• Submitted by: manso
• Editorial Articles
• 11 / 12 / 2010

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By: Giusette Leon Garcia. 11/08/2010. Wax dancers, tiny, light, stylized, mounted on acana wood like an old dreamt scenario, or suspended, movable, in midair as a great jete, fill Origenes Gallery of Havana where the plastic arts artist Isabel Santos presents her personal exposition "Darts of the Memory"  

Two installments complete the exhibition, impressions in plaster of feet and the hands of the first dancer Anette Delgado in positions that remind the Willis from "The Swams Lake."  

How was this idea of an exhibition about ballet born?

“This was a long, dreamt project, but I wanted to open having an event like the ballet festival as background, when Alicia’s anniversary was getting closer I thought it was the right moment to carry out everything I had been caressing. Then I plunged into it, I went to the theater, because I like seeing things live. I wanted to get intoxicated by al that theatrical environment, scenography, choreographic, the costume design, of that entire atmosphere… I knew I needed to make a good research to fulfill this.

"I intended to do something really new and I also wanted to pay homage to those girls who became the four jewels, something that would dignify them, from the three-dimensional point of view I didn’t know anyone who had done that before … "

This is indeed an exhibition full with homage…

 "I made a piece specifically to Alicia Alonso as maître of Cuba: she is giving a class and two of her characters stand beside her. I dressed her in dark blue with the back in red resembling the Cuban identity, hence underhandedly the girls were dressed in white, also showing the purity, the projection…  

“I also wanted to pay homage to Alberto Alonso with his choreography of Carmen which is a character I feel fascinated about because it comprises not only the passion of a woman and the story itself, but also a beautiful music and wonderful scenic movements…

"Also to Ivan Tenorio with his Theseus which won him an award… and I just fell short, because the gallery only houses almost half of the pieces, but I realized they might be too tight for people to move freely around, the sculpture needs to breathe by itself, that lead me to this small selection… "

How long did it take you to carry out these over 60 pieces?  

"If you knew that this the exhibition I have finished in record time, because I had studied what I wanted to do and had a very clear idea. I said, I will make The Swans Lake, I want to pay homage to Josefina Mendez. I started with Giselle, I was interested in the second act which is very little worked."  

Tell us about the work with Anette Delgado.

"I had the chance to meet a group of dancers, among them Anette was perhaps the easiest to reach, then I said, if this girl allows me, I want to do something direct with her hands, and feet. That work lasted eight hours, she had just finished a rehearsal. This was the first time this was done and I didn't want to hurt her, neither burn her, because the plaster is awful… I thank Anette a lot.

“Furthermore things will not stay there, now I see things in the other girls, the plan is to seduce them with this idea, so they cooperate with me."

How has it been the exchange with Alicia Alonso?

"The possibility I’ve had in these days of reaching her, of speaking with her, makes more patent the fascination that woman inspired in me, because she is a woman who has been through a lot, personally, loosing her sight at age 20, beginning her career…  

"Since the opening I knew, blind people are very special to me, you don’t loose your sight for the sake of it that is a very spiritual thing that makes the person to be twice as sensitive, they are able to know how somebody is by just approaching him.

"She has that hypersensitivity, she doesn't need to feel hard, she just presents her hands softly, almost like a queen, an empress of the motion and when she began to feel everything she felt very happy, because she immediately notices motion, of the instep, the position of the hand… "

The queens transformed into dancers. Is this a moment of opening or change in your work?

"This is my first exhibition that is not directly referred to my personal world. I lost a son in 1998 he was thirteen years old and everything I have done is a little for Abel. Abel would be now a 27 year-old young man, and I think, well, he’d be here behind all these dancers, trying to fall in love with one of them, after that I worked the topic of ballet with more pleasure, because I felt him he accompanied me in everything…

“It’s also the first time I include color. My pieces have always been in this spectrum of ocher or muddy, or white which the wax natural colors…

"Besides I also wanted to give that scenography air I had never done that, I am trying to tread: the rattle is as if energy is moving, it’s breaking all the negative signs, it’s like entering the stage, they lead you through everything you’re seeing with great clarity and the background work also contributes a very theatrical sense".

Why Darts in the Memory?

“A few years ago Pablo Armando found my work in the 90’s, he marveled and wrote a poem he entitled "Hands of the Memory". I found the last sentence excellent when I read it: "and everything stays in her hands like an iridescent dart of the memory."   "Then I thought: this has to do with the movement, the dance, the ballet, a really tiring art, because it’s physical all the time and not only for the exercise, but because the artist has to translate that entire choreography and pour part of himself in it, his talent, he must shift from dancer to actor… all that fitted perfectly in me and I decided, this is the title of my exhibition: Darts of the Memory."

Satisfied?

"After many setbacks I attained what I wanted which was to open my exhibition and not overlook the moment of the Festival and Alicia's anniversary.  

"I didn't sleep, now all the fatigue of those days is paying its toll, because I spent the whole summer working as crazy, but I kept telling my mom, I am vitalized, I’m happy, I feel I accomplished something as a person, as everything. I feel I’ve done something for my people, they are happy…  

“It’s not that I am pleased with everything, because if I look at it I say this and that could be improved, of course, there’s always something that could be improved, but it’s good that the artist realizes that there’s something that can be perfected… It was so simple for me, so understandable that it’s as if - who knows- in my mind, in some other generation, I was there dancing… "

Something that might be left unsaid?

“Well to thank the people who have trusted me, my relatives, like I say, to my son, my mother, Nilda Rojo who has always been there for me at all times…

"The topic of ballet won't stay there, I think that I’ve opened a door… "

Cubasi Translation Staff