15 replies to this topic

[Pamela Moberg]

What is Trinidad Sevillano doing these days? Has she retired? Is she teaching or what?

[Joseph]

Wow! That is really funny you just asked that, because I was just thinking about her! I have no clue - anyone? I know she was back in Spain for a while after Boston, but I wonder what she is up to these days?!?!

[Mme. Hermine]

seems like she's retired.  there was an article, in spanish, on line, from august of this year. i don't speak spanish but i ran it through babelfish.  i can't give the link because it was only in google's cached version, when i went to the periodical's home page it wasn't there any more.

[Grissi]

pmeja, on Nov 23 2005, 11:41 AM, said:

seems like she's retired.  there was an article, in spanish, on line, from august of this year. i don't speak spanish but i ran it through babelfish.  i can't give the link because it was only in google's cached version, when i went to the periodical's home page it wasn't there any more.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How amazing! I saw her in Teatro Albéniz in Madrid, this autumn, when Victor Ullate´s company was performing. And I wondered the same, what is she doing now? I will try to find the article and give you notice.

[Grissi]

I have some info:

After leaving Boston, she went to dance with RB. But after a difficult relationship she decided to return to Spain. In Madrid, José Antonio Ruiz choreographed two solos for her, she danced with a contemporary dance group, Metros, and finally joined Víctor Ullate's company. She is actually retired and teaching in Centro Andaluz de Danza in Seville.

[Mme. Hermine]

Figured I'd resurrect this thread rather than lead the other one onto the wrong road -

This tiny fragment was part of a broadcast for Boston Ballet in 1992 and is about Fernando Bujones, Trinidad and Patrick and has some seconds of footage of Trinidad and Patrick in Allegro Brillante, which I think I remember was the first part of a program ending with Giselle.

[cubanmiamiboy]

And what was exactly the issue with Sevillano...? Simon mentioned something of her having a horrible time.  Was it about injuries..? Or was it something along the lines of Sarabita...never rooting themselves in a specific company...?

[bart]

Cristian, I don't know the answers to those questions.  But here is a NY Times review of Sevillano (at 20) dancing in the Ashton Romeo and Juliet, referred to by Alexandra and others on another thread.  It  gives us an idea of what members who saw her dance, including Alexandra, Simon, Mme. Hermine, and JMcN, have been talking about:

Quote

Review/Ballet; New Cast in London Company's 'Romeo'
By ANNA KISSELGOFF
Published: July 28, 1989

If  the London Festival Ballet's revival of Sir Frederick Ashton's 1955  ''Romeo and Juliet'' is the surprise success of the season, Wednesday  night's debut by the second of the company's three casts was an outright  revelation.

Trinidad Sevillano, a 20-year-old Spanish-trained  prodigy, was only 16 when Ashton directed her as Juliet in this superb  1985 reconstruction by Niels Bjorn Larsen, a former director of the  Royal Danish Ballet.

She had only to step onstage now at the  Metropolitan Opera House to demonstrate why her fabulous talent has  attracted so much notice in Europe. She acts with profundity, dances  flawlessly and exudes an unusual feminine power, an onrush of energy.

Thanks  to her clarity and technique - in every passionate plunge into  arabesque, every detailed small step, every phrased gesture - she made  it possible to see how much more there was in Ashton's choreography than  at first apparent.

[Simon G]

bart, on 07 August 2011 - 04:46 PM, said:

Cristian, I don't know the answers to those questions.  But here is a NY Times review of Sevillano (at 20) dancing in the Ashton Romeo and Juliet, referred to by Alexandra and others on another thread.  It  gives us an idea of what members who saw her dance, including Alexandra, Simon, Mme. Hermine, and JMcN, have been talking about:

Bart,

Words can't describe how beautiful and phenomenal Sevillano was in the flesh. It's the reason why live performance is absolutely vital, visceral and important, however many bad or mediocre performances one has to sit through to get to a Sevillano, it's all worthwhile and why film is such a bad representation of a live performer of genius. And Sevillano really was a dance genius, you had to be there.

Sevillano just had to enter and stand there and you took notice, some people just have that X quality that demands you look at them no matter what else is going on around them and her dance was just crazy beautiful, she was probably the most musical ballerina I've ever seen, she was intense, brutal, every movement had a logic and purpose that wasn't contrived or forced - she was a one off. Like I said, genius is bandied around so often it's become pretty crass especially given some of the second rate talent it's proscribed to, but I truly believe Sevillano was the real deal, a true genius.

[bart]

Simon, you can see some of these qualities in the rehearsal video linked on the other thread.

At the beginning I found myself engaged in what were essentially cognitive evaluations:  body type ("pocket Venus," as the Edwardians called it), her evident conscientiousness about detail.  Then there there came a shot of Sevillano looking in the direction of the camera.   Not into the camera.  But captured in a very private instant of time.  Strands of hair had broken loose from the tight hairdo, making her look like a beautiful, fragile  teenager.  (The young  Odette under the super-sophisticated Odile???)  With that image and feeling in mind, the rest of the rehearsal took on a magical quality me.  

Not all dancers can evoke such feelings.  It's clear from your posts and those of others that Sevillano was one of them.

This was a rehearsal film, and what I thought I saw was the kind of detail that most carefully edited ballet performance films try to edit out. But it's what happens countless times when you watch live performance and when you follow the careers of dancers who have captured you in one way or other.

I'll copy some of the links from that other thread, so that those who may not have read the posts there can see what we are talking about.







While I'm at it, here's the other thread I've been talking about.  Although the topic is not focused on Sevillano, there are many posts that evoke the impression that she made during her career.
http://balletalert.i...ot-to-dance-it/

[Simon G]

I knew this existed and I found it. Another bit of Trinidad Sevillano memorabilia/ephemera this time a cheesey 80s pop video.

In 1988 she was in a video for T'Pau's power ballade Valentine, it's poodle perms and shoulder pads at dawn. The male dancer is Koen Onzia. You might want to turn the sound down. It was filmed in the Old Sadlers Wells and I'm fairly certain the choreography is by Denzel Bailey who was one of the first black dancers to enter a mainstream company, English National Ballet:

[JMcN]

Simon - thanks for this.  Koen Onzia was also one of my favourite dancers

[Simon G]

It's a bit overwraught and cheesy in that 80s way. You keep expecting Crockett & Tubbs to burst in and start making arrests. It wasn't just the women of ENB who were incredible at that time, while the Royal was really in the doldrums with their underwhelming male roster ENB had Koen Onzia, Matz Skoog, Patrick Armand, Alessandro Molin, Peter Schaufuss, Martin James, Schaufuss also brought Julio Bocca to the West on his first engagements before ABT or the Royal. It was quite a company.

[JMcN]

Simon G, on 09 August 2011 - 11:03 AM, said:

It's a bit overwraught and cheesy in that 80s way. You keep expecting Crockett & Tubbs to burst in and start making arrests. It wasn't just the women of ENB who were incredible at that time, while the Royal was really in the doldrums with their underwhelming male roster ENB had Koen Onzia, Matz Skoog, Patrick Armand, Alessandro Molin, Peter Schaufuss, Martin James, Schaufuss also brought Julio Bocca to the West on his first engagements before ABT or the Royal. It was quite a company.

And I remember Trini dancing Julio Bocca off the stage in Tchaikowsky pdd in a mixed programme at Sadler's Wells!

LFB was seriously strong on all counts in those days!

[Simon G]

And yet more Trinidad Sevillano hits from the vaults. I just found this a snippet of her in Romeo & Juliet one of her greatest successes this time at the Teatro Colon possibly late 80s.