Some months ago, Miguel Ángel Berna danced at the Palais Royal, in Paris. An anonymous spectator, a dance lover, wrote:

"The “jota” that also is the Spanish letter j, is sang and danced with castanets. A very quick dance characterized by jumps and virtuous rhythmic exercises.

Miguel Angel Berna wonderfully illustrated it. His appearance is a shock that makes us immediately forget the wind and cold of this open air soirée. One talks about “presence” to qualify that charismatic power of dancers who maintain audience expecting in spite of their loneliness on stage and it effectively is that sensation what we experience in front of the strength so intelligently combined with grace of this dancer, up to the point to not being able to know what of these two qualities wins and dominates over the other and it is a posy of memories carrying the spectator to another world, the one of Spain, with all its picturesque scope but also to that other one, more vast and more universal, the one of beauty.

A great lesson for classical dance lovers, who will retrieve in this jota the command, the pure arabesque on space, the loved perfection".

These are words reflecting the feeling of thousands of spectators, mainly out of our borders. Specialized critics have praised in similar terms this Zaragoza born dancer, in a communion of difficult criteria to be found at these moments.

Miguel Ángel Berna is more than a great dancer, he is the renewal of a language, as ours and as distant at the same time, needing a catharsis like the one he offers us in each performance.

On the occasion of the premiere of “Amares”, we made him this interview we are offering you now, with the intent to bring him closer to you all.

The interview:

Carolina Masjuan- How did you start in this?

M.A.Berna- Pure vocation. At eight I told my mother I wanted to dance the jota. And this was thirty one years ago.

C.M.- What your formation is? teachers, masters,…

M.A.B.- My strong base is in the folklore but the searching of new ways made me to immerse myself  into my own being. This has been my true master. In this life one always find worse people than you, but also much better people. I have tried to learn from both.

C.M.-After having danced from a very tender age, you were a long period out from stage, what happened? What the interior process was that made you came back with more eager?

M.A.B.- I simply escaped. But the more you escape the more life search you. We have fear and that fear makes one go off from ones course. I understood that I had to face that and I’m still.

C.M.- Since your award in the “Certamen de Danza Española y Flamenco” in 1993, how your personal evolution as dancer has been?

M.A.B.-Fortunately we are always learning and I think that we need several life to be able to learn something; as we always made the same mistakes. We come to this world and leave it without knowing ourselves, without knowing where we come from nor to where we are going to.

My evolution has been and it is of being aware that responses are not from outside but from inside. Silence has the clue. It may sound rather philosophical, but this is the way it is.

C.M.-Seven years later, in 2000, you win the first prize of Choreography at the same contest with La Templanza. How does the need of being choreographer come? What are your sources of inspiration?

M.A.B.-Artists have moved away from natural life. Ancient man understood the world as a sublime art work. Artists tried to imitate that work. Today the man is alone. Art can reveal us the man or it can make us go off of it. This is why nowadays art conceals instead of reveal.

In the desert, in the "sabina", In woods and rivers, in the land where I was born and in their people, there is where the keys of this work can be found.

C.M.-This year two times in Paris, in March and now, some time ago in the Palais Royal with the jota of "Rasmia" a classic in your repertoire. How the experience was about?

M.A.B.-Working in France is always a pleasure. At cultural level we are far away from them. All this makes one think about and you give importance to your own culture, the importance that is removed at home and that is given outside. A topic, but true.

C.M.-I think that you will also tour with it to Tel Aviv and México D.F.  Do you perform a lot abroad? What do you feel?

M.A.B.- We work much more abroad than in Spain. Unfortunately it is always the same. Dancing at the Suzanne Dellal, La Maison de la Dance or in the Gala of  “ Gigantes de la Danza” in México, together with Stars of the American Ballet, Ballet Béjart, Ballet de Cuba or the Bolshoi, is always a challenge and a responsibility

This is a very particular work, without artifice and very energetic, connecting very well with the audience and that it furthermore demonstrates that coming from the  folklore, no matter from what region it is, one can create in a very worthy way.

C.M.-And now you premiere Amares in Madrid, what does this represent for you?

M.A.B.- “Amares”is the first work with plot that we have presented. It has been a challenge, as music, staging, dressing, lighting, choreography,,…were original material, new and different form all our former works.
Thirty one years ago, it was of course unthinkable that with the “tip-heel” “kick and turn” language it could be able to develop any plot.  This has been the true challenge.

C.M.- Again with Mayte Bajo, after being on stage with Aida Gómez or Lola Greco, this is a professional relationship with already several works, how it is like to dance with her?

M.A.B.-We have always understood very well each other on stage and in addition the audience has also perceived it. Mayte has transmuted this work very well  and at the end this was the objective, that any one can adapt it to his/her own essence, no matter if it is classical, contemporary, flamenco,…

C.M.- You are also preparing a production for the Expo about Goya I think and something in collaboration with Chevi Muraday, can you tell us something about this?

M.A.B.- Goya is a challenge and even more if we think that there hardly are dance works about him. He was from Aragon as I am and he reflected very well the world where I come from. I have a very worthy team, with the direction of Luis Olmos on the top. As for Chevi, it may seem that our works are opposite, but when you search the middle point all begins to make sense. And this is how it was. Chevi made a work shop to the company and this has been very productive and effective. And regarding Goya there will be for sure a very special surprise

C.M.-After the disappearance of the Ballet de Zaragoza, the Town Council bet for Miguel Ángel Berna’s Company, can you comment us about the current situation regarding the institutional support?

M.A.B.- So much nonsense has been told and so much lies that I prefer to tell nothing from the time being.

by fotoescena © 2007 Carolina Masjuan

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