GERMANY: SPANISH DANCE COMPANY BALLET TEATRO ESPANOL IS TOURING GERMANY PERFORMING FLAMENCO VERSION OF RAVEL'S BOLERO

Record ID: 391687

  • Title: GERMANY: SPANISH DANCE COMPANY BALLET TEATRO ESPANOL IS TOURING GERMANY PERFORMING FLAMENCO VERSION OF RAVEL'S BOLERO
  • Date: 20th June 2001
  • Summary: VARIOUS, DANCERS PERFORMING THE END OF 'BOLERO'
  • Embargoed: 5th July 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FRANKFURT, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Arts,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6UU00RMSPJFVPE9NE2XQWHV6N
  • Story Text: Until his untimely death in 1995, Rafael Aguilar was regarded as one of the most important choreographers in Spain.
    His enthusiasm for Flamenco inspired many young dancers, including Joaquin Cortes, whose career he helped launch. In 1960 Aguilar started the Ballet Teatro Espanol, together with his wife Manuela, now one of Spain's most esteemed dance troupes. The company is currently touring Germany, performing Aguilar's flamenco version of Ravel's 'Bolero', a piece written to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Ravel's death in 1987.
    Rafael Aguilar created his Flamenco version of Bolero in 1987 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Maurice Ravel's death. Using the intense language and rhythm of Flamenco, Aguilar's version creates through its principle dancer Javier Palacios a frenzied crescendo on stage, that fascinates audiences around the world. Not least in Italy, where it has been performed over two hundred and fifty times.
    "Bolero is a dance created by Rafael, in which the feelings of the lead dancer centre on the fact that an enormous force is bearing down on him, an enormous weight which at every moment is putting pressure on him. Thus the lead dancer wants to fly, he wants to disappear, he wants to escape from all the rules that govern society, as it were. He wants to express what he feels, and what he desires."
    Aguilar began his career after studying classical dance at London's Sadler's Wells Ballet, now the Royal Ballet. After a brief spell dancing in Italy, Aguilar returned to his native Spain and began to explore traditional choreography, in particular the possibilities of flamenco. In 1960, he set up his own company the 'Ballet Teatro Espanol' in order to have a stage for his own work. A prodigious talent, Aguilar received many awards in his lifetime, among them an Olivier for the musical comedy 'Matador' and 'Best Choreography of the Year' for Bolero at the Festival Della Versiliana' in Italy.
    "For Aguilar, almost everything that is subject to a set of social rules, should be liberated from these rules, in his opinion. For this reason, we use flamenco like a language; because it is the only way in which you can express your desire to be free and your true self in a given moment, during a few minutes of the performance. Aguilar's guiding principle has always been to demonstrate this, to disappear a little from society, feel free, enjoy freedom of movement of speech, of everything."
    Despite being considered typically Spanish, Flamenco is in fact a melting pot of cultures and influences. Originally introduced to Spain in the sixteenth century by Gypsy tribes from northern Europe, its music also bears traces of Arabian, Egyptian and Hebrew origins. Confined to southern Spain and in particular the region of Andalusia, flamenco lends itself to constant interpretation and re-invention. Indeed, the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca famously noted that, in comparison with other dancers, a Spanish dancer doesn't reproduce, they create and invent.
    "Flamenco is a way of life; flamenco is what you carry inside.
    It's what you are able to express, without taboos, without anything that inhibits you. With flamenco you can express your own feelings without anyone being able to say that is good, that is bad. Because this is what flamenco is about, it is what you carry inside. The feeling of freedom, being in harmony with ones self, being at peace with the world, being able to express yourself the way you are, as a person, as an individual, as anything."
    Rafael Aguilar was without doubt one of the most innovative creators of modern Spanish dance theatre. He was a master at fusing elements of classical ballet and modern dance with traditional flamenco techniques to produce astounding results.
    He has helped pave the way to a more revolutionary approach to a very traditional dance form, which will continue to shape the Spanish dance world for many years to come.
    ----ENDS---
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