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The Heart of Spain: The Spanish National Ballet
| Article
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10464 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1993 |
1,908 Words |
| Author
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Maya Wallach
Maya Wallach is a dance writer, critic, and photographer
currently based in Los Angeles |
Never mind the past glories of Barcelona's Olympics or Seville's World's Fair. The best of Spain, the irresistible, seductive heart of Spain, makes its home in Madrid: the Ballet National de Espana (BNE). Formed only fourteen years ago by Spain's Ministry of Culture to preserve and promote Spanish dance, the BNE has not only become the company for Spanish dance, it has also arguably become the most electric, enticing dance company in the world.
Infrequent Tours
Yet the BNE remains remarkably little known. Its international tours tend to be sporadic and underpublicized. After winning the Critic's Prize for Best Foreign Performance at the Met in New York in 1988, the BNE did not touch American soil for four years, returning at last only for a one-week engagement (October 6-11) at the Orange County Performing Arts Center near Los Angeles.
The company surprised me by opening with a stageful of women in soft-toed ballet slippers and pastel skirts. The unison choreography performed in straight rows was so tame, so demure, that I suddenly feared a watered-down "Spanish style" piece like those so many classical ballet companies perform. Arch a neck, plaster a dark curl to a forehead, and stick a red carnation behind an ear, and presto faux Spanish dance.
My fears were soon assuaged--at least temporarily. The six-part opening dance, Mariemma's homage to eighteenth-century Madrid Danza y Tronio (Dance and thunder), began shyly, warming up by stages. The first section, "Dance in the Little House Upstairs," revealed its Spanish roots subtly, in the pride and the strength of the women's bearing, in their certain smart sharpness. These qualities became more evident in the second section, "The Merriment of Three Women in Love." No one could ever say that classical ballerinas are not strong, but they do not revel in it the way Spanish dancers do.
Where classical ballerinas hold themselves straight and upright, Spanish dancers hold themselves proudly upright. It is not just posture; it means something. There is no such thing as abstract Spanish dance. The exaggerated torsos and perfectly articulated fingers--now like an antelope's horns, now like a bird in flight--of the three merry women spoke of a glad confidence and sparkling sauciness.
The dance's third section, "Prince Gabriel's Pass," struck a very different note. Five women in dark veiled dresses
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