New dance directors fail in leap of faith

Both state dance companies have recently changed their managers, their websites, their press strategies and even their artistic directors' hairdos, as though trying to convey through these external measures that the changes run deep, right down to their marrow - a claim that has yet to be confirmed.

This confirmation begins on Wednesday at Teatro de la Zarzuela, where the Compañía Nacional de Danza (CND) will present its first program under a new artistic director, José Carlos Martínez, who replaced the long-serving, internationally acclaimed and controversial Nacho Duato following a highly publicized spat with the culture ministry.

Then, on March 22, the Ballet Nacional de España (BNE) will stage its own debut under the aegis of Antonio Najarro, who recently took over from another long-running director, José Antonio.

In both cases, the change was triggered by a government decision to rotate the heads of state-funded cultural institutions on the basis of merit and "good practices" guidelines. In the case of the dance companies, there was also the underlying issue of Spain being the only developed country without a state ballet of its own, and the fact that both of the above had progressively eliminated classical ballet from their repertoires in favor of other dance forms viewed as more "modern." After listening to the demands of the ballet-loving audience and the complaints of Spanish artists who were forced to seek a career abroad - including globally acclaimed dancers such as Tamara Rojo or Ángel Corella - the government seemed to be trying to do something about it.

The renewal could not come at a worse time. It is as though, in a display of technology based on tools like Twitter or YouTube, coupled with a whiff of neopop tastes in their graphics, Spain's national dance companies had awoken to modern times - a little late - and made an anxious attempt at saying "here we are, and we're all renewed."

But this does not take into account that the CND was already very modern and cutting edge under Nacho Duato; it is another matter altogether that the Valencian, displaying an attitude that was borderline dictatorial, turned a state-funded entity into his personal project - an auteur company that only programmed contemporary work.

Meanwhile, under José Antonio, the BNE produced quality shows based on a stylized form of flamenco that were highly popular at home and abroad, but which also tended to ignore what most people understand by "ballet."

The pipe dream of a mixed-repertoire state company has always been there, but ultimately this depends more on the conscious training of the dancers than on bureaucratic will. The Spanish public has spent nearly 20 years demanding that academic ballet be taken at least to the same level it had when María de Ávila directed both companies simultaneously. This period has never been surpassed by either dance troupe on its own.

Yet, so far at least, what Martínez is doing at CND is maintaining the status quo. His new program could have easily been put together by Duato without the least esthetic friction. To be fair, considering the human material at his disposal, this is probably the only thing he could do to produce a credible show. People who dream of the CND putting on things like Act Two of Swan Lake with the kind of quality demanded of such pieces will have to be patient. The same can be said for 20th-century choreographies by the likes of Balanchine, Tudor or Robbins. This is the kind of production that is seen at all European theaters, besides new emerging work. The desire to be modern does not require being contemptuous of the past.

Before the general elections of November 20, some Popular Party (PP) leaders who are familiar with cultural circles said that, if elected, they would redress the wrongs caused by the Socialist-run Culture Ministry with regard to Nacho Duato; these same people also questioned the hurried appointments of José Carlos Martínez and Antonio Najarro, selected in public competitions that were filled with absurd little secrecies and did not even live up to their own "good practices" standards. Both were viewed as transitional appointments. But nobody is talking about such things now that the PP is actually in power.

The time is probably not right for it anyway. The fact is that Spain's dance companies, which should be treated as equally important to the country's cultural heritage as other art forms, lack the money to hire people or produce choreographies at the level that is required of great state companies. The deep-seated instability that has marked the BNE and the CND in their 30 years of existence is more attributable to political ups and downs than to the individuals who have worked as their artistic directors. Always in the shadow of music, like a poor relative, dance has created a totem pole for a deity that nobody adores, with successive sacrifices made to it in the form of axed directors burdened with a thousand reproaches.

The CND program is not very risky. It features four choreographies by Alejandro Cerrudo (Extremely close), Angelin Preljocaj (Le spectre de la rose), William Forsythe (Artifact II) and Johan Inger (Walking Mad), none of which is a world premiere. The Forsythe piece was already part of Duato's repertoire. Meanwhile, one of the choreographies that the BNE will premiere in March is Ángeles caídos (Fallen angels), a collective effort by six choreographers that seems like an apt metaphor for the history of the company itself.