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Pilar Rioja

"La danza para mí ha sido mi vida, lo más querido y sin ella no puedo vivir; es una manera de expresar todo lo que siento"

Pilar Rioja

Pilar Rioja, gran exponente de la danza española, encontró en ésta una forma de vida, “es lo más querido y sin ella no puedo vivir”. Es una manera de expresar “todo lo que siento”. Ahora “estoy feliz de que hayan pensado en mí en un día tan importante como es el Día Internacional de la Danza, cuando uno tiene la oportunidad de ver a distintas clases de danza con grupos muy buenos. Felicito a todos los organizadores que han hecho posible esta celebración”.
(leer +) [vía danza.com.mx]

Pilar Rioja is known worldwide as the Queen of Spanish Dance. She was born in Torreón, México to Spanish parents who hailed from the Rioja region of Spain. From the time she could walk, her parents encouraged Pilar to dance, and supported her pursuit of a career in the arts.

Ms. Rioja studied many forms of dance, but it was in Spain where she combined her modern, ballet and classical dance training with traditional Spanish dance forms. She has studied with Oscar Tarriba in Mexico, and in Spain with Regla Ortega, Samperio and El Estampío. She studied the classical bolero style with Angel Pericet. Ms. Rioja considers her teacher, Manolo Vargas, to be one of her greatest influences.

(leer +) [vía repertorio español]

Pilar Rioja from Torreón, Mexico, was born to parents from Rioja, Spain, where she learned from Regla Ortega, Samperio, and El Estampio to combine traditional Spanish dance with ballet and modern dance. She also studied classic bolero style with Angel Pericet. She is considered a bailerina, which indicates that she has studied several forms of dance. Ms. Rioja keeps Spanish dance alive in her academy in Mexico City and also frequently teaches and performs in Moscow. Gilberto Zalvídar, Executive Producer of Repertorio Español, met Ms. Rioja 29 years ago, when she performed at Carnegie Recital Hall. He invited her to Repertorio Español for a stage performance, and she has appeared there for an annual season ever since. (Repertorio Español Notes).

Ms. Rioja, whose dance performances I have attended for many years, is in excellent form and totally focused on the rhythms of the live pianist, the recorded music, the singers, and the percussionist. Whether she dances with castanets in a long, ruffled skirt, or she exotically dances in a flowing robe-like dress, she takes tiny, staccato steps, in her strapped Flamenco shoes and very toned legs. Ms. Rioja danced Stylized Spanish dances to the music of Monpou and Surinach, Classic Spanish dances to music by Halfter, Traditional Flamenco dances to Gypsy singing by Alfonso Cid and David Castellano, Stylized Flamenco dances to the play Yerma, by Federico García Lorca, and dances to Cuban and Afro-Cuban rhythms, like Guajiras and Colombianas. Her dancing was more academic and precise than the Flamenco that has been reviewed at Xunta, more serious than the Flamenco at Fazil's, and solo, as compared to the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Flamenco performance. Yet, the world of Flamenco in New York is small, and David Castellano, the singer/percussionist, has also been photographed at Xunta with Gisele Revollar.

(leer +) [vía exploredance.com]