Company

During the years in which the duo Rosario and Antonio lived and performed in the United States in the 1940s, they also appeared in several musical films made in Hollywood. One of these was Hollywood Canteen (1944), an ensemble production created to entertain soldiers fighting in the Second World War. The number set to an orchestral version of the traditional Andalusian piece known as El vito, included in the film, offers a glimpse of the kind of shows with which the pair toured throughout the Americas: a rapid interweaving of turns and heelwork in which spectacle took precedence over technique. Rubén Olmo chose this dance as a nod to Antonio Ruiz Soler’s work in cinema, a facet of his career that he would later continue in Spain, not only as a dancer but also as a leading actor.

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