From April 22nd to May 8th, Spain’s National
Ballet is officially presenting the results of nearly one
year’s work under the direction of choreographer José
Antonio. A veteran insider of the publicly funded company
since its inception, and one-time director, José Antonio
is offering two programs at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela.
The first (from April 22nd to 30th ) includes “Aires
de Villa y Corte” (a recreation of the Spanish ‘escuela
bolera’) and “Leyenda” (José Antonio’s
tribute to Carmen Amaya). The second is “El Loco”
(from May 4th to 8th), a production inherited from the previous
administration. José Antonio here speaks about this
double bill for Deflamenco.com.
Tell me about “Aires de Villa
y Corte”
This is a work which premiered in ’94 with my company.
It was commissioned by Pepe Nieto almost the last year I was
with the Ballet Nacional [José Antonio is talking about
the early years, from 1986 to 1992], but I decided there wasn’t
time to mount it, so we didn’t do it and the work was
suspended, just like that. When I made my company I included
it in the repertoire.
It’s
a tour of 18th-century Madrid with scenes of palaces, a gala
dinner where a fine lady is courted, pastoral scenes where
the seguidilla castellana is danced. It’s all held together
loosely by a single thread, but there’s no story, and
it’s presented in five movements. The music is very
colorful and the sounds are of Goya, and yet it’s fresh
and modern, with excellent percussion, exquisite, José
Nieto’s characteristic work. In this case it’s
interpreted by all the dancers of the Ballet Nacional, and
the main cast alternates.
It’s a piece I was anxious to include because there’s
always a vacuum regarding the bolero school of dance, and
here we’ve devoted a great deal of time and effort in
the preparation to make it as clean as possible in the technical
and stylistic sense. I’m very proud, and furthermore,
we have the fabulous musical direction of José de Eusebio
(with a live orchestra), and musicians from the Comunidad
de Madrid and the Orquesta Grandío who play the lute
and the bandurria. It’s an elegant work… One which,
although based on the bolero school, is up-to-date and employs
a contemporary vocabulary without losing sight of the style.
There’s also extraordinary quality in the visuals…a
wardrobe created by Ivonne Blake, a person who is surprisingly
creative and knows a great deal about dance. We’ve always
had top-notch collaborators, and in this case we had to rethink
what was done years ago in order to restructure it, while
maintaining the essence and enhancing it, making a more colorful
wardrobe. We also had the lighting design of Nicolás
Fischtel, who did the first version, and now the adaptation.
“We dancers have been living
in our glass bubble thinking we deserve an obedient public”
You get the feeling that the challenge
was respecting the escuela bolera, but with an eye to the
twenty-first century.
Quote, unquote, because what you can’t do is create
a hybrid. You have to rigorously maintain the vocabulary,
but without a doubt, dance has evolved in every way, for the
better and for the worse, but technically the level is much
higher. But don’t think that the advanced technique
makes interpreting escuela bolera any easier, because it’s
really complicated. We saw it as we worked: the interpretation
is very difficult, the style and the technique. It’s
a different attitude. And, well, I think all art, as long
as it’s alive, is evolving and becoming richer, but
you have to do it with a great deal of tender loving care
so as not to destroy it.
“Leyenda” is a tribute to
Carmen Amaya… But not in the usual sense, you weren’t
going for the typical clichés. Carmen Amaya comes out
of a set of dualities. And the choreography is yours. How
much of you is in there?
There’s a lot of myself in all my work, because they’re
my babies, for better or for worse. It’s a responsibility
I totally accept, and furthermore, I think in all fairness,
the audience needs to know this. When I decided to do a tribute
to Carmen Amaya, it wasn’t for any particular reason
– it was just a story I had there inside my head for
many years, and it was feeling like I was never going to be
able to make it a reality. The chance came up and I made a
sort of choreographic script to put the scenes in order.
Like you say, I didn’t want to use obvious Carmen references,
I wasn’t telling her life story and didn’t want
to delve into the easily available material. So I let myself
be carried away by images I had in my memory, impressions
from having seen that unique being, that magnificent person,
with so much energy and vigour, so much natural talent, not
sophisticated at all. And that allowed me to approach her
from a different angle so to speak. She was such a strong
person, so much power, I thought that if that responsibility
were to fall upon a single person it could work against, rather
than for, the story.
And so I hit upon this solution which has enabled me to create
a choreography which is worthwhile and is also very complex:
the dichotomy of the character, the physical or carnal being,
and the spiritual person, the memory, the art. The body disappears,
but not the work and the worth in the memory of all people.
Once I got a simple script (because dance scripts have to
be fairly simple in order to be understood) I spoke to José
Antonio Rodríguez and proposed this work, which he
took to immediately. He’s made a simply beautiful composition,
completely flamenco, no flash, but lots of feeling.
There are two ‘incursions’ in the work, rondeña
and alegrías, created by Juan Requena, another guitarist.
When we premiered, the music was pre-recorded except for those
two live moments. There’s an adaptation of Marinelli
from “El Embrujo del Fandango” which sounds like
an old gramola, like an echo of memory. And this time it’s
more noteworthy because at the Teatro de la Zarzuela all the
music is live. José Antonio Rodríguez plays
with his whole group which includes Rafael de Utrera.
As far as the principal character, Ursula López has
the biggest responsibility in the role of Carmen Amaya the
person, and in the role of Carmen Amaya the legend, Elena
Algado. Miguel Ángel Corbacho dances the “Three-man
soleá” with Pol Vaquero and Francisco Velasco.
The main parts in the work are people I’ve invited and
who are currently first dancers of the Ballet Nacional.
“Things done before are
constantly being repeated, and they’re not being improved,
simply cosmetically altered”
The second program of the Ballet Nacional
at the Teatro de la Zarzuela is “El Loco”, which
already debuted at the Teatro Real.
Yes,
it’s based on the life of Félix Fernández
who was from Seville. The Ballets Russes of Diaghilev took
him to London to create “The Three-Cornered Hat”,
to derive inspiration from his steps, the way of dancing,
and create the first important work of Spanish dance you might
say. De Falla was there (he was fundamental for this work),
and Pablo Picasso. He was a person with no direction, they
took advantage of him and he lost his mind. After many years
he died in an insane asylum in Great Britain.
The idea for the libretto is from Francisco López.
The music is by Mauricio Sotelo who includes passages from
de Falla’s “The Three-Cornered Hat”, and
Javier Latorre choreographed. It’s really a beautiful
work, a very high level. The wardrobe and sets are by Jesús
Ruíz, beautiful, and the lighting is by Nicolás
Fischtel. The entire second program is devoted to this work
“El Loco”.
What does José Antonio give to
“El Loco”? Where are you fingerprints?
I’ve worked to make it all happen and come out the
way it was designed in the first place, and according to the
creative needs. This was commissioned by the previous director
Elvira Andrés, and it came to me already underway.
I’ve respected the authors and made it easy for them
to present the work on the required level, and then, it just
so happens this is a character I interpreted twenty-one years
ago with Carla Fracci on Swiss television, on a program called
Bailarinas. And now I return to the Ballet Nacional with the
same character, whom of course I don’t interpret, it’s
Cristian Lozano. The director is there to support whatever
is worthwhile.
“I like being an apprentice
maestro”
Your background with the Ballet Nacional
is a round-trip story. You’ve done everything possible
in this place, it must be like home.
I was in from the very beginning, with Gades, when it was
just getting started. When María de Ávila came
in she had me as first dancer and choreographer. Then came
the period of sub-director and then I was named director,
which was the longest stint in the history of the Ballet.
I was director for six years and left voluntarily to make
my own company. Then I was in Andalucía seven years
directing the Centro Andaluz de Danza and the Compañía
Andaluza. And the surprise was, the petition to resume as
head of the Ballet Nacional came directly from the Minister,
which made me very happy because twelve years had passed and
my vision and criteria have grown, above all with regard to
how I now want to direct the company, the objectives we have
to pursue and the premise, in order to achieve the Ballet
Nacional we all dream of.
You talk about the company’s objectives.
There are those who would summon the big names of Spanish
dance for the Ballet Nacional… There are also some who argue
that the Ballet Nacional must be the best dance academy precisely
in order to form great artists. Where does José Antonio
stand on that?
Well, the precedent has been set. I think it’s always
important to have guest artists whenever necessary, because
that gives the Ballet a great deal of prestige and also enriches
the dancers. I used to hear that in the old days, that there
had to be big names. I’m more concerned about forming
stars from within. The proof is in that today’s stars
are mostly people who came out of that era. So you have to
know how to channel and enhance people who may not be known
today, but who might have an important career in the future.
And you have to believe in those people.
“I’m more concerned
about forming stars from within”
Outside of Spain, the Ballet Nacional
is considered a very prestigious institution and there’s
no end to the successes…but you get the impression that
here within Spain, in general, people don’t appreciate
the importance it has…and it’s even treated shabbily.
I think we’ve run the gamut in the different stages.
Certainly you can’t enter into arguments about people’s
likes and dislikes. A director has to have criteria, and some
will like it and some won’t. What I shall never betray
is my sense of responsibility. Certainly this is a public
company and in many ways I’m answerable to all the taxpayers.
But if I’m here, it’s because they value my experience,
my prestige and my way of doing things. So I’m not going
to try to be someone I’m not; I work the way I see fit
in order to enrich and enhance. I don’t worry much about
it really. Possibly I used to worry about having to reach
a great deal of people, that everyone ought to appreciate
what is appreciated abroad, that was with the first company
that premiered in New York’s Metropolitan. Many important
things were achieved, and here they were only appreciated
in a very limited way. My aim is that Spain should also be
proud of its Ballet Nacional, but we can’t stay here
all the time, nor be abroad all the time. You have to win
audiences over, and it’s done with hard work. There
was a brilliant era, so why can’t we repeat and even
improve on that?
You’ve been at this for almost a
year now, how’s your morale?
In high gear. I’m totally enthused. I don’t do
things unless I’m enthusiastic about them, and this
is a work that needs to go even higher, because it isn’t
just the ballet itself, but rather a calling, and you have
to keep an equilibrium between professionalism and ideals.
You have to be able to work hard – something I’m
good at – have some knowledge, which I think I also
have. So I’m thoroughly excited, and above all, I want
this to be a shared experience, a piece of work we all make
happen, because every individual who forms a part of the Ballet
Nacional is important in this company.
“I want this to be a shared
experience”
You can be sure there is no one in this
country who’s never been to the cinema. And yet, the
same cannot be said of the theater for example, and much less
the world of dance. Is there a lack of dance culture in Spain?
Yes. A few years ago there was more interest. Today you have
a few diehards who go to see certain stars, but there isn’t
a real base. On the other hand, this is an important moment:
there are more people studying flamenco and classical dance,
and more men than a few years ago when you saw no men in the
dance schools. But there’s a lack of institutional support
to create a following, starting in primary school. And then
too, perhaps we dancers have been living in our glass bubble
thinking we deserve an obedient public and they just have
to come and see us, so there hasn’t really been any
attempt at closing the gap.
If on the one hand people don’t come to see us, we
should make an effort to pull in those followers who are always
going to come to our presentations. The followers are a very
limited group, few and far between, but those aren’t
the ones who really maintain an artist’s career. The
real fan is someone who’s well-informed about everything
that’s being done these days. On the other hand, the
ardent follower only follows a certain part of the profession.
Is today’s dance fickle in that
there’s a concern with passing fads?
I don’t think you can say technological advances have
been a hindrance or anything negative, but what is a historical
certainty is that there are wonderful discoveries and human
beings are altered, and it’s exactly the same thing
with this. A living art must evolve constantly, absorbing
and enriching itself from its surroundings and from other
cultures, trying to maintain the roots, trying to keep our
own personality, but not just as a way of demonstrating how
modern, advanced or ingenious we are. You can tell how things
done before are constantly being repeated, and they’re
not being improved, simply cosmetically altered. What needs
to be done is we must leave aside the variety and get to work
on something more honest.
I don’t think anything should be immobile, because
then we’d all perish from lack of nourishment and the
art would be maintained like a museum piece that you only
see when you come to this place: very pretty, but inanimate.
So it must be open. But of course, in order to evolve you
have to have a good foundation, a good cultural base, know
where you’re coming from and know your cultural family
tree. You can do something novel, but it’s pure intuition
and because it can happen once, but never again. That’s
why you can’t sit around waiting for God to make things
happen: you have to depend on hard work and recognition.
Some of your disciples claim that with
Gades gone, José Antonio is the last maestro.
I hope that isn’t so, that I’m not the last.
Gades refused to be defined as a maestro, but I think it was
an excess of humility or he was too demanding of himself:
he was a maestro. And myself, in another dimension, on another
scale, I realize I am also a maestro, in my own way, because
the maestros I’ve had the opportunity to learn from
and the artists I’ve worked with have given me a great
deal. But I like being an apprentice maestro, one who is still
learning and above all, learning from the people I teach.
It’s an extraordinary experience. I set a choreography
for the first time and discover many things, they make me
learn, they teach me. Perhaps the people don’t realize
it themselves, but I do and I value it.
And that’s why I accept that responsibility, but as
an exchange: I love transmitting what little or however much
I know, but I love to keep on learning. When you learn spontaneously
from someone who doesn’t realize what he or she is showing
you, it’s very fresh and makes an impression. In any
case, I just hope I’m not the last maestro. I hope there
will be many, and very good ones. In actual fact there are
some very talented people, perhaps more talented than me,
but it’s also true that on my part, it’s been
a lifetime of dedication, and in some way that’s what
makes a maestro, a word for which I have great respect.
Photos: balletnacional.mcu.es
Teatro de la Zarzuela (Madrid)
April
22th to 30th: 'Aires de Villa y Corte' & 'La leyenda'
