Duncan Tonatiuh - Danza!: Amalia Hernández and El Ballet Folklórico de México

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Table of Contents

Guide

Amalia Hernndez and El Ballet Folklrico de Mxico

ABRAMS BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS NEW YORK

DUNCAN TONATIUH

Amalia (ah-

MAH

-lee-ah) Hernndez

was born in Mexico City in

1917, and everyone assumed she would grow up to be a schoolteacher

like her mother and her grandmother. Even Ami ( AH -me), as everyone

called her, expected that.

But one afternoon while her family was on vacation, Ami saw a pair of

dancers in a town square. They stomped and swayed to the live music.

The

danzas

that they performed had been danced by people of that area

for generations. Ami was hooked. She made a decision: she was going to

become a dancer herself.

Ami twirled in the living room and whirled in the

kitchen. Amalia! scolded her father, a stern military

man. But her mother encouraged Amis interest in

the arts, and one day her father gave in. He had a

studio built in their home and hired the best dance

teachers he could find.

After school, Ami studied ballet with Madame

Dambr, who had danced with the Paris Opera,

and with Professor Zybin, who had danced with

Pavlovas world-renowned Russian ballet.

Ami worked on her technique and made sure she always pointed her

feet. She perfected the different structured positions and became an

accomplished ballerina.

first

fifth

pirouette

arabesque

grand battement

In 1939, two dancers from the United States visited Mexico City, where

Ami lived. They performed a new style of dance called modern. Amalia

was deeply impressed. The movements were expressive, and they could

be jarring when compared with the delicate movements of ballet.

Ami met Waldeen, one of the modern dancers, and began to study with

her. She also continued practicing ballet. Ami was very talented and

disciplined. In time she became a dance teacher and a choreographer

herself. A choreographer is a person who creates dance steps and

arranges them together to create new dance pieces.

In 1952, after rehearsing for months, Ami and other dancers gave a

performance. They presented many different dances, but the one the

audience clapped for the most was a piece called

Sones de Michoacn

.

Ami was the choreographer, and the dance was similar to the regional

danza

that she had seen in the town square when she was a little girl.

Ami had an idea! She decided that she would create ballets based on the

folkloric

danzas

from the different regions of Mexico. She was so excited

that she formed her own company with seven other dancers.

Ami began to travel to villages all around the country to learn as much as

she could about the areas traditional dances. She read about the history

of each place and talked with elders. When possible, she participated in

the

danzas

herself. She paid special attention to the steps, the music,

and the outfits the people wore.

After returning home, Ami would go to the dance studio. The

danzas

y bailes

she saw in the villages were for ceremonial purposes, like

celebrating a patron saint or hoping for a good harvest. Other times,

the dances happened so people could have fun and meet new friends.

However, the dance pieces Ami was creating were meant to be

performances, for audiences to watch in a theater. Ami used her skills as

a choreographer and her knowledge of both ballet and modern dance

to make the pieces innovative and beautiful. She made sure the dancers

wore dazzling costumes, and that there was dramatic lighting and

spectacular backdrops.

Audiences loved the folkloric ballets, and Amalias dance company quickly

became very famous. In 1954, they performed on the Funcin de Gala television

show. They danced on the show every week for more than sixty weeks! The

company grew to include twenty dancers, and then fifty.

The companys repertoire, or stock of dances, included ballets based on

mestizo

bailes

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