La Argentina

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La Argentina , actually Antonia Rosa Mercé y Luque (born September 4, 1888 in Buenos Aires , Argentina , † July 18, 1936 in Bayonne , France), was a Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer of Argentine origin.

La Argentina (1930)

Life

Antonia Mercé was the only child of the Spanish couple Josefa Luque and Manuel Mercé. Her Argentine origins inspired her later stage name. Just two years after she was born, her parents, both professional dancers, moved back to Madrid. Her father taught her ballet and classical dance at the Teatro Real . At the age of nine she was a prima ballerina at the Madrid Opera. When she was thirteen, her father died. She gave up ballet and took Spanish dance lessons from her mother. Appearances in variety shows and music halls followed quickly . In 1905 she danced in the Teatro Ateneo and five years later in the operetta L'Amour en Espagne at the Moulin Rouge in Paris .

In 1912 she danced in La Rose de Grenade at the Olympia in Paris . From 1912 she toured among others through Germany, Belgium and England. Their tour of Russia was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. In 1915 she choreographed the dances for Manuel de Fallas El amor brujo . In the same year she began a tour of South America. In New York she danced in the piece Goyescas at the invitation of the composer Enrique Granados . Until the end of the world war she made several guest appearances in Mexico and then returned to Paris. La Argentina works u. a. with the composers Isaac Albéniz and Maurice Ravel .

Between 1926 and 1936 there were many appearances and tours that took her to the Philippines . In 1928 she founded her own dance company and in 1930 she was awarded the French Legion of Honor. On the day the Spanish Civil War broke out , La Argentina died of a heart attack.

In 1977 the Japanese Butoh dancer Kazuo Ono remembered the legendary dancer with the dance Admiring La Argentina . To this day she is considered to be the innovator of Spanish ballet.

The artistic estate of La Argentina is in the Fundación Juan March in Madrid. In Germany there is a collection on her in the German Dance Archive in Cologne .

literature

  • Suzanne F. Cordelier: La vie brève de la Argentina. Paris 1936
  • Monique Paravicini (Ed.): Argentina. Gilberte Cournand, Paris 1956
  • Argentina . Bienal de Arte Flamenco (V el Baile). Seville 1988
  • Ministerio de Cultura (ed.): Homenaje en su Centenario 1890-1990 Antonia Mercé 'La Argentina' . Madrid 1990
  • Suzanne de Soye: Toi qui dansais, (you danced and danced) Argentina . Paris 1993
  • Carlos Manso: La Argentina, for Antonia Mercé. Buenos Aires 1993
  • Ria Schneider (Ed.): Argentina. Antonia Mercé. Castanets pieces, created 1912-1936. IGkK, Cologne 1993
  • Brygida M. Ochaim, Claudia Balk: Variety dancers around 1900. From sensual intoxication to modern dance, exhibition by the German Theater Museum in Munich, October 23, 1998– January 17, 1999. , Stroemfeld, Frankfurt / M. 1998, pp. 118f., ISBN 3-87877-745-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II.Signatura Ediciones de Andalucía, Sevilla 2010, ISBN 978-84-96210-71-4 , pp. 57 .
  2. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, p. 90 .
personal data
SURNAME Argentina, La
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mercé, Antonia; Mercé y Luque, Antonia Rosa; Luque, Antonia Rosa Mercé y
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Buenos Aires , Argentina
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 1936
Place of death Bayonne