 |
Bidding Farewell to a Maestro of Dance By SARAH ADRIANCE
"This is a plié," Hector Zaraspe says, proudly showing me a black-and-white photograph of one of his students in Madrid, some 50 years ago. He is rhapsodizing, talking about how wonderful his students were, and where they are now. We have met to talk about him and his thoughts on teaching on the eve of his retirement, after 34 years, from Juilliard. Instead, we are talking about his students from the time he started teaching in Argentina to the dancers he taught just this morning. This enthusiasm and devotion is what defines Maestro Zaraspe (as he his known to both his students and colleagues), as a teacher and human being.
 |
| Hector Zaraspe teaching in 1979. (Photo by Peter Schaaf) |
|
Zaraspe is an especially elegant man, his hair neatly styled, his suits impeccable, a sparkle of quiet wit in his eyes, his carriage regal. He manages, in heavily accented English, to convey all the nuances of technical refinement and the artistic spirit, using words like "extraordinary," "beautiful," and "perfect " in his dulcet voice. He is old-fashioned by nature but never lives in the past.Emanuel Hector Zaraspe was born in Catamarca, Argentina, the year of a military coup. He started folk dancing at age 8, Spanish dance at age 13, and acting at 16. While cultural dancing interested him, he realized he needed a stronger technical base and wanted to take ballet. He paid his first ballet teacher with hens and eggs until he was granted a scholarship. Later, when he told this teacher, Esmme Bulnes, that he wanted to teach, she replied, "Why do you want to run when you can't walk?" At age 22 he began teaching the mayor's daughters, and soon after was teaching at a labor and art school for poor children.Two years later, with a desire to study Spanish dance and $5 in his pocket, he booked a one-way boat passage to Spain. He studied ballet there and in London and Paris, slowly refining his dance philosophies and technique. Zaraspe came to the U.S. in 1964 with Antonio and his Spanish Ballet Company and he soon had a distinguished schedule, teaching for the American Ballet Center, Harkness House, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Particularly helpful to him in these first years were Robert Joffrey and Alvin Ailey, both of whom he recalls as pivotal in his life. "These people, I never forget—extraordinary," he says with sober devotion and gratitude.It is here in his story that The Juilliard School gets particularly lucky. In 1970, Hector Zaraspe was hired by Martha Hill and Anthony Tudor to cover Tudor's classes while he was away. The next year he joined a faculty that included Tudor, Alfredo Corvino, José Limón, and Anna Sokolow. His excitement for Juilliard is as fresh now as it was then. "I wish I was a student here now," he says, "to study here with the best teachers. … The chemistry the teachers have [with the students] is extraordinary. We don't have words to describe."The feeling of respect from the faculty is mutual. His colleagues are understandably sad to lose him. Andra Corvino remembers her father, Alfredo Corvino, and Zaraspe being like brothers and describes Zaraspe as being like a part of the family. "I have felt very privileged working on the faculty with him these past few years, and I will miss him."Stephen Pier of the ballet faculty says, "I love and have always loved working with Maestro Zaraspe because of his courage to be so generous in sharing his passion, love, knowledge, and experience of art. His views and deeply felt beliefs are born of real experience with some of the greatest figures in the field." With all his accomplishments, notes Pier, Zaraspe remains humble. "For Hector, 'The Dance' is what we are all here to serve."In 1965 Zaraspe became the private teacher of Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Zaraspe says that she once told him that his class seemed like the maintenance check the airplane gets before it can take off. This sentiment is mirrored by Juilliard Dance Division director Lawrence Rhodes, who was Zaraspe's student for a brief period in the '60s. "The way a dancer gets to know a teacher is physically. His class felt good. The sequence and structure were realistic and logical. Nothing felt awkward, nothing felt abusive. Today we would say his class was 'organic.'"He is humbled by his students—by their ability, their beauty, the optimism of their futures. Of being a teacher, Zaraspe says, "Don't pretend the student understands you. You have to understand the student, because the student has come here to learn. This is the place to do mistakes. Very important," he warns, "try to respect the student's spiritual feeling and intelligence." Teaching is a "big responsibility. A human being is in your hands. If you don't love your students, it's better you don't teach. Give the truth always."His class is a formal affair. When the room is quiet, he announces, "Good morning class." They reply "Good morning," and class begins. The exercises he gives are deceptively simple. Before the adagio, he tells his class that it can seem boring to move slowly but they must discover its power. He moves eloquently, displaying in his own body the quality of the movement. Rotation, extension, placement, and line are all qualities that come from inside the dancer, rather than being imposed on him. In Zaraspe's class, the technique is never separated from dancing.His relationship to the class accompanist is highly collaborative in nature. Musical ideas are fully integrated into his class. Zaraspe often stops to applaud the pianist, and comment to the students on how they might let the music inspire them. "Music is the language of the soul, dance is the language of the body. Body and soul, music and dance conceive an instrument of expression through which the spirit communicates."Class is also a collaboration with the students; he finds he learns as much from them as he expects they are learning from him. He is generous to his students and, in return, requires that they devote the highest level of perseverance to their class work. "Discipline is the mother of the art. Discipline is not militaristic; the dancer must be relaxed." Above all, he abhors apathy and laziness. He tells me that teaching is hard; the student must believe in the exercises, be patient, and be willing to concentrate intensely for the entire class. Improvement comes only with that discipline. On stage, they must forget the work and give themselves fully to the performance.Zaraspe's circle of influence is worldwide. In addition to his regular teaching at Juilliard and in Argentina, he has been a guest teacher with distinguished schools and companies including Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Het Nationale Ballet, Congreso Internacional de Ballet, Teatro Colón, Ballet International de Caracas, and Ballet Theater Français.His accomplishments as a choreographer are as impressive as his teaching career. His choreography reflects both his great passion for his culture as well as his broad interests. His credits include the films John Paul Jones (1959), 55 Days in Peking (1963), and Spartacus (1960), as well as numerous concert pieces, operas, and Tango Pasión, a Broadway production that he directed and choreographed. Other evidence of his interest in nurturing choreography includes the Hector Zaraspe Award, given each year to Juilliard's most accomplished graduating choreographer.Colorful stories come naturally to one who has lived life with such passion: teaching 12-year-old Mia Farrow to use castanets in Spain; dinners with Gina Lollobrigida; bringing Paloma Herrera to study in New York when she was 14; productions of his work at the Hollywood Bowl in California.He waits until the end of our interview to mention that he was given the key to the city of Miami in 1992. He doesn't readily mention his Fulbright awards, or the Unesco grant that enabled him and Dame Margot Fonteyn to found the first ballet company in Colombia. "I don't talk about these things," he says. He is given the key to his hometown in Argentina every time there is a new mayor. The Argentinian State of Tucuman has declared him a most distinguished citizen.While the Maestro is retiring from Juilliard, his passionate work will continue. In 1993, Zaraspe's generosity found a fitting outlet in the creation of Fundación Zaraspe, through which he shares his love of art and culture with South America. The foundation's motto—"Teach a Child. Help the Youth. Protect the Elderly"—is a tall order, but Zaraspe believes that the arts will bring peace and prosperity to all who are touched by them. For many years, he has taken Juilliard dancers to these places to teach and learn from these cultures, an exchange that shows young South American dancers how to study and teaches the Juilliard students that there is much to do outside of the classroom. (More information about his projects can be found at www.zaraspefoundation.org.)He has great affection for Juilliard and all within its walls. He talks with enthusiasm about Joseph and "Madame Polisi," the security guards, and most of all the students and faculty. "I don't want to say goodbye to Juilliard," he says. But South America is in a "bad situation. The doctor has to go where there are sick people." Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina—"all these places, they need teachers." Would it be selfish to say that we need him, too?Sarah Adriance is associate director for dance admissions and an alumna of Juilliard.
|
