortunate
enough that in Madrid they were looking for a
company to inaugurate the Teatro Real, and that’s
what we did. From that day on the fight has been,
like they say “tooth and nail”, mostly
trying to get a certain stability and prestige
for the company.

And how do you manage
that?
Dedication, hard work and a desire to learn. That’s
why I’ve always made use of choreographers,
maestros, dancer friends, I’ve tried to
make a place where they can come to give the kind
of classes that must never be lacking. You have
to always be directed and learning from people
who have the capacity to get more out of you than
you could do on your own. So it’s about
two years now that I’ve had a stable company,
in the sense that it’s always the same dancers,
we’re not changing all the time.

Have there been hard
times in these ten years?
Yes, but I get over things very quickly. Those
hard times are the tantrums you bring on yourself
when things don’t turn out the way you expected.
I’m a very spontaneous person and I don’t
always take the time to reflect before speaking.
Most of the bad experiences are a result of my
personality, but it’s because of the tremendous
love I have for this profession.

“Today I’m
delighted with the company as it is, and intend
to do everything in my power to maintain it as
is”

And what have the best
moments been?
I’ve had them at every stage of the game.
We’ve done some very good things and performed
a great deal all over the world. But perhaps the
most important thing for me is the human side.
Today I’m delighted with the company as
it is, and intend to do everything in my power
to maintain it as is, because I feel protected
when I’m on stage, and comfortable off-stage.

Lots of responsibility?
When I started the company, I didn’t know
what I was getting into. With the Ballet Nacional,
or any of the other companies I was in, they give
you a dressing-room, a seamstress, lights, everything,
and all you have to do is go out and dance. It’s
wonderful, but then it doesn’t correspond
to reality. When you have your own company, every
little thing requires your personal attention,
even small problems that come up right before
show-time, and sometimes, right in the middle
of a show. It takes a lot of discipline to be
able to connect and disconnect…you spend a great
deal of energy.

What have you learned
after all these years?
I keep learning that I have to keep learning more
and more. And most importantly, I’m learning
that everyone is different and you have to understand
each individual. Also, having to always set an
example has been difficult at times: I’ve
nearly always been the eldest in my group, and
when someone says “this can’t be done”,
I’ve gone and done it. In dance, “it
can’t be done” doesn’t exist.
That attitude has led to some difficult moments,
but it’s important people have a point of
reference.

“As long
as I’m active I don’t notice the years,
but as soon as I stop, even my tongue aches”

Have
you ever been tempted to throw in the towel?
I’d have called it quits many times, but
I always end up thinking it’s worthwhile
after all, and of course it is! The audience deserves
that, and more. But the main reason I’ve
kept going is thanks to the people I’m surrounded
by, the ones who’ve calmed me down, made
me bite my tongue and count to ten. One of those
people is my wife, Eva Leiva, to whom I really
owe everything.

You don’t hold
auditions for your company. It reminds me of those
exams where the teacher says you can use the book
and bring notes… You automatically think it’s
going to be a terribly hard exam. Is it difficult
to meet the demands of Antonio Márquez?
I personally don’t think so, because nobody
is obligated to take up this profession. There
has to be a calling, and it takes love. We’re
always working with our bodies and every day it’s
harder to get going. In the last audition 350
people showed up and I was able to pick and choose
some wonderful elements, but it took three days.
So I decided not to hold any more auditions, and
anyone who wants to come and take classes may
do so, as long as there’s room, obviously.
I can’t afford to support them or pay rehearsal
fees, but what I can do is give them many hours
of work which is going to mean more in the end
than money. Anyone able to keep up with the pace,
you can be sure they’ll be in the company
in six months’ time, because someone is
always missing or I might expand the repertoire.
What I’m doing in the end is preparing dancers
for my precise needs. It’s a good system
for me, and for them as well.

Your center is in Villaviciosa
de Odón. What does the whole operation
contribute to that Madrid town?
In the first place, I always try to explain my
ideas to the culture representatives. And I always
tell them that all companies have to come here
because there is a tremendous growing interest
in dance. Just think, for the people of Villaviciosa
it’s like having their own company, and
they see us at work through a big glass window,
as if they were watching a football game. They
know who we are, and that builds expectation and
interest.

You’ve only just
landed actually. Straight from Italy and a tour
of eight concerts in thirteen days.
Yes, it was a grueling tour: Parma, Catania, Trieste,
Roma… We also did a television show in honor
of the Roberto Valentino Prizes which are very
important in that country. Then we were at the
Festival de la Versiliana. We’re all very
pleased to be back.

You’ve long been
a much-admired star in Italy.
What happened was I started out with a bang in
Italy, and the momemtum just kept going.

“I’ve
only wanted to promote myself in the appropriate
place: on stage”

Why is it more difficult
here in Spain?
There are other parameters here. Nowadays fame
is a lottery. From one day to the next someone
appears on television and from that moment on,
that’s the person who sells the greatest
number of records. And maybe someone else who’s
still chipping away down at the salt mines so
to speak thinks, “how is it possible, if
I’ve done the same thing as him, and no
one even knows who I am?”. It makes for
a lot of frustration. It’s like a funnel,
at one end the opening is very wide, but then
you have to put up with a lot, and I’ve
never been willing to pass through that funnel.
I’ve always been very aware that in this
profession, aside from natural raw talent, you
have to make it with old-fashioned hard work.
Maybe I haven’t done enough self-promotion,
the thing is I’ve only wanted to promote
myself in the appropriate place: on stage.

So do you put more
stock in hard work than in luck?
Of course. I’ve never bought a lottery ticket
because I know I’m never going to win. I
know I can’t put my work aside to do other
things. As long as I’m active, I don’t
notice the years, but as soon as I stop, even
my tongue aches.

A question for Antonio
Márquez the man, not the dancer…what
troubles you most?
Injustice. I cannot tolerate it nor keep my peace.
My wife says, “but Antonio, why does it
always have to be you who speaks up, let someone
else do it!” And I tell her “no one
else is going to speak up!”

What do your children
represent for you?
Well, you go from always thinking about yourself,
to having to put your own priorities aside and
see things as reflected in your children. They
become the most important thing. You arrange your
life according to them.

Would you like to see
them follow in your footsteps?
One of them does seem to have artistic leanings.
I’m all for anything that makes them happy,
be it dance, or be it anything else. I would support
them all the way, but in the background, without
their knowing it, so they could pull themselves
up by the bootstraps if they stumbled, so they
could learn to have values. Nowadays things come
easier, and that leads to more disappointments
than happiness. But if any of them decides to
devote their life to this, at least they have
something very important: a company. Let’s
see if we can be as long-lasting as Cruzcampo,
a company that twenty years hence may boast: “founded
in nineteen ninety-five”.