Colombia, La Bella Otero’s first international tour

La Bella Otero arrives today at the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo in Bogotá. This is the sixth tour of the work choreographed and directed by Rubén Olmo, and its first international tour since its premiere in Madrid in July 2021.

Rubén Olmo has placed dance at the service of storytelling in order to achieve a fusion of styles — from folklore to flamenco and stylized dance — to tell, through dance, the story of a woman who reinvented herself after a tragic event in her childhood, triumphed as an artist and courtesan, and ended up ruined by gambling.

For Rubén Olmo, director of the Ballet Nacional de España, this first international tour of La Bella Otero “will give audiences in other countries the chance to discover this character. La Bella Otero speaks of a woman who constantly fights for her freedom at a historical moment of great social inequalities, and what better moment than the present to tour with this ballet.”

The plot, dramatized by Gregor Acuña-Pohl, has selected some of the most significant moments in the artist’s biography that could be expressed through dance, without attempting to be exhaustive. “I have tried to stay close to the historical figure and turn it into a ballet that moves the audience, without judging her. The most important thing for me was to show a person with great magnetism, charisma and strength.”

Granada-born dancer Patricia Guerrero once again appears as guest artist on this tour, embodying the character of Carolina Otero. Patricia Guerrero has said of the role: “I am portraying a great woman, many things about whom I admire, and I very much enjoy having the opportunity to perform her.” The young dancer and choreographer trained in the companies of Mario Maya and Rubén Olmo. She is currently a leading figure in avant-garde flamenco and received the National Dance Award for Performance in 2021. She recognises that “La Bella Otero is a work with a harsh underlying story, but it is dynamic, entertaining, fresh, and full of colour and energy, which will make us all enjoy it, both on and off stage.”

To embody the protagonist in her later years, Rubén Olmo is once again counting on the special collaboration of Maribel Gallardo, répétiteur of the Ballet Nacional de España. “Taking up the character of Madame Otero again, beyond what it means to step into the shoes of such a fascinating woman despite her tragic life, means reliving the emotion of feeling the stage and the warmth of the audience. Unfortunately, the artistic life of a dancer is very short, and only rarely does life give you an opportunity like the one I am fortunately experiencing, intensely and gratefully,” says the Cádiz-born dancer.

Musically, this new tour of La Bella Otero in Bogotá will feature the participation of the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, conducted by composer and conductor Manuel Busto, who has coordinated the musicians from different styles who composed the music for this ballet, integrating them into the symphonic score he created.

For Maestro Busto, “it is very emotional to be able to present La Bella Otero in Bogotá on its first international tour — without doubt a major leap, both symbolically and geographically, in the life of such a passionate work, as well as a true test to present it before an audience with a unique culture, from which I very much keep in mind the names of artists and writers, a people with whom we share far more than just a language.”

The remaining compositions in the work were created by Alejandro Cruz Benavides, Agustín Diassera, the group Rarefolk, and flamenco guitarists Diego Losada, Víctor Márquez, Enrique Bermúdez and Pau Vallet.

Since its premiere at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela in 2021, La Bella Otero has also toured to Seville, Albacete, Málaga and Lorca. This week it will premiere in Bogotá, and in June it will continue its tour in Granada and Oviedo.

This tour to Colombia has been made possible thanks to the European Union’s NextGenerationEU funds and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.