Antonio Australian tour (1971 - )

Stringer, Walter: Poster for the Melbourne season of Antonio and his Spanish dance company, 1971

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The Spanish dancer Antonio (Antonio Ruiz Soler) toured to Australia with his dance company, also known as Gran Antiono, in 1971. The tour was supported by Clifford Hocking by arrangement with Les Spectacles Lumbroso, Paris. The company’s opening performance was at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne, on the 17 April, their only Australian venue.

Antonio and his company performed the following two part program:

Part 1: Suite de Sonatas, Romeras, Danza de la Gitana, Los Lagareteranos, Farruca, Zapateado, and Viva Navarra (Gran Jota).
Part 2: Suite – El Amor Brujo, Cana, ”Puerta de Tierra”, Soleares, Taranto, Martinete, and Fiesta Finale.

Dancers in the company included Estrella Morena, Luisa Aranda, Angela del Moral, Rosa Lugo, Maria Sali, Pastora Ruiz, Jose Antonio, Carlos Calvo, and Rafael Moreno. The company was accompanied by: singers Chano Lobato and Pepe de Luca; guitarists Manuel Morao, Nino Ricardo Jr., and Miguel Albacin; and pianists Rafael Urdapilleta and Rogelio Gavilanes.

Jose Greco noted in an accompanying program: ‘I recruit my dancers everywhere – mostly in Madrid – and then train them in my personal style and in my choreography. I insist that my dancers have ballet training’, and ‘I improvise many parts of the flamenco when I dance alone – naturally you cannot do that with a partner. In the final number, the entire cast has a chance to improvise. Some nights we can be more emotional than on other nights – that depends on the response out front. The audiences differ so we are never the same way twice.’

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Research Materials

Ephemera | Picture | All

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Other resources

Find more about Antonio Australian tour in:

• Internet - Google
• Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
• Pictures - Picture Australia