El Pipa directs the Ballet of Cuba in El amor brujo 

Antonio El Pipa affirms that his choreographic version of El amor brujo (Bewitched love) with the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) has allowed him to direct for the first time in tips and slippers a classic ballet, from his vision of flamenco, Spanish and gypsy dancer.

In an interview published by the official newspaper Juventud Rebelde , the dancer announces that he will premiere the work together with the Cuban company during the XXII Havana International Ballet Festival from October 28 until November 7.

"I won´t transform BNC into a flamenco company", warns "El Pipa" about this staging of "El amor brujo", by Manuel de Falla. He was invited to make the choreography by the director of the classic dance company, the dancer Alicia Alonso.

Antonio Ríos Fernández ("El Pipa") remembers that the idea of this combined work arose last September when he was in Havana to direct some courses.

"It is a work conceived from the respect and the admiration to a language different from mine. ´El amor brujo´ has given me the possibility to direct for the first time in tips and slippers", the artist pointed out.

For "El Pipa" this collaboration has given place for us to mix, unite, rub and respect ourselves, each one in our disciplines, which at the end are the same one: the dance."

He was sure that from the beginning his ideas were "very clear" for this staging, to which he incorporated studying children from the Provincial Ballet School of Havana.

The dancer explained that it opted for that initiative because the original sketch of the work has as much of "dramatic, dark and catastrophe" that he wanted to "escape from it", and he thought that the best formula was to "tell this history from the innocence of a boy" because it is his wish to tell a story with a "a happy end".

"I have the obligation of thinking with optimism. I want to continue being positive in life, even though we only listen about disasters in the news", he added.

About his professional experiences previous to the creation of his own company, he said that it was "very important" because he is considered "a spongy dancer ", able to absorb what the great teachers could give him "in a conscious or unconscious" way.

He affirmed that he doesn´t seek to be "nobody successor" and that he prefers to follow his own road and "the trail that marked" his predecessors and their paradigms, among those he mentioned Antonio Gades, Mario Mayan, Güito, Farruco and Paco del Río among other.

Source: Que.es
Translation: Rodney Lopez (Cubarte)