• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 08 / 20 / 2011

---

Mireya Castañeda. NANCY Reyes (Havana, Cuba 1953) is a very recognizable figure during the (NBC) National Ballet of Cuba’s seasons. She has gained that recognition through her constancy, a good eye, the enviable first seat in the front row, on the left hand side naturally, of the Gran Teatro’s Garcia Lorca auditorium in Havana.

A quiet, smiling, generous colleague, she has developed the technical and stylistic quality of her photographs to the point of becoming an essential reference. She is already a member of the Cuban Photographic Image Fund and the Ibero-American Photography Fund.

Reyes has had around 30 one-woman shows in Cuba, Europe (Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Czechoslovakia , Portugal), and the Americas (United States, Mexcico, Panama and Chile), among them "De todo un poco" (1991); "El Arte hecho Arte," Havana’s Gran Teatro (1998); "Los Mil Rostros de la Habana," Varadero, Matanzas (2001) and "Influencia de Cuba," London. (2002).

A new exhibition (with her student Luis Alberto Alonso) entitled: "Un vértice: tres caminos," in Ambos Mundos Hotel’s Salón del Monte in Old Havana, prompted a conversation, during the Cuban company’s most recent Swan Lake season.

"Eight performances of Swan Lake… Now what am I going to invent?" she asks us. "I’m taking photos in movement," and we began the dialogue.

Tell us about the Ambos Mundos exhibition.

It was conceived to present a student of mine, Luis Alberto Alonso, who was practicing with me for more than a year and in tribute to the maestro Alicia Alonso. The original idea was centered on the National Ballet prima ballerinas Viengsay Valdés and Anette Delgado, and then we included Irene Rodríguez, from the Ballet Español de Cuba.

In total there are 30 of your photographs and 20 by Luis Alberto. How did you select them?

We sat down with the ballerinas and showed them a series of 50 photographs, and we selected them together, to please them, because sometimes one exhibits a photograph and the ballerina suddenly sees it and says, ‘Ay, I don’t like it.’ That’s not the case now, because they are pleased with all of them.

Why don’t they like a photograph, because of technical problems?

No, because of the expression. You can’t have technical problems, you have to be very careful about that.

Let’s define what, for you, ballet photographs have to characterize…

For me, it’s the expression. An accomplished move or a pretty pose doesn’t interest me, and that’s what I explained to my student, that the principal thing is what the ballerina expresses. That’s the first thing to capture, the soul of the ballerina.

You have to know the ballet that you’re going to photograph…

That’s it, before you touch the shutter you have to learn the ballet; I’m referring to the classics, the company’s repertoire. Of course, when it’s a premiere, you have to be inventive, so you have to come to the rehearsals to learn, to know when to take a photograph.

You are an architect and a painter. Why photography?

You know, it’s because of my daughter (Jesse Domínguez, principal ballerina with the BNC). I began to follow her when she was in the school and then in the company. For me, it’s a pleasure to see her. I gradually won myself a place here, and even when the company is touring I come here and follow ballets with those who remain here dancing.

Has photography now taken over from painting?

No, I like painting better, although photographs give me the greatest satisfaction. First, because I see my daughter on the stage, and then the established dancers and the new ones. The dancers and I have an interrelation, they seek me out from the stage here and tell me with their expression, here I am, take a photo of me, it’s wonderful.

You’ve had many photographs published…

When the BNC press department sends out information, it uses my photographs, and also in national newspapers and magazines. When I see them printed, I feel very happy, because it is a recognition.

Do you have a favorite one?

Yes, I do, it’s of Alicia, titled "You are Giselle." I took it of Alicia at a press conference and by chance, there’s a poster behind her of Giselle when she was dancing it. I think it is my most loved one. It’s the first photograph that you see when you enter the exhibition, because she is the maestra.

Have you painted ballerinas?

Yes, but I haven’t been very successful. It is very difficult to express a ballet in my style, which is naïf, but yes, I paint lots of ballerinas.

Architecture. Is it an asset or a barrier?

I cannot give up architecture, or painting, or photography either. When I walk about Old Havana I always take my camera.

I suppose it serves you in terms of composition, light, contrasts… You consider yourself self-taught…

In general, yes, I learned the secrets of photography on the ground, but I had a first teacher, Graciela Gómez, who is the mother of Anette Delgado; she gave me the ABC, as I am now doing with Luis Alberto, of what ballet photography is.

And in painting? There are your roosters, sunflowers, the city with its stained-glass windows, ironwork, arches and columns…

Let me say first that all those images are there, that’s true, but there is also something which I consider my signature, because it is in all of my paintings, a rainbow, for me the symbol of hope, of confidence in achieving something. And, to answer your question, given that I have no academic training, I am included among the naïf painters. I am happy to be classified that way. Without any doubt I draw inspiration from the great Cuban painters, Amelia, Portocarrero and Mariano."

I’d like to return to the fundamental requisite of artistic ballet photography…

I repeat, for me it is to capture expression, and for that the fundamental requisite is to know the ABC of dance. Seeing lots of ballets, knowing the steps, the choreographies, knowing about the lighting – I have good relations with the technicians and when I go into the Lorca, I say to them, you have to give me good lights today – and even knowing the characteristics of the ballerinas. Of course, you have to have a good team.

Classic question, what is the ballet you must like to photograph?

Giselle, and then Swan Lake.

Projects?

But I’m exhibiting now…

Yes, but there’s always something more…

That’s true. I am preparing an exhibition for the 2012 International Ballet Festival in Havana.


Source: granma Internacional