Mariemma
Mariemma , actually Guillermina Martínez Cabrejas (born January 10, 1917 in Íscar , province of Valladolid , † June 10, 2008 in Madrid ), was a Spanish ballet and flamenco dancer. Among other things, she was prima ballerina at La Scala in Milan and at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma .
Life
Childhood and youth
When Mariemma was two years old, the family moved from the Castilian provincial town of Íscar to Paris. There she spent her childhood and youth. She learned her first dance steps from her mother. This taught Mariemma the fandango , the iota and the sevillana . In the ballet school of the Théâtre du Châtelet she received lessons from Natalia Goncharova. Franscisco Miralles Arnau and Juan Martínez introduced Mariemma to the Escuela bolera . La Chocolatera, Amalio Cuenca and El Estampío taught them the basics of contemporary dance. She saw performances by Carmen Amaya , Goya Herrero , La Argentina , Vicente Escudero , La Argentinita and Pilar López . At the age of 12 she made her first appearance at the Olympia .
Return to Spain, a world tour, and La Scala in Milan
In 1940 the family moved back to Spain. In March Mariemma made her debut at the Teatro Español in Madrid. The critics wrote enthusiastically about the newcomer and compared them to La Argentina, who had died a few years earlier . After the Spanish Civil War , most of the leading figures in flamenco sought a living in the USA. In that desolate post-war period, Mariemma dominated the Spanish scene.
After the Second World War , she also went on tour. From 1947 to 1950 she traveled through Europe, Latin America, the USA and Canada. In 1948 she danced in El amor brujo by Manuel de Falla at the Paris Opéra-Comique .
In 1952 she danced in the leading female role of the miller's wife in the Sombrero de tres picos by Manuel de Falla. The production at Milan's Teatro alla Scala was originally a joint project by Rosario and Antonio with Léonide Massine . Antonio had fallen out with his long-time partner Rosario , and so Mariemma stepped in as prima ballerina and partner of Antonio. The performance was a great success. Massine then expanded the production with a choreography of Capriccio espagnol by Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow . A year later, Mariemma danced the same program at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma with Massine herself as a partner.
In 1954 she began teaching Spanish dance at the Teatro alla Scala. At the invitation of the theater, she also created some choreographies for its ballet company .
The later years
In 1955 Mariemma founded her own company Mariemma Ballet de España . The ensemble has performed at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid and at major festivals in Spain. It toured Japan and represented Spain at the 1957 international exhibition in Bangkok . In the 1950s, however, a number of outstanding companies competed for the favor of the audience, namely those of Carmen Amaya , José Greco , Antonio, Rosario, Pilar López, Roberto Ximénez and Manolo Vargas . In this tough competition, Mariemma and her ensemble ran into financial difficulties. So she decided in 1958 to disband her company.
Instead, she accepted an offer from the Marquis de Cuevas to appear as a guest star in his Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas . She also danced at the 1958 Festival of Santander and directed the ballet at the Teatro de la Zarzuela.
In 1960, with the support of the Provincial Savings Bank there, she founded a dance school at the Teatro Calderón in Valladolid . In the same year she made a second attempt with her own company, with the same artistic models, but with a smaller ensemble: a Compañía de cámara . In 1961 she showed a stylistically broad selection of Spanish dances in a Spanish television series. With her Compañía de cámara , she performed at the Teatro María Guerrero in Madrid in 1962. From 1963 to 1968 she toured Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, the USA and Japan with the Compañía de cámara . She also danced at the 1964 international exhibition in New York. In 1966 and 1967 she danced at the Salzburg Festival in Carmen under the direction of Herbert von Karajan .
In 1969 she was appointed professor of dance at the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático y Danza in Madrid . There she introduced the division into the departments of Escuela Bolera , Folclore , Flamenco and Danza Estilizada, which is still valid today .
In the 1970s she continued to take part in the major flamenco festivals in Spain, as well as in other major musical events in Spain:
- 1970 at the Decena Musical of Seville,
- 1971 at the Semana Musical of Salamanca ,
- 1975 at the Qincena Musical in Seville,
- 1976 at the International Festival of Granada . On the occasion of Manuel de Falla's 100th birthday, she performed her versions of El amor brujo and El sombrero de tres picos , as well as the dances from La vida breve .
Internationally, she performed in Cannes and Damascus in the 1970s, and at the Edinburgh Festival in 1977 and 1978 . In 1979 she choreographed Díez melodías vascas and Fandango for the Ballet Nacional de España .
In 1980 she gave up her position at Real Escuela . Nevertheless, she continued her work as a teacher. In the 1980s this gradually gained the upper hand through its use in dance on stage. In 1981 she gave a course on Spanish dance at the Genoa Opera . In 1983 she chaired a conference on the four forms of Spanish dance at the Sorbonne in Paris and several conferences at George Washington University and the Casa de España in New York . In 1992 she gave a master class at the Encuentro Internacional de la Escuela Bolera in Madrid. In 1994 she taught at the Complutense University of Madrid summer courses .
She performed with her company at the Opéra-Comique in 1980 and 1981. In 1984 she created the choreography for Danza y tronío for the Ballet Nacional de España to the music of Antonio Soler , Antón García Abril and Luigi Boccherini . It became one of the national ballet's show pieces. In 1990 the Spanish Ministerio de Cultura commissioned her with the choreography for the homage for the 100th birthday of La Argentinita.
In 1997 she published her book Mis caminos a través de la Danza , which contains an autobiography as well as a treatise on Spanish dance. A film with the same title, in which she was recognized posthumously, was released in 2010. Montserrat Roig de Puig played Mariemma in it. Among others, Antonio Canales , Lola Greco , Aída Gómez and the critic Roger Salas appeared in the film as themselves.
Mariemma died on June 10th, 2008 in her apartment in Madrid. Her remains were buried in the cemetery of the Catedral de la Almudena .
reception
Shortly before Mariemma, Pilar López and José Granero also died. Her great colleague Aída Gómez, the former director of the national ballet, said that with these three personalities, "the backbone of Spanish dance" had been lost. The Catalan critic Sebastián Gasch wrote of them:
«Mariemma es incontestablemente la mejor coreógrafa española si, a las exigencias arquitectónicas, decorativas y musicales de la palabra“ coreógrafo ”, asociamos el arte de traducir una idea o un sentimiento con la ayuda de la geometría móvil de un balletamismo”.
"Mariemma is undeniably the best Spanish choreographer if we combine the architectural, decorative and musical requirements of the term 'choreographer' with the art of translating an idea or a feeling into the geometry of movement and the dynamics of a ballet."
Dance experts and the public see Mariemma in the tradition of La Argentina , which was their artistic role model. She is called Bailarina completísima because she mastered all forms of Spanish dance from flamenco to stylized ballet:
«Aquí tenemos a esta gran maestra del baile español que ha alcanzado una síntesis, una verdadera estilización de sus danzas y bailes, con pureza singular. (...) Es la bailarina del clásico, de la escuela bolera y de los bailes populares, de los que ha espumado sus esencias para ofrecerlas con la más rigorosa precisión. »
“Here we experience this great teacher of Spanish dance who has achieved a synthesis, a true stylization of her dances and ballets with a unique purity. (...) She is the dancer of the classical music, the escuela bolera and the folk dances, the essence of which she foamed up in order to perform it with the utmost precision. "
The natural grace of their appearances was generally recognized:
«In ningún momento Mariemma es la bailarina espectacular, ni tiene nada que ver con este falso casticismo de castañuelas y mirada fatal. Todo en ella es sencillo, natural, espontáneo, y su misma menuda la favorece para que en su creación no puede admitirse el truco de la prestancia. Su arte consiste en bailar, y en esta difícil facilidad se halla el secreto de su sugestión (...) »
“Mariemma is never the spectacular dancer, nor does she have anything to do with this false castanets cliché and fatal look. Everything about her is simple, natural, spontaneous, and thanks to her delicacy, the lazy magic of smugness is hardly possible in her demeanor. Her art consists in dancing, and in this difficult lightness lies the secret of her seduction (...) "
Awards
Mariemma has been honored with a plethora of awards including:
- 1950 Premio Nacional de Danza
- 1952 Medalla de Oro del Círculo de Bellas Artes
- 1955 Premio Nacional de Coreografía
- 1964 First prize in the Certamen de la danza Española in Seville
- 1976 Sagittario d'Oro of Rome
- 1981 Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes
- 1995 Lazo de Dama of the Order de Isabel la Católica
- 1996 Chevalier des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
In 2002 she was honored with a homage in the form of a dance gala in the Teatro de Madrid.
References and comments
- ↑ a b c d Fallce a los 91 años Mariemma, figura de la danza española. In: ideal.es. June 11, 2008, accessed March 13, 2019 (Spanish).
- ^ Royal College of Performing Arts and Dance
- ↑ a b Historia. In: University website. Retrieved March 14, 2019 (Spanish).
- ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume IV, ISBN 978-84-96210-73-8 , pp. 226 .
- ↑ a b Mariemma. In: España es Cultura. Retrieved March 15, 2019 (Spanish).
- ↑ Mariemma: Mis caminos a través de la Danza . Fundación SGAE, Madrid 1997, ISBN 978-84-8048-078-9 .
- ↑ Mis caminos a través de la danza. In: IMDb. Retrieved March 16, 2019 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mariemma |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Martínez Cabrejas, Guillermina (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish ballet and flamenco dancer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 10, 1917 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Íscar , Valladolid Province |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 2008 |
| Place of death | Madrid |