José Antonio Ruiz

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José Antonio Ruiz de la Cruz (born April 16, 1951 in Madrid ), generally known as José Antonio as an artist , is a Spanish dancer and choreographer of Spanish dance and flamenco .

childhood

In his early childhood, his parents moved to South America. In São Paulo , Brazil, José Antonio learned his first dance steps from Enrique Albéniz, a Spaniard from Valencia who emigrated to South America . José Antonio made his first public appearance in Buenos Aires when he was barely eight .

There María Antinea became aware of him, a flamenco singer who was married to an impresario from the vaudeville scene. She hired him as an attraction for the show, where he was considered some kind of child prodigy . He also took dance lessons from Ángel and Luisa Pericet and the Russian ballerina Ekaterina Galanta , who was dancing at the Teatro Colón at the time . He got to know Carmen Amaya and lived for a while with her family and friends. His parents viewed the whole thing with skepticism; they feared a certain amount of exploitation that could harm their child's future artistic career. They decided to end the child prodigy episode, give him quality professional training instead, and traveled back to Madrid with him.

In Madrid he took lessons from Victoria Eugenia , Alberto Lorca , Héctor Zaraspe , José Granero , Karen Taft and Pedro Azorín . In 1964 he joined María Rosa's company . He was just 13 years old.

Early career

A year later he joined Antonio y sus Ballets de Madrid , continued to work on his dance training and performed in various large theaters. In 1967 he danced to the choreography of Antonio in the Teatro alla Scala in Milan to Fantasía galaica after Ernesto Halffter , and in the municipal theater of Bologna to Carmen . Together with his wife, the dancer Luisa Aranda , he founded the Siluetas company in 1972 . There he created his first own choreographies. In 1974 he choreographed Cancela by Fina de Calderón and the Paso a cuatro by Pablo Sorozábal . In the same year Antonio invited him to take part in the film La taberna del toro . José Antonio danced a farruca and some caracoles there . The film gives a good impression of his personal style with which he contributed to contemporary dance: the delicacy and elegance of his movements in connection with the authentic interpretation of flamenco.

Ballet Nacional de España and Ballet Español de Madrid

In 1978 he switched to the newly founded Ballet Nacional de España as a soloist . There he choreographed Candela by Fina de Calderon in 1980 .

In 1981 he received the call to join the GIAD group, which had formed around Antonio Gades , together with his wife Luisa Aranda . In October 1981 Antonio Gades left the group to form his own ensemble. Thereupon José Antonio was asked to take over the artistic direction. However, he asked José Granero to take on this role and in turn took on the role of artistic co-director. The group changed its name to Ballet Español de Madrid . For her he choreographed Variaciones flamencas as a personal homage to Carmen Mora and Félix Ordóñez , as well as Desenlace and El Amargo . Emilio de Diego composed the music for all three pieces . El Amargo is based on a text by Federico García Lorca . José Antonio danced the role of the horse Jinete .

In 1985 he returned to the Ballet Nacional de España as the first solo dancer and choreographer . In 1986 he was appointed its artistic director. He choreographed or staged:

  • Don Juan by José Nieto (1989);
  • Romance de Luna by José Nieto (1990);
  • La vida breve by Manuel de Falla (1992);
  • Albaicín by Isaac Albéniz (1992);
  • La gallarda by Rafael Alberti to music by Manolo Sanlúcar (1992).

In 1992 he quit his job with the Ballet Nacional .

Upheavals

After a year off, he founded his own company José Antonio y los Ballets Españoles in 1993 . She made her debut in January 1994 in Seville . The program consisted of Flamenco, Aires de villa y corte by José Nieto and Cachorro , which he had developed together with the dramaturge Salvador Távora . Cachorro , characterized by Távora as “a song against death and violence”, was about a Christ from Seville. The plot develops around a huge cross on the stage, which was erected at the end with Christ crucified. A year later he caused a sensation in the dance world with another daring performance. It consisted of two own choreographies, Elementos and Imágenes and the choreography Elegía a Ramón Sitgé by the two young choreographers Ángel Rojas and Carlos Rodriguez . Elementos was inspired by Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets . In it, José Antonio staged the destructive aspects of modern civilization. Imágenes , based on Tauromagia by Manolo Sanlúcar, developed a magnificent suite of different flamenco palos : Tangos , Bulerías , Soleá por bulerias and Alegrías .

The following other works were created at that time:

In 1994 his wife Luisa Aranda died.

At the Centro Andaluz de Danza

1997 was a key year in José Antonio's career. At the request of Francisco Nieva, he wrote a new version of Manuel de Falla's La vida breve for the reopening of the Teatro Real in Madrid. The Ministry of Education and Culture awarded him the Premio Nacional de Danza and the Culture Council of the Government of the Region of Andalusia appointed him Director of the Centro Andaluz de Danza . For this company he choreographed new variations of the Romera , in which a dance couple expresses different emotions about this dance. With Malunó he designed a virtuoso bulería for Aída Gómez . The name of the piece means lightning in the Kalé language; the music is based on the piece Retahíla by Chano Domínguez .

Vals patético , performed at the Festival de Música y Danza in Granada in 1998, describes the seduction of a man by an irresistibly attractive woman. Aída Gómez and José Antonio danced the roles of the seductress and the seduced to music by Enrique Morente , Leonard Cohen and Lito Vitale .

For Elegía-Homenaje a Antonio Ruiz Soler he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1999 at the Festival de Música y Danza in Granada. The piece consists of two parts: Ritmos by Joaquín Turina had never before been performed on stage in dance form. José Antonio let his entire ensemble dance. The second part consisted of some of the Danzas fantásticas , also by Joaquín Turina. Among other things, Javier Barón and Isabel Bayón embodied the then famous young dance couple Los chavallilos sevillanos .

In Golpes da la vida , performed in 1999, José Antonio dances the role of a discontented, discouraged man of advanced age who thinks his life is useless. The encounter with a young man, played by Rafael Campallo, arouses in him courage to live and new strength and allows him to muster the discipline to strive for perfection. Mariano Campallo and Paco Iglesias played the music .

He also performed Picasso: paisajes at the festival in Granada in 2001. He himself danced with the invited guest stars María Giménez and Cest Gelavaert . The piece consists of the parts Paisaje azul , Paisaje rosa and Paisaje nero , which represent different aspects in the life of the painter. Paisaje azul depicts the human emotions of love, tenderness, loneliness and sadness, which are conveyed through pictures from Picasso's blue phase . Paisaje rosa sparkles with acrobatics and extroverted joie de vivre. Finally, Paisaje nero describes the horror of the civil war .

In two other choreographies that year he dealt with the human soul. Sombra , a Seguiriya danced by Joaquín Grilo , tells of the tragic "shadow" that always accompanies human existence and that can become so overwhelmingly strong at an inopportune moment that it extinguishes life. Dicótomo with Alejandro Granados is about the inner conflict of feelings, which only comes to rest when the person dies. Only then will he achieve inner harmony.

La leyenda , performed in Salamanca in 2002, pays homage to Carmen Amaya. Two dancers represented different aspects of their personalities: Úrsula López showed the fragile human side as Ella mujer , Elena Algado as Ella immortal showed the radiant, strong artist. The music for La leyenda was composed by José Antonio Rodríguez and Juan Requena .

He also choreographed for the Centro Andaluz de Danza:

During those years he choreographed for other companies and occasions:

  • Bodas de Sangre for Maria Rosas Ballet Español (1998);
  • Carmen for the Ballet Nacional de España (1999);
  • A soleá por bulerías for the Jerez de la Frontera Festival (1999);
  • Blanco y negro for María Giménez, performed in Las Palmas (2000);
  • Recordando el flamenco for María Rosa's ballet (2000);
  • Dances to entre amigos for the Jerez de la Frontera Festival (2001);
  • Salomé for Aída Gómez (2001).

Moreover, he had in 1999 made an appearance in the film Goya by Carlos Saura . In the 2003 short film Ulises , a dance-musical short version of Homer's Odyssey , he danced the lead role under the direction of Dácil Pérez de Guzmán.

His last work for the Centro Andaluz de Danza was Café de Chinitas in 2004 , a full-length homage to Salvador Dalí on his 100th birthday. The complex symbolist stage work combines poems by Federico García Lorca with surrealist stage curtains based on Salvador Dalí, and thematizes homosexuality, frustration, incomprehension and death. José Antonio choreographed and stepped onto the scene himself with a boastful, grotesque travesty . Manuel Huerga wrote the stage story, Chano Domínguez composed the music, Esperanza Fernández sang and Lluis Danés directed the stage.

In 2004 he finished his work at Centro Andaluz de Danza and took over again the direction of the Ballet Nacional de España .

Work after 2004

For more of José Antonio's work at the Ballet Nacional see

In 2011 he handed over the management of the Ballet Nacional de España to his successor Antonio Najarro .

In January 2017, José Antonio, now 65 years old, could be seen on stage again in Murcia . He danced there to the singing of Miguel Ortega .

Artistic appreciation

The abundance and diversity of his creations alone prove the enormous creativity of José Antonio.

Outstanding in the world of Spanish dance are his pas de deux , especially those that are danced by two men. He showed his mastery in this both as a choreographer and as a dancer. This was evident, for example, in the duets he danced in 1977 with Roberto Maral or Antonio Alonso in Siluetas . Further examples are his joint dances with Curillo and Candy Román as well as the Soleá por bulerías, danced together with Javier Barón at the Festival Solo por arte 1998 at the festival in Seville. Among the pas de deux with a woman, the dances from Vals patético with Aída Gómez were particularly popular .

In 2004 José Antonio received the Medal of Honor from the Alicia Alonso Foundation and in 2005 the Gold Medal of Merit for Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III. Signatura Ediciones de Andalucía, Sevilla 2010, ISBN 978-84-96210-72-1 , p. 157 (Spanish).
  2. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 158 .
  3. ↑ a b José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 159 .
  4. ^ José Antonio Páramo: La taberna del toro. In: Internet Movie Database . October 29, 1975, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  5. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 159-160 .
  6. ↑ Sic; not to be confused with Cancela
  7. ↑ a b c José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 160 .
  8. ↑ Federico García Lorca: El Amargo. In: poetas andaluces, poesia andaluza, poetas de andalucia. Retrieved April 1, 2018 (Spanish).
  9. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 160-161 .
  10. ↑ "Un cante contra la muerte y la violencia"
  11. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 161-162 .
  12. ↑ a b c José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 162 .
  13. ^ Foundation
  14. ↑ Roger Salas: Luisa Aranda, bailarina . In: El País . June 14, 1994, ISSN  1134-6582 (Spanish, elpais.com [accessed April 1, 2018]).
  15. ^ Carmen Paris, Javier Bayo: Ruiz, José Antonio (1951-VVVV). In: MCNBiografias.com. Retrieved April 2, 2018 (Spanish).
  16. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 165 .
  17. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 162-163 .
  18. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 165-166 .
  19. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 163 .
  20. ↑ a b c José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 166 .
  21. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 163-164 .
  22. ↑ a b José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 164 .
  23. ↑ Julio Fraga, Dácil Perez de Guzman: Ulises. In: Internet Movie Database. Accessed April 6, 2018 .
  24. ↑ a b c José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 167 .
  25. ^ Tommaso Koch: Antonio Najarro dirigirá el Ballet Nacional de España . In: El País . April 11, 2011, ISSN  1134-6582 (Spanish, elpais.com [accessed April 6, 2018]).
  26. ^ Virginia Vadillo: José Antonio Ruiz vuelve a subir al escenario en la Cumbre Flamenca de Murcia . In: El País . January 16, 2017, ISSN  1134-6582 (Spanish, elpais.com [accessed April 6, 2018]).
  27. ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 165 .
personal data
SURNAME Ruiz, José Antonio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruiz de la Cruz, José Antonio (full name); Antonio, José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish dancer and choreographer of Spanish dance and flamenco
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Madrid