Antonio Gades, a tribute. Special feature

I offer my respect for my colleague Antonio Gades, an example to us all for his noble, chivalrous character within a profession frowned upon my some in this day and age. Though I prefer his deep human understanding.

We studied Spanish dance and flamenco together for a long time. We traveled to concerts together as members of Doña Pilar López's Spanish company, that was over a five year period. Back in those terrible, poverty-stricken days, when we traveled on squalid trains and stayed at damp and depressing boarding houses, but when our hearts brimmed with enthusiasm and joy. Nothing was more important to us than to learn to master the difficult world of the flamenco arts.

(An anecdote) I remember we went to the Festival de Linares, under the pompous name ‘Festivales de España’. As it was during the town's busy fiesta period there was nowhere to stay, everywhere was booked up. Nowadays all the reservations are made a year in advance, that's one area where we really have made progress. All the lodgings were full over the week of street parties. We went to the last boarding house Antonio knew, and they had no vacancies either. And there we were, terrified at the prospect of having nowhere to lay our heads after rehearsals, and later after the show. So we decided to take the owner up on his offer. What do you think he offered us? A billiard table and a blanket. And there we slept like logs on the night of our triumphant performance.

All the while professionals from the arts aren't true to themselves and don't cast aside the demands of etiquette or diplomacy, they won't win the acceptance or respect of their contemporaries in the art world. I'd rather be a slave to my words than the master of my own silence

Lo que no me des y no te pida
será para la muerte, que no deja
ni sombra por la carne estremecida

That which you do not give me and I do not ask of you
shall be for death, which casts
not a shadow upon our trembling flesh

From here I'd like to say that life ends where memory fades.

Mario Maya (bailaor)

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