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JOSEFINA MENDEZ
Superb dignity, exceptional style, impressive
technique
• Great star dies in her
native city of Havana
BY
MIREYA CASTAÑEDA —Granma International
staff writer—
TO see Josefina Méndez dance has been a privilege.
At this moment, just after her death, some of the
qualities that choreographers, critics and the
public have applauded in her: her "superb dignity"
on stage, her extremely personal style, her powerful
technique, should be remembered.
She was an exceptional ballerina. One of the "Jewels"
of the National Ballet of Cuba, a prima ballerina on
any stage, and there were many that had the honor to
have her.
She went onto the stage of the García Lorca for
the last time to celebrate her 50 years of dancing
and teaching in 2005. At that moment, Josefina
overcame time and her own decision not to dance,
regaling the audience a tremendous Doña Rosita in
Viva Lorca, and reiterating – as if it were
necessary – why the British critic Arnold Haskell
called her "the queen of tragedy."
It was a unique evening, which took her admirers,
including myself, back to other functions, where the
harmony of her dancing, the impetus of her lyricism,
her finely-honed technique prompted genuine delight.
Throughout the years, I have had the luck to
interview her on various occasions. Technique and
art were always at the center of the dialogue. For
Josefina, technique and even style have to be co-substantial
and then, the study of each character, because the
artistic side is absolutely essential.
As a prima ballerina with "good form and natural
charm," her performances were recognized in this way
by the critics: extremely sound technique, great
class of style, interminable and triumphant
balances, stunning arabesques, total interpretative
sense.
Thanks to one of those meetings, I have an
anecdote that she recounted. It was 1972 and she was
dancing Giselle in the Paris Opera. She told me that
she got to the theater and the company gave her a
somewhat icy reception. "I began to rehearse," she
added, "and at the end I noticed that they were all
around the stage; there was a cutting silence and,
suddenly, applause."
Writing in Les saisons de la dance, Paris,
1972, the critic André Philippe Hersin offered his
appreciation of her: "Very rarely have I seen so
many qualities meeting in one ballerina: sound
technique, impressive balance – as a test, the
famous diagonal – exceptional style, personality and
emotion at the moment of madness and, in the second
act, legato, lightness and lyricism."
Alejo Carpentier wrote of that same function: "And
we can affirm that from the middle of the first act,
the game was won; Josefina had imposed herself on
account of her perfect psychological and dance
domination of the character, her splendid precision,
her manifest authority and her lack of any
nervousness¼ Thus the
character of a great dancer was definitively
affirmed before a corps de ballet whose members,
enthused in their turn, gave the finest of
themselves to second our artiste¼
"
Since she debuted in the Radiocentro Theater of
Havana on March 27, 1955, dancing one of the
"Napolitanos" (there were not many male dancers and
Josefina was tall) in Act III of Swan Lake (with
Alicia Alsonso and Igor Youskevitch in the central
roles) she has always reflected her soul on stage.
The words that the diva Alicia Alonso said to a
young Josefina and which she never forgot: "Never
let them compare you, not with me nor with anyone
else, because everyone has their own personality,"
have passed into legend.
Time demonstrated that. Josefina Méndez created
her own Penelope, Joan of Arc, Cecilia Valdés,
Odette-Odile, Giselle, Dinanea, Swanilda, Consuelo,
Taglioni, Aurora, Lisette, Bernarda Alba, Flora,
Kitri.
A ballerina of exceptional force and
expressiveness, her brilliant technique was never an
end in itself; it was always at the service of
creation.
Then she stopped dancing although, as principal
maitre of the company – as she once told me – she
continued to do so through her pupils, and doubtless
her son, first dancer Víctor Gilí, of whom she was
proud, appreciating in him "the capacity for both
dramatic and humorous roles."
Another indelible memory. On the night of her
official retirement in 1996 Josefina danced together
with Víctor choreography created especially for that
occasion by Alberto Méndez, Intimidad (Intimacy).
She commented to me then that the argument was
based on an idea of hers, excellently choreographed
by Alberto. "This work allowed me to dance together
with Víctor as a professional partenaire. I
acknowledge that in the montage it was difficult for
me to let him lift me, when it had always been me
that did that. I know that it must have been very
hard for him; he had a great responsibility in his
hands, but it was very beautiful because, after the
applause, I stopped being the dancer who passed on
the baton to become the mother whose son gave her
his heart and a bouquet of flowers."
In 2003 a new emotion arrived. The Four Jewels (is
it possible not to mention them?): Josefina, Loipa
Araújo, Aurora Bosch and the also deceased Mirta Plá
received the National Dance Prize. At the end of the
Gala, first dancers from the company placed flowers
in the arms of the divas, and I said then: "nothing
had more symbolism that the moment when Josefina
Méndez and BNC first dancer Víctor Gilí, her son,
melted into an embrace. Without any doubt, the
continuity of the Cuban School of Ballet is assured."
Then came times of uncertainty and pain, Josefina
Méndez with a serious illness, which she took on
with that same "superb dignity."
And now the sad farewell. Josefina Méndez has
died. With her art, her pupils, her first dancer
son, she is demonstrating the truth to us, she will
never abandon the stage.
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