Historic flamenco interview. Antonia Mercé
‘La Argentina’, bailaora (1931)
“You don’t dance with
your feet,
but with your head and heart”
Literal transcription
from the magazine ‘Nuevo Mundo’
in Madrid. Interview signed by Julio Romano
and published in 1931 |
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THE WONDERFUL SPANISH DANCES
ABROAD
“La Argentina”, the
admirable Andalusian dancer, performer of Falla, Albéniz
and Granados, emphatically states that you don’t
dance with your feet, but with your head and heart”
Hotel lobby. Willowy armchairs painted
green. Display cabinets. Young men in white uniforms give
the place a transatlantic ambience, the elevator –
which hammers the floor – opens its door and leaves
on the tidy white tile the refined, light body of a woman:
la Argentina.
Antonia Mercé,
La Argentina
(Photo Nuevo Mundo) |
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The Andalusian dancer tosses a pack of
“egipcios” on the table. She smokes avidly,
and the bluish spirals of smoke form a soft curtain which
enviously covers up the metal sheen of her eyes. Her little
finger flicks ash off the cigarette, and the fine cords
of her eyebrows come together to the point of turning
into wings.
La
Argentina, her body overrun with sparks, art with
fever, tumultuous, frantic passion, gypsy lures, sensual
mimes, damn grace which oozes down the steps of the “ruffles”,
lewd sprains, invincible haughtiness and slave submissions,
a slave torn away from her tribe who treads the Andalusian
roads of fire with their “blackish lads” behind
them and the palace lady with refined foreshortening whose
rich chopines leave their mark in the smooth, soft carpet...
A people who becomes aristocracy and aristocracy which
rises to people. The smell of wet land in the sharecroppers’
plots, guitar rasgueos, blacksmith’s songs, farm
coplas, ironic grudges at village parties, chatter of
neighbors, din of gals cackling like hens at the curbs
of the wells, the dance steps of a tanned farmhand, presumptuous
marzipan cakes of fickle old men, meats with the color
of large loaves of bread started in the provisions...
Andalusia!
Vibrating in the living profile of La
Argentina is that incorruptible element of race which
enchants the spectator, who is transformed by the magic
of the baile’s esthetic suggestion into the star
of a spiritual adventure. The roaring wave and warm rhythm
envelops him, winning him over with the multiplicity of
images created by the dancer. An accumulation of dormant
sensations which stand up to the dance’s bewitchment.
The sharp, cutting steel of her silhouette has been burnt
by the oven. The artist’s internal world overflows
outwards, and when the spectator hears a sob or a shriek,
he doesn’t realize it’s come out of his own
heart.
-What nations have you been to lately?
La Argentina bites the cigarette and begins a geography
lesson.
-I’ve been to Belgium, Germany,
Czechoslovakia, Austria, Sweden, Italy, England and France
– she says.
-With Falla,
Albéniz,
Granados...
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Interview Antonia Mercé
'La Argentina' from the ‘Nuevo Mundo’
magazine (1931) |
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-Oh, yes!... I even take the famous “lagarterana”
by Guerrero. By Falla, I do ‘La vida breve’,
‘Serenata andaluza’, ‘El molinero’
from ‘El sombrero de tres picos’... By Albéniz,
‘Córdoba’, ‘Sevilla’, ‘Almería’,
‘Puerta Tierra’, ‘Seguidiyas’...
Granados: ‘La danza quinta’, ‘Goyescas’
and ‘Los ojos verdes’. This last song was
given to me by Granados (dedicated) before he set off
on the journey which cost him his life.
-Albéniz! – La Argentina
exclaims, flinging the name upon the table with melancholy-.
He didn’t write his works for baile; but I haven’t
seen anything with more rhythm. He’s brimming over
with style. What marvelous evocations his music has! How
he shakes up your soul and body to the point of chills!
It’s a question of witchcraft. – And she bites
the words -. The rhythm... the rhythm... We’re the
masters at that. You have to see our flamenco dancers...
Anywhere in the world, anyplace where the rhythm flutters
about pulled out of the very guts of this race, the spectator
there is like bewitched. This music is so Spanish that
it turns out to be universal.
Folk dancing and stylizations
She continues:
-Foreigners don’t see the exaggerated
portrait of Spain in these Spanish dances, that ugly stain,
false, murky residue of the true artform. And how they
like Falla, Albéniz, Granados!
What a “war” they waged against me in Spain
when I started to do stylizations of Granados and Albéniz!
I was told: “That’s absurd! You should do
folk and traditional dancing.” Nowadays –
she says, smiling -, when I dance folk things, I’m
told to do my stylizations.
-You were right.
-I don’t give in to the audience
seeking success. I’m a dancer because I like it,
out of innermost conviction, out of the need of my nature.
I dance “just because”, in order to explain
everything I feel that way. I don’t know if it would
be fair to say it’s an overflow of my feeling. I
suffer, love, enjoy myself dancing.
-Do you modify your bailes from one time
to the next?
-A lot. There are bailes which I did
six or seven years ago, and when I dance them again I
always find new things in them. I don’t know if
it’s that they’re polished, tested and sharpened
with the work. I have proof of this in the ballet from
‘El
amor brujo’. Every time I perform it, I see
facets to it I hadn’t seen before, different aspects
which have sprung up in the previous bailes.
Antonia Mercé, ‘Nuevo
Mundo’ magazine (1932)
Love of the job and the old man
who does charro dances
-One can’t talk about the decadence
of Spanish dance while you exist, but what is the dry
spell of dancers due to in our country, which has produced
such great figures?
-Do you know what it’s due to?
The fact that Spanish dance isn’t taken seriously.
And wow, is it something serious! “The national
defense of dance” should be created in Spain. It’s
one of our greatest treasures.
-Argentina, my God, don’t say that!
– astonished-. You see, they’re capable of
naming a Commission, with meal allowances, trips and wages.
-Well, that has to be created. Nowadays,
the girl who sets off on this adventure says: “I’m
going to see if I learn to dance”. And she takes
it reluctantly, without interest. They think that moving
their feet and putting on beautiful dresses is enough.
When they reach a certain naturalness, they exclaim: “I
can’t make any more money”. They don’t
have any affection for their job. You need great love
for this. And end up sacrificing everything. I’ve
had a career for many years now and every day I find that
my job gets harder and harder for me. Because you don’t
just dance with your feet, but with your head and heart.
-Are you on a school trip?
-Yes. I’m leaving for Salamanca
today. I’d also intended to go to Galicia and Asturias.
I’ll only be able to go to Salamanca. The “charro”
dances!... There’s just an old man, all dry and
wrinkled, left in Salamanca, who dances them wonderfully.
It’s a pleasure to watch him dance. I study folk
dances at their very sources, and I know what I must preserve
and what I must destroy.
A message. The car is waiting. La Argentina
sets off for the lands of Castile. Her eyes full of international
horizons are going to feast themselves on the clear, austere
perspectives of Spain. And with a sensual gesture of a
good grape juice taster who looks at the juice through
the glass and clicks her tongue, the admirable dancer
thus repeats to me:
-In Salamanca there’s an old man
who dances “charro” dances who’s a wonder!...
JULIO ROMANO
