Tribute to Ramiro Guerra on his centennial

June 29, 2022

To pay homage on his centennial to someone who throughout his extensive life has been bestowed with adjectives such as eternal, stubborn, lucid, founder and master, is an inescapable commitment.

Ramiro Guerra (Havana, June 29, 1922-May 1, 2019) always navigated through turbulent waters. Protagonist of countless events in Cuban dance, he was not only a dancer and choreographer, but also a researcher, essayist and critic.

To pay homage on his centennial to someone who throughout his extensive life has been bestowed with adjectives such as eternal, stubborn, lucid, founder and master, is an inescapable commitment.

I only met the maestro personally in 2017, at the presentation of the documentary Mi vida la danza, directed by Alina Morante Lima. It was an interesting, though brief, tour through the life and admirable work of Ramiro Guerra, who attended the screening and accepted, at the end, a quick conversation.

Stirring the memory of the great choreographer after the documentary was not opportune; only some clarifications would be asked of him. He then reaffirmed, with a caustic touch, but with much humor, that he took, as always, the best of the past and moved forward. This, two years before his death.

HIS PASSION FOR DANCE
A necessarily brief chronology calls for this momentous date. Although he graduated with a degree in Law from the University of Havana, that path took a radical turn.

It is the 1940s of the last century. His passion for dance leads him to the ballet school of the Pro Arte Musical Society, where he takes classes with maestro Nikolai Yavorsky, who was also the teacher of the exquisite Alicia Alonso.

Very soon he moves to the academy of Russian dancer and teacher Nina Verchinina, leading figure of the Ballets Russes of Colonel de Basil, and she would direct him to that company with which he toured Brazil and with whom he arrives in New York.

A new decade, the 1950s of the last century, and new aesthetic concepts and forms of movement. He takes classes, free of charge, as mentioned by Ramiro Guerra himself in multiple interviews, at the Academy of one of the main practitioners of modern dance, Martha Graham.

Although he described the American as "the best teacher," he has acknowledged the influence of Alberto Alonso (1917-2008), one of the founders of Cuban ballet, and what the courses in New York would bring him, with Doris Humphrey, José Limón and Charles Weidman, essential figures of modern dance.

HIS CHOREOGRAPHIES, CUBAN AND UNIVERSAL
Returning to Cuba, Ramiro Guerra became affiliated with the Ballet Alicia Alonso and the Academy of the same name, and in 1952 he mounted for that company the piece Toque, with music by Argeliers León, and also Habana 1830, the first work with music by maestro Ernesto Lecuona, of the many works with his music that today's Ballet Nacional de Cuba has in its repertory.

Years later, when Fernando Alonso directed the Ballet de Camagüey, he created for this maestro, one of the founders of the Cuban school of ballet, the spectacle El canto del ruiseñor.

It was a crucial decade in Ramiro Guerra's career. He founded the Grupo Nacional de Danza Moderna, with which he introduced Rítmicas, music by Amadeo Roldán and a piece that, in 1962, featured set design by Eduardo Arrocha on La Jungla, by Wifredo Lam.

The Revolution triumphed in 1959 and, with that spirit, he founded the Department of Modern Dance of the Teatro Nacional de Cuba and the Conjunto Nacional de Danza Moderna (today Danza Contemporánea de Cuba), which he directed until 1971.

On several occasions the maestro recalled with pride how he formed the Conjunto: "30 dancers: ten white, ten black and ten mulatto. From there emerged Eduardo Rivero, Gerardo Lastra, Luz María Collazo, Eddy Veitía…", names that are now cardinal in Cuban dance.

All of his choreographies, although they refer to a genuinely Cuban theme, have a universal spirit and, through them, he develops that worldwide recognized Cuban technique of modern dance.

The Conjunto's first premiere was in February 1961, in the Covarrubias room of the Teatro Nacional. The program included two new works: Mulato, with music by Amadeo Roldán, and Mambí, with music by Juan Blanco and text by José Martí.

Then came Suite yoruba, considered his masterwork, with music by Amadeo Roldán, of which critic and poet Calvert Casey would say in 1965: "But for the Afro-Cuban myths it expresses, for the simple beauty of its dances and the fascination of the elements of scenery and costume, Suite yoruba vividly impresses the imagination and stands as his most attractive creation".

Titles succeeded one another throughout the 1960s and many are now also classics: Impromptu galante, El milagro de Anaquillé, Auto sacramental, Orfeo antillano, Medea y los negreros, Ceremonial de la danza, and La rebambaramba, with music by Amadeo Roldán and a libretto based on the original by Alejo Carpentier.

The choreographer navigated turbulent waters, and his work Decálogo del Apocalipsis was not premiered in 1971; nevertheless, the maestro has considered it his masterpiece. That piece mounted, but unseen, has become legend.

Moving into the 1970s, now outside the Conjunto he founded, he was choreographer and advisor to the Conjunto Folclórico Nacional de Cuba, for which he created, among others, Tríptico oriental and Trinitarias. For the Teatro Nacional de Pantomima, El reino de este mundo, based on the novel of the same name by Alejo Carpentier. He mounted Chacona, for the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, and in 1989, he created, for Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, De la memoria fragmentada, a work that summarizes all the choreographic work he created for that company.

He has been described as the "father of modern dance" in Cuba, an assessment that extends from the stage to theory and criticism with titles that are now essential: Apreciación de la Danza, Calibán Danzante, Coordenadas Danzarias, Eros baila, Danza y sexualidad, El síndrome del placer, Teatralización del folclore and other essays, and Una metodología para la enseñanza de la danza.

Ramiro Guerra is one of the greats, one who summoned the gods of dance and bent them to his spell through his works. Tributes and remembrances are fitting on the centennial of his birth.