El Pintor: Program

The Latin Ballet of Virginia presents the world premier of  EL PINTOR, Profile of Spanish Women, Sponsored in part by the Carpenter Foundation, An original flamenco dance theatre based on the exceptional art of Spanish artist Julio Romero de Torres. 

EL PINTOR (The Painter) is based on the philosophical views of famous painter Julio Romero de Torres from Córdoba, Spain, who dedicated his life to reflect the traditions of southern Spain, expressing in his painting the state of the times at the end of the first Spanish republic. El Pintor focuses his art on the Spanish women from different social classes and the way they were allowed to express themselves. He uses many landscapes of his native Córdoba and the culture of his time. Most of his art is closely related to the magical spectrum of flamenco, the Spanish traditional dance form and most important part of Spanish culture. His art pays homage to the greatest artists of the time: singers, dancers and musicians as a symbol of eternal love of flamenco and Andalucian region, a land of nostalgia, fire and joy. Julio Romero de Torres, the extraordinary artist whose art is as "deep" as the deep song he loved, Cante Jondo (Deep Song).

Inspiración – (Inspiration)

Julio Romero de Torres

Julio Romero’s inspiration for his work was the true and deep emotional soul of the women of his time. “Because the eyes are blind, it is necessary to look deep into the heart”, and while searching for it, El Pintor created a new form of expression, a literary concept of the imminent renaissance art, in a perfect balance between mysticism, sensuality and melancholy, having always as scenery, the enigmatic and eternal Córdoba.

Inspiracion, performed by the Company. Annie Lillie Kollman and Bria Reed as the models. Julio Romero, performed by Antonio Hidalgo Paz as El Pintor, LaWanda Raines and Maria Dolores Tuason as the models.

Encuentro (Fandangos) The studio of Julio Romero de Torres

Belleza (Beauty) -­La Chiquita Piconera (The Little Coal Girl)

Julio Romero de Torres, was famous for his paintings of women’s profiles. He will be always remembered for painting “La Mujer Morena” (The dark skin woman), like the famous Spanish poem, but he contributed so much more than this to the art world. From 1922 to the day he became very ill, his activity was intense. He painted about 220 pieces of art work, all of them admirable like Sacred and Profane Love, The Poem of Cordoba, Carmen and the Little Coal Girl.

Amor, Pasion y Tragedia (Love, Passion & Tragedy)

El Pintor places the woman as the main character of his paintings, the spectator of her own destiny. He represents the woman as a resigned victim of circumstances in a world of men, where a woman feels, thinks and acts as it is expected by everyone; but at the same time he takes the woman far from conventionalism to show her as she really is: proud and independent.

Tradiciones populares (Popular Traditions) SAETA and Martinete

El Pintor, revolutionized the world of visual arts in the 20th century with his refined technique, his pure use of lights and shadows, his wonderful combination of reality and fantasy. Each one of his art works is a living story told through his hands. He reflected the soul of Spain, its historical moments with the real elements of Spanish society. Performed by the Company.

TODO FLAMENCO (It was All about Flamenco)

The emotion of the deep song of the Solea and the passionate finale of a flamenco dance deeply touched the Soul of El Pintor.

Solea por Bulerias,

“El Pintor knows that the essential true is not the lower true that eyes can discover, but the other true that only the spirit can capture, together with the invisible rhythm of emotions and the enjoyable esthetic harmony. This great painter, emotive and conscious, knows that living art, is not what is in front of human eyes but what is able to last forever in the memory of those who observed it. Nothing is like it seems to be, but how it is remembered“. Ramon Valle