S. Hurok Presents; A Memoir of the Dance World — John Shaqi
S. Hurok Presents; A Memoir of the Dance WorldHurok, Sol
History
S. Hurok Presents; A Memoir of the Dance World
Hurok, Sol
Ballet -- History
I have a particularly fond memory of _On the Route to Seville_, in which
a smoothie from the city outwitted and outdid the gypsies in larceny;
and also I remember fondly that nostalgic picture of the Madrid of 1900,
which she called, simply enough, _In Old Madrid_.
As our association developed and continued, I was happy to be able to
extend the scope of her work and bring her from the solitary and
non-theatrical dance recital platform on which, one after the other,
from coast to coast, her journeys were a succession of triumphs, to the
stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Here, with her own
ensemble, chief among which was her exceptionally talented sister, Pilar
Lopez, I placed them as guests with one ballet company or another--with
Leonide Massine in Manuel de Falla’s _The Three-Cornered Hat_ and in
_Capriccio Espangnol_, by Rimsky-Korsakoff, on the choreography of which
she collaborated with Massine.
In addition to these theatre adaptations of the dances of Spain, she
danced in her own dances, both solo and with Pilar Lopez. She trained
and developed excellent men, notably José Greco and Manolo Vargas. I am
especially happy in having been instrumental in bringing to the stage
two of her most interesting theatrical creations. One was the ballet she
staged to de Falla’s _El Amor Brujo_, which I produced for her. The
other was the Garcia Lorca _El Café de Chinitas_. Argentinita had been a
devoted friend of the martyred Loyalist poet, and to bring his work to
the American stage was a project close to her heart and a real labor of
love. Argentinita belonged to a close little circle of scholars, poets,
and composers, which included Martinez Sierra, Jacinto Benavente, and
the extraordinarily brilliant, genius-touched Garcia Lorca.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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