Antonio Ruiz Soler

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Antonio Ruiz Soler (born November 4, 1921 in Seville , † February 5, 1996 in Madrid ) was a Spanish dancer and choreographer of Spanish dance and especially of flamenco . Most of the time he was only called with his stage name Antonio , often also Antonio el Bailarín .

childhood

Antonio, born in simple circumstances, began to dance at an early age. At the age of 4, he made some change by dancing to the sounds of an adult acquaintance's barrel organ in the street. At the age of 6 he met Rosario, who was three years older than him, in the dance school and began to dance with her. It was the beginning of a glamorous international career for a dance couple.

Rosario and Antonio

The two quickly became known around the city through stage appearances in Seville. This was followed by regional and national appearances in Spain and other European countries, and acceptance into renowned dance companies . When the Spanish civil war broke out in 1936 , the two young people, accompanied by Rosario's mother, used a tour of France to flee. They reached South America via Marseille, where they made a name for themselves first in Buenos Aires and then on tour in the major cities of Latin America. In 1940 they followed an engagement in New York. Through further appearances in New York and other cities in the United States, as well as through several Hollywood film productions, they achieved world fame. In 1949 they returned to Spain. Acclaimed appearances in Spain, Europe, North Africa and Israel followed.

For their dance skills they have twice been awarded the gold medal of the Círculo de Bellas Artes .

In late 1952, Rosario and Antonio ended their dance partnership due to artistic differences and personal falling out. For a detailed description of their joint careers see

El Ballet Español

During one of the last joint appearances with Rosario, Léonide Massine spoke to him in Milan : Would Antonio be interested in dancing the role of the miller in Manuel de Falla's Sombrero de tres picos at La Scala ? The offer was also made to Rosario, but Antonio refused to work with her any further. Instead, Mariemma danced at Antonio's side. During the season, Antonio expanded the Scala ballet program with Capricho español , another choreography by Léonide Massine. It was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the two dance artists.

Back in Madrid, Antonio set about founding his own company . He engaged Rosita Segovia and Carmen Rojas, who was only 18 years old . The premiere took place in June 1953 at the Festival Internacional de Musica y Danza in Granada . The program of his Ballet Español included choreographies on:

It was a triumphant success. He then toured with this program to Madrid, Spain and Paris.

He had other stage appearances with his company in the early 1950s with the following pieces:

1956 followed

Two years later he presented his own version of Manuel de Falla's Sombrero de tres picos . In 1960 the pieces Jugando al toro by Ernesto Halffter and Eterna Castilla by Manuel Moreno-Buendía followed .

In addition, he appeared in the following films at that time:

  • 1953 in Nuits andalouses ;
  • 1954 in Todo es posible en Granada and in Carrusel napolitano , where he performed again with Léonide Massine.
  • 1958 followed a role in Pan, amor y Andalucía
  • and in 1959 in Luna de miel , the film depiction of a tourist trip from A Coruña to Granada. There he and his company are represented with a series of dances. Among other things, a curious version of the Zapateado by Pablo de Sarasate can be seen, a Taranto danced with Carmen Rojas , the ballet Los amantes de Teruel based on music by Mikis Theodorakis with a classical choreography by Léonide Massine and Antonio's own interpretation of El amor brujo .

Documentaries followed in the 1960s

His stage performances in the early 1960s received international awards: in 1962 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Academy of Dance , in 1963 the first prize of the French Académie Internationale de la Danse and in 1964 the gold medal of the Royal Swedish Dance Academy. Above all, however, a dream came true for him in 1964: artistic recognition in Russia, the country he considered the Olympus of classical ballet. A tour with performances in Leningrad , Kiev and Moscow delighted audiences and critics. Igor Moissejew called him the "Paganini of dance".

In those years there were also repeated appearances of Rosario as Artista invitada in Antonio's company. Although the audience celebrated the two frenetically when they performed together in Madrid in October 1962, these interludes did not last. Old tensions broke out again, there was an argument about the amount of the fees and the form of the performances. The performances in New York, London, Moscow and Latin America in 1968 were definitely the last joint.

Antonio y sus Ballets de Madrid

In 1965 Antonio changed the name of his company; he now called her Antonio y sus Ballets de Madrid . He staged Concierto andaluz based on Joaquín Rodrigo and appeared at festivals organized by the Ministry of Information and Tourism in Spain. In 1966 he was awarded the gold medal of the Moscow Dance School and the Premio Nacional de Flamenco of the Cátedra de Flamencología of Jerez . A year later he received the gold medal of La Scala in Milan. In Venice he won the Premio Europeo de Danza . One participant in this competition was Rudolf Nureyev . Antonio gained the upper hand against him on points.

In 1968 he dissolved his company. He concluded the decade with a film role: In La ley de una raza he dances some tangos with La Chunga and some expressive tonás as a solo dancer .

The 1970s

In 1970 the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid paid a great tribute to Isaac Albéniz and Manuel de Falla. Antonio's contribution consisted of the first dance and the danza gitana from de Fallas La vida breve as well as the three pieces Cubana , Córdoba and Torre Bermeja by Albéniz.

From 1972 to 1974 he created a trilogy of outdoor productions on behalf of Spanish television. It consists of Sombrero de tres picos and El amor brujo based on Manuel de Falla, as well as the flamenco suite La Taberna del Toro .

The flamencologist José Luis Navarro García sees Antonio in Sombrero de tres picos at the peak of his choreographic creativity. The piece shows with outstanding precision and brilliance the wit, irony and cheerful play of de Falla's original. He leads all movements of his dance company with confidence and ingenuity. His own dancing brilliance is particularly evident in a farruca ; his interpretation of this palos is one of the happiest and most imaginative of all time. The recordings, directed by Valerio Lazarov, took place in Arcos de la Frontera . The first dancers to take part were Lola Ávila , Rosa Lugo , Carlos Calvo and Ricardo Villa .

While working on the set, Antonio was charged with controversial public blasphemy and sentenced to two months in prison, of which he was sentenced to 18 days in Arcos de la Frontera prison.

El amor brujo from 1973 is somewhat more complete than the version that he had shown in the film Luna de miel in 1959 , but otherwise differs little from it. Directed by Petr Weigl ; The main dancers are Mariana Recueto , Carlos Fernández , Rosa Lugo and Pastora Ruiz .

La taberna del toro was recorded in the streets of Ronda in 1974, directed by José Antonio Páramo . Carmen Rojas shows a taranto and a dance to the folk song Los cuatro muleros . Then she and Antonio unite with three other dance couples to form some outstanding caracoles . Antonio dances a characteristic caña to the singing of Chano Lobato and to the guitar of Manuel Morao . Antonio captivates with the plasticity of his movements, the mastery with which he uses hat and cape, and, as in all his dances, with his foot techniques and his snapping of his fingers. The film ends with a few fandangos , danced by the entire ensemble.

In 1978, at the age of 57, Antonio decided to say goodbye to the stage. For his farewell tour he created an anthology of flamenco dances entitled Antonio y su Teatro Flamenco . He danced the Mirabrás , the Martinete that Caña, Bulerías , tangos from Málaga to texts from Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías by Federico García Lorca. He toured with it to Seville, Córdoba , Málaga , Cádiz , Montecarlo and Japan. In 1979 he said goodbye to his audience in Sapporo with a final performance.

At the same time he began to work as a choreographer for the newly founded Ballet Nacional de España . He initially assisted its artistic director Antonio Gades in the choreography Fantasía galaica based on Ernesto Halffter.

The late years

In March 1980 he finally became artistic director of the Ballet Nacional de España himself . The multitude of choreographies that he created in this role testify to his devotional work:

  • 1980 Flamenco , Estampas flamencas , Puerta de Tierra , Asturias , El Corpus en Sevilla , Eritaña , Almería and Preludio after Isaac Albéniz, also Danza gitana after Manuel de Falla, Zapateado after Pablo Sarasate, La casada infiel after Emilio de Diego and Allegro de Concierto to Enrique Granados.
  • In 1982 he brought El sombrero de tres picos and El amor brujo by Manuel de Falla to the stage as well as Las Sonatas by Padre Soler .
  • In 1983 he staged Farruca and Tanguillos de Cádiz , based on folk melodies.

He entrusted a number of other pieces to other choreographers and dancers, including Rafael Aguilar , Manuela Vargas , Luisillo , Pedro Azorín and Pedro Romero . However, his employment relationship ended in strife: Antonio was accused of repeated indiscipline and his contract was terminated in 1983. He took legal action against it and was right six years later.

He could no longer perform the last two works that he had prepared for the Ballet Nacional . In 1987 he created El Rocío for María Rosa . The play was performed at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid. In 1988 he tried a comeback as a dancer. For the projects that he had planned, however, there were not enough donors so that they were not performed. In those years Antonio suffered a lot from the lack of interest in his dance, although he was honored with awards like hardly any other Spanish dance artist:

  • In 1983 he became Hijo Predilecto of the City of Seville.
  • In 1988 an exhibition was held in his honor at the Seville Biennale, with paintings, portraits, sets and clothing.
  • In 1989 the Premio Antonio for the “most perfect dancer” was established.
  • In 1992 he received the gold medal in fine arts.
  • In 1993, in the presence of Queen Sophia, he was honored with the Medal of Merit for Art of the City of Madrid and the Silver Giraldillo of the City of Seville.

For the last three years of his life he suffered from paralysis in his left arm and leg. He died on February 5, 1996 of a cerebral vein thrombosis .

Artistic appreciation

Antonio had an artistic horizon that extended far beyond the limits of flamenco. He was a great friend of Léonide Massine, whose work he admired, and also appreciated the choreographies of George Balanchine and Sergei Mikhailovich Lifar . He enriched Spanish dance as a dancer and choreographer and gave it a greatness like no other artist. His agility, agility and creativity enabled him to dance figures that had never been shown before, at an enormous speed and with the highest precision. Above all, however, he was characterized by his passionate perfectionism. Both in his own dances and as a choreographer, he rehearsed and improved every scene and every detail to perfection.

Ernesto Halffter characterized him as follows:

"Posee una extraordinaria imaginación creadora, lo que le lleva a realizaciones de altísima categoría artística ya montajes que sorprenden por su originalidad, buen gusto, y fidelidad de las obras que interpreta."

"He has an extraordinary creative imagination, which enables him to perform in the highest artistic class and for productions that amaze with their originality, good taste and loyalty to the works being interpreted."

- Ernesto Halffter

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II.Signatura Ediciones de Andalucía, Sevilla 2010, ISBN 978-84-96210-71-4 , pp. 217 .
  2. ↑ a b Amelia Castilla: Muere 'el gran Antonio' . In: El País . February 6, 1996, ISSN  1134-6582 (Spanish, elpais.com [accessed February 8, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Antonio el Bailarín. Dance, flamenco. In: España es Cultura Spain is Culture. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  4. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 218 .
  5. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 218-231 .
  6. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 231, 234 .
  7. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 235 .
  8. ↑ a b José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 239 .
  9. ↑ Carmen Rojas. In: El arte de vivir el flamenco. Retrieved March 18, 2018 (Spanish).
  10. ↑ a b c d e f José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 240 .
  11. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 242 .
  12. ^ Nuits andalouses (1954). Full cast & crew. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Todo es posible en Granada (1954). Full cast & crew. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  14. ^ Neapolitan Carousel (1954). Full cast & crew. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  15. ^ Bread, Love and Andalucia (1958). Full cast & crew. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  16. ^ Honeymoon (1959). Full cast & crew. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  17. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 241 .
  18. ↑ a b José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 244 .
  19. ^ Antonio en la cueva de Nerja. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  20. ^ Sinfonia española. In: Internet Movie Database. March 24, 1965, accessed March 18, 2018 .
  21. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 242-243 .
  22. ↑ a b José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 245 .
  23. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 243 .
  24. ↑ José Luis Gonzalvo: La Ley de una raza. In: Internet Movie Database. April 22, 1970, accessed March 18, 2018 .
  25. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 246-247 .
  26. ↑ a b c José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 247 .
  27. ↑ Más que Danza (uploader): Antonio en “El sombrero de tres picos” 1972. Documentation of the television production. (No longer available online.) In: Vimeo . Formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 19, 2018 (Spanish).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / vimeo.com  
  28. ↑ JOHANNQUETEBEO (uploader): El amor brujo. Manuel de Falla / Antonio. In: Youtube . July 21, 2016, accessed March 19, 2018 .
  29. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 248 .
  30. ^ José Antonio Páramo: La taberna del toro. In: Internet Movie Database. October 29, 1975, accessed March 19, 2018 .
  31. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 248-249 .
  32. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 249-250 .
  33. ↑ a b c José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 251 .
  34. ↑ «reiteradas faltas des disciplina»
  35. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 252 .
  36. ↑ comparable to honorary citizenship
  37. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 253 .
  38. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 254-255 .
  39. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume II, 2010, p. 255 .
personal data
SURNAME Ruiz Soler, Antonio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Antonio; Antonio el Bailarín
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish dancer and choreographer
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Seville
DATE OF DEATH 5th February 1996
Place of death Madrid