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- Table of Contents
- Fernando Bujones: Cuban Fire Meets Anglo-Saxon
Practicality
by Elizabeth Godley - Fate at the Fête: Fate is a strong presence
in George Balanchine's Le Bal
by Millicent Hodson & Kenneth Archer
- Fernando Bujones: Cuban Fire Meets Anglo-Saxon
Practicality
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Affectionately
known as "The Latin Lightning," Fernando Bujones personifies
the best of two worlds - his ardent nature, a legacy of his Cuban
heritage, fires his creative energy, and what he terms his "Anglo-Saxon"
abilities endow him with
By: Elizabeth Godley |
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One of the 20th century's stellar dancers - critic Clive Barnes has called him "the finest male dancer this country has produced" and hailed his technique as "possibly unmatched anywhere" - Bujones has been compared with Rudolf Nureyev. In 1974, he became the first male American dancer to win a Gold Medal and the Highest Technical Achievement Award for the United States at the Seventh International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria. A
month later, at 19, he was
promoted to principal dancer status with the American Ballet Theatre
company in New York City, making him the youngest principal dancer
in the company's history and, at the time, one of the youngest principal
dancers in the world. Bujones' impressive career began as an eight-year-old
in Havana, Cuba, where he developed an interest in ballet, danced
at Alicia Alonzo's school and studied piano. But it was dancing
that drew him. "I felt such an energy and excitement when I
saw a male dancer leap," he recalls. Born in Miami, he spent a few years in Cuba before returning to Florida, where he still lives. In the 1960s, he began studies in New York - as he points out, "it was a very exciting time to be a young dancer." In 1970, he made his professional debut with the André Eglevsky Ballet, where he studied with Eglevsky himself. Two years later, he joined American Ballet Theatre, his teachers included Stanley Williams and Eric Bruhn, as well as coach Zeda Mendes. In 1974, he was promoted to principal. The same year, he made a highly successful European debut at London's Palladium Theatre, performing for the British public and Princess Margaret. Two years later, Bujones debuted with the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto, and performed his first encore in the Le Corsaire variation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After that came debuts at the Vienna State Opera, the Munich Opera House and the Stuttgart Ballet. In 1980, he received an Outstanding Young Men of America Award, and a year later made debuts with the Paris Opéra Ballet and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These were followed by debuts at the Teatro di La Scala in Milan, Italy; with the Tokyo Ballet in Japan; in Spain, and with the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, England.
interpret a romantic style and a profoundly complex
personality." His favourite ballet of all time, is La Bayadère
(The Kingdom of the Shades). "This was the ballet that I first
saw Rudolph Nureyev perform, in the 1960s, when he was at his peak,"
he recalls. "He was the most inspirational dancer in my career."
Bujones and Nureyev later worked together with the Paris Opéra
Ballet, the Vienna State Opera, the National Ballet of Canada and
the Royal Opera Ballet.
Critics have noted the similarities between the Russian dancer and Bujones. In 1985, after Bujones' debut with The Royal Ballet, John Percival of The Times (London) wrote that "not since Nureyev in his prime have we seen such a combination of voluptuous movement with an absolutely firm classical style. Another quality he shares with Nureyev is a strong masculine presence, so confident that he can dominate the stage with the quietest gesture." After the same performance, The Guardian's Mary Clarke wrote, "We have not looked upon the like since the young Nureyev astounded the West." During his dancing years, he partnered almost
every well-known ballerina of the era, including Margot Fonteyn,
Natalia Makarova, Carla Fracci, Cynthia Gregory and Marcia Haydée.
His performances with Gregory were legendary, and In June 1995, his farewell performance with
American Ballet Theatre at New York's Metropolitan Opera House
won him a 20-minute standing ovation. He subsequently founded
his own company, Ballet Clásico Mediterraneo, in Madrid,
and then left to work with Ballet de Monterrey, in Mexico. In
1996, Bujones was invited to be choreographer in residence for
Texas Christian University's dance department, in Fort Worth,
Texas. The same year, he represented the United States at the
VII Paris International Dance Competition. In 2002, he was inducted
into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
Although his role as artistic director of a small ballet company has been challenging, it's also enjoyable. "The job is very time-consuming and demands a personal commitment," he says, adding that "it's hard to find that balance between the creative and the business side." Together with supervising productions, including lighting and costumes, he works very closely with the board of directors. Cost issues and fund-raising are also part of his duties.
Does Bujones have any advice for young dancers or other artistic directors? Modestly, he plays down the passionate aspect of his character, convinced his success has come from his practical, down-to-earth Anglo-Saxon side.After all, he says, he has learned - as the Russian dancer Galina Ulanova once said - "talent is work." <end> [top]
Balanchine, now 25 and well travelled in European theatres, understood the dramatic parameters of the proscenium stage. No doubt he realized that half his audience would miss any reference to Chirico's figure in the alcove or stage right. But maybe, too, he wished to abstract her presence, which he would go on to do in ballroom ballets for several more decades, including Cotillion, La Sonnambula or Night Shadow, La Valse and Davids-bündlertänze. Chirico dressed the guests for Le Bal as sculptures - archaeologists, generals, amazons, ladies. Or perhaps, as one Parisian critic declared, they are in fact sculptures which, through a trick of fate, come alive for one night. Two Classical Statues begin to move, setting the others in action. It is not easy for the trio to make sense
of it all as they are swept into the crowd. The Young Man is distracted
only momentarily and quickly embarks on his search for the Lady,
the only guest in a mask. The ball allows for various encounters.
At one point, two Classical Statues and four Sylphs intervene on
behalf of fate and deliver the Lady to the Young Man. Another Parisian
critic identified the Sylphs, with their double sets of surrealist
and classical wings, as fickle goddesses or some kind of persecuting
Nemesis, not much help to the Young Man.
Balanchine worked like a poet, Danilova
said, a statement echoed word for word by Tamara Geva, who had been
Balanchine's teenage bride and cabaret partner in Russia. Geva,
Danilova and one male dancer came with him to the West. It was meant
to be a short tour to Germany in the summer of 1924 - none of them
returned to Russia. Instead they joined Diaghilev's company in Paris.
In her memoirs and interviews, Danilova describes dreams Balanchine had about Ivanova. She was a continuing presence in their lives and can be recognized, transfigured, in a number of Balanchine's ballets - the woman searching for her fate in Errante in 1933, the free-spirited Russian girl in Serenade from 1934 and perhaps others. Le Bal seems to be the first instance of Balanchine's sublimated grief, but neither the Lady's variation nor her pas de deux are conceived as elegies. They are reflections, taut and tortuous, on female will. The Lady, created by Balanchine with Danilova, is a sophisticated beauty who is adventurous, full of curiosity and capable of caprice. She is attracted to the handsome stranger in uniform. In her memoirs, Danilova explains some of the steps that gave her solo and duet their particular character - angular movements, profile positions, syncopations, strange jumps and lifts. She says the pas de deux was tender but often risky, "reeling around on point off-balance" and jumping from deep plié on pointe onto Dolin's chest, "arched back with my arms open."One critic noted that this flying catch happened not just once but three times in succession. The duet shows the Lady is susceptible to seduction by this unknown officer. Ivanova, like many women, found such men alluring.
A pursuit scene ensues, with the Lady now chasing the horrified Young Man. The score, by Vittorio Reiti, judged brilliant by Diaghilev and many critics in 1929, provides a varied dansant mood and pulse throughout the ballet, with just enough strangeness to preserve the surrealism of the ball. But this scene is truly masterful, shifting abruptly between raucous chase - the Dolin and Danilova characters in mad jetés - and reverie, during which various characters meander through the ballroom or along its margins, reading each other's palms or asking the Astrologer to read the stars for them. Juxtaposed to the cruel unmasking and pursuit are soulful party games, played to emphasize the power of fate. The ball draws to a close. The guests depart. The Young Man sits stunned at the side of the ballroom. Then he sees the Lady, once again in her black mask. She is accompanied by the Astrologer. The Lady removes her black mask, then also pulls off the sallow mask of old age. The Young Man sees the face that first entranced him. Adding insult to injury, her partner reveals that his entire head had been hidden by a mask. He is not an elderly Astrologer but a fine young cavalier. Was the partner ever jealous? Was it all a fraud? Realizing that he is the victim of multiple duplicities, the Young Man collapses in despair. The Lady and her partner "left the ball laughing," Danilova recalled. "It was all a joke, merely for her amusement, and the officer understood that he was fooled." The Young Man is pragmatically lifted by the Sylphs - persecuting goddesses as post-party cleaners - while the Classical Statues sweep up the rest of the debris from the ball.Kochno intimated in an interview that Le Bal was a very personal story for Balanchine, but he would never elaborate. Perhaps it was a choreographic game of Nemesis in which a beautiful girl, with the help of a fortune teller, outwits an officer. The trick of masks lets her live a whole life in one evening - from young lady to old woman with an apotheosis at the end. What more could a choreographer give his lost muse? <end> [top]
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