“You must transmit, project the light emerging from your chest,” teacher Irene Rodriguez demands although she is not a poet but a dancer of those who project true light on the scene.
“In class we dance!” and she not only says it, she shows it. Irene impresses by her ability to transmute into many beings on stage, on the character requested, within the most adverse history, and in real life she is a lighting, costume and set designer, public relations manager, teacher and director of her own Spanish dance company in Cuba .
A song by Aerosmith is filtered at the hot room of the National Ballet School (ENB by its Spanish acronym) but the teacher acts as if she just heard the heels of the students of her workshop. She works in a premise she borrowed, as she lacks her own headquarters. The artist grew up in the hardest years of so-called Cuban Special Period and does not complain about anything, although she works under low illumination, and the eternal summer of the island forces to keep open the windows facing Sevilla Hotel, where a clerk touts his preference for light rock. She puts an Air Supply hit, and then sweetens the heat with Freddy Mercury, at such a high volume that surpasses the music of the pas de deux ¨Flames of Paris, ¨rehearsed at the next higher floor.
“You have to think and feel that your arms grow” the teacher exclaims during the first break and the students are bent due to back or arms pain while Irene seems immune. In the middle of suffocation, a lot of teenagers and young look at her incredulous, as if dancing to really emanate from her chest.
‘Take tensions out of the dance to look natural, make it seeing less difficult, “she suggests unafraid to reveal secrets, even those she has learned from her own sweat and creativity on stage. No one doubts of her talent, polished daily with high doses of constant work and dedication. It might appear that she does not get tired, because after teaching and rehearsals with the members of her company, the artist spends hours training new generations of dancers, many with little experience in any artistic career.
From 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm, a teacher from ENB voluntarily imparts a ballet class. From 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm, Irene teaches styling and during the next hour she gives a lesson of flamenco, totally free. People open their eyes when asking her how much she earns and she says “nothing.” It is not a typical response in these times but Irene is neither a typical young nor a typical dancer.
The Spanish Dances Workshop developed under the auspices of ENB brings together students from different parts of the Cuban geography. 300 adolescents attended the call when it was launched and the teacher had no choice but to pick 42 of them to avoid exceeding the space of a borrowed room. In addition, Rodriguez rated physical conditions, musicality, interpretation, coordination. The 11 males and 31 females chosen range from 14 to 18 years of age and must undergo qualifying exams every three months. The ultimate goal is to form a pool of dancers for the company after three years of studies in which the group will also star in their own shows.
“You must think that you’re stepping a paper with the foot,” Irene says. All girls’ shoes have elastic straps tied to the instep of each foot as the footwork should be strong, safe. The rehearsal with castanets and feet takes 40 minutes. Then the public only sees elegance and facilities.
“You have to take the stress out of the body, all loads must go to the legs, “she repeats. The ballerinas hit the floor with their heels in such a way that callus emerge with time, similar to those generated by pointe shoes and according to the teacher that is optimal. During class, Irene takes learners from the classic positions to Spanish ones and vice versa, to polish techniques and teach them part of the style they will assume in their choreography.
“Your arms grow up and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8″she says while breathing through her own gestures. Irene spins, jumps, puts her legs up her face and dances with an agility that sometimes seems like a quick-motion effect . She does not fear to dangerous lifting and hits the floor even on the tips of her toes. More than once this ballerina has stood up an audience by her skills.
“You must tighten the muscles of the back,” Irene tells her students for them to gain in capacity. The artist offers a string of tips based on her stage experience and proudly celebrates each individual evolution in the classroom. She knows the names of everyone in the workshop, including Shakira and Thalia.
“Stretch your muscles, do not break. I did not say change. Now, change the line, “she orders her students to change their position in the room for all of them to have time to look themselves in the mirror. The Dance Master asks for keeping pace while teaching to stand in line and dance from the class. According to Irene, the distinction and part of the complexity of the Spanish dance lies in the detail of having to dance and play an instrument at a time.
“You have over fulfilled the plan. You will be on the news, “she exclaims jokingly near the end of the day and apprentices cannot stop laughing.
Only practice will create the dancer, so spends hours training hands, arms and footwork. Despite not having her own headquarters, Irene only claims more exercise and heart, and begs that any allusive text to expose appreciation to ENB and the Office of the City Historian of Havana by the unconditional support given to her company and individual projects. The latest is under construction and is titled Aldabal, a play she will premiere the upcoming November 4th at Mella Theater in the 24 th Havana International Ballet Festival.
In this essential event, two years ago, the Cuban Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso granted Irene the Ibero-American Award for Choreography, and this time she assigned the closing of one of the shows.
Aldabal enunciates a place with many knockers and therefore with many doors. The creator likes each viewer to have their own interpretation of the use of the doors, she rejects imposing readings. She can only assure that this ¨siguiriya¨ leaves all dancers breathless by its intensity and high virtuosity demand. Guitarist Noel Gutierrez composed the electroacoustic music and Irene also took he costume and set design.
” A Spanish dancer must have an excellent ear, because many steps must be learned by ear. The style they are dancing has not nomenclature, especially for percussion-related steps, “the teacher explains to the younger generation. However, when creating, she subordinates style to emotions.
“I’ve always been a ballerina very restless in finding everything that serves me to transmit the dance and that sacred art that for me is to express a feeling, a desire, a view, a concern. Therefore, all I can use to convey to the public what I have inside of me, I feel it as necessary and valid. In addition, none style is really pure, all of them at some point in history have been mixed and nurtured from other dances to then settle as such. The classic dance itself was nurtured from the steps of Spanish and Italian dancers, among others, to become what we now know as classic “pure” ballet. So, being influenced and learn other styles is not losing purity, is winning wealth, “the artist, whose recent performance at the Latin American Art Museum in Los Angeles, United States, deserved a recognition plaque, stated.
The summer was exhausting but fruitful for Irene Rodriguez because she danced with members of her company at the Carriage House Theatre of Montalvo Arts Center, in California, USA. There, she also offered several workshops on Spanish dance, and gave two lectures at San Jose Ballet, in the same city, at the request of the director Jose Manuel Carreno, Cuban like her. And not least, Irene gave a lecture at West Valley College, in Saratoga City, for students specializing in ballet. Then she returned to Havana, to the rehearsals of the new production, pending plans for reasons beyond her control and workshops.
Night falls to the rhythm of Cuban timba at Sevilla Hotel and Irene still urges her pupils to hammer the floor. “Blow, heel, heel, blow, heel, heel,” she stresses and speeds up.
“These are basic exercises that any ballerina of Spanish dance will take many times in any performance,” she explains to justify the repetition. And repeats and repeats and repeats, perennial, as her light. It’s dark outside, but in that ENB room there is enough light to spot births and passions.
“The blow that sounds the most is the last, the closing one” and Irene stamps again to prove it.
Authors
Martha Sánchez,
Martica
