All texts:  Estela Zatania

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My name is Lucero Tena, born in Mexico City, currently a Spanish citizen and giving castanet recitals. I was living in Mexico when I met Carmen Amaya and my background explains how and why I met this great artist. I was studying classical ballet with Nina Chestakova for eight years, and Spanish dance with Emilia Díaz from Madrid who taught me all the wonderful dances of Spanish folklore, eighteenth century bolero and the classical dance of Spanish composers like Falla, Albéniz, Granados, Turina, etc. She always spoke of the two most glorious interpreters of Spanish dance: classical dancer Antonia Mercé “La Argentina”, and the great flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya.

Lucero Tena

My burning desire to know both women was within the realm of possibility with Carmen, if not with Antonia Mercé who had since passed away. Carmen arrived in Mexico and I was thrilled to attend her debut..magical, majestic, electrifying, true art in all its glory, just as my teacher had described, even beyond my expectations. I had to meet her immediately so I went to her dressing-room. There was this small woman...diminutive, all nerves, a feline countenance, clenched jaws...she was still in tension from the performance. I told her I was a ‘ballerina’, that my teacher Emilia Díaz had spoken about her and that meeting her was the most emotional moment of my life.

She took my hand, gave me a kiss and I embraced her. My mother who had come with me said I should let her rest and that more people were waiting to congratulate her. During the six months Carmen was in Mexico I went to see her perform and be with her every single day, and I finally got up enough nerve to ask if she would give me classes. She graciously answered that she didn’t teach but that I could attend her rehearsals, which I did for several months. I learned to love flamenco just from seeing the great Carmen Amaya.

Photo by Manuel Ortega

“...Ana Pavlova, Pau Casals, Andrés Segovia, Carmen Amaya...”

During the rehearsals there was a change of program that called for some orchestrated regional and classical Spanish numbers in addition to flamenco. I remember one of them was Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol” where the classical part was interpreted by her first dancers, Goyo Reyes and Pepita Ortega, and there was a section Carmen danced with her sister Leonor (Leo). When Leo fell ill with hepatitis the doctor ordered absolute bed rest, and when the day of the debut arrived Leo couldn’t dance. During a meeting with the company, Carmen, who had mounted the dance for herself and her sister (the rest of the show was choreographed by Goyo and Pepita) said firmly: “Lucerito, the little Mexican girl can take Leo’s place”.

Lucero Tena dancing with Carmen Amaya

I was sitting on one side observing the meeting with my mother and they called us over to the table to ask if I would join the group to take Leo’s place. I remember being so surprised I was dumbstruck, but my dear mother gave me a kick under the table so I just managed to blurt out “YES!”

And that was my beginning with the unequalled Carmen Amaya, and I say “unequalled”, with no successors, because ever since I was a young dancer I’ve always said that there has been an Ana Pavlova, a Pau Casals, an Andrés Segovia and a Carmen Amaya. It was a fantastic life experience to travel with my Carmen (whenever I speak of her, and even when I used to speak with her, she always was, and will be “my Carmen”) throughout different cities in Mexico and then the United States, from New York’s Carnegie Hall to the inauguration of Hollywood’s Huntington Hartford Theater. Carmen had one glorious success after another, she was electrifying, she moved audiences to tears. For nearly three years, until 1957, I traveled with my Carmen, and on days off my mother and I would visit her in her hotel room where she would always be embroidering, she loved that, and sometimes we’d go for a walk...she loved parks and she’d run and laugh like a child, climbing up trees. This was a woman with incredible inborn intelligence, and boundless humanity.

Carmen with her aunt Juana

Monument to Carmen Amaya
“Carmen Amaya led the way in flamenco
dance as did Sabicas in flamenco guitar”

She defended and adored her family and was always very in love with her husband Juan Antonio Agüero. I once asked her what thoughts went through her mind on stage and how she dealt with the fear, the nerves, the crushing responsibility, and her answer was: “when you go out on stage, think that you’re in a magic world where you’re the queen, and throw yourself into it forgetting all your problems and disappointments...don’t look at the audience, you must rise above the reality and when you’re living and enjoying your art, then you’ll be communicating”. Amazing! Those words have always stuck in my mind and will always be my guide.

After the USA Carmen went to South America. Although I was delighted to be with her, I had learned what I could about flamenco, and so many other things, and it was time to move on. I left the group and told Carmen my greatest dream was to travel and discover Spain. She said that was the right thing to do, that we would see each other in Spain and she would be very proud of me.

Four years later our paths again crossed when she came to Madrid and went to see me at the Corral de la Morería. That night was incredible. Word had got round that she was coming to see me dance, and the tablao was packed to the rafters with people who wanted a glimpse of Carmen. My whole body trembled with nerves and emotion. I remember how incredibly beautiful she was that night, and how well-dressed: a pearl-gray gown and satin shoes. I dedicated my performance to her and afterwards went to her table to say hello...she kissed me and said she was very proud of me and that I really knew how to move the ‘bata de cola’, something I’d learned from her. So many women just stoop down to pick up the long train of the bata. She never bent down but rather kicked it up into the air to catch it, and I always did it just as I’d seen her do...she would raise it high over her head like a peacock. I remember that night her husband Juan Antonio told me they were on their way to Barcelona to visit Dr. Puigbert before the European tour.

"A ti Lucero, con todo mi cariño" - Carmen Amaya

There’s an LP that was recorded in New York, “The Queen of the Gypsies” (‘La Reina de los Gitanos’), where I had the honor and the pleasure of doing palmas. I wouldn’t want to forget to mention another great name in Carmen’s company and that was Sabicas, that artist of the guitar. When Sabas played and Carmen danced, it was like going to another world. Carmen led the way in flamenco dance just as Sabicas did in flamenco guitar.

I feel as if I could say so much more about the great Carmen Amaya and only regret not knowing how to do it better...

Photo by Manuel Ortega

END OF THE SERIES

“Carmen Amaya... ever since then everything pales by comparison, I have never in my life seen, nor shall I ever see anyone dance better than that gypsy woman”. Juan Maya ‘Marote’, the late guitarist from Granada.

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