Ballet Folklórico de México
de Amalia Hernández
HISTORY

Amalia Hernández 		In 1952, Amalia Hernández decided to form her own dance company. The experience she had acquired as a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer at Mexican Academy of Dance motivated her to start a small company of only eight members. This small group, called Ballet Moderno de México, began presenting choreographies, created by Amalia herself, in the Sala Chopin from time to time. In this first experience as an independent artist, she debuted her well-known "Sones de Michoacán" (Melodies of Michoacán) with indisputable success. Following this, her enthusiasm to continue in the field of folk dance became a true challenge to be met.
The group was able to remain active thanks to the fact that, a short time later, it was given the opportunity to perform on a television program called "Función de Gala," a project promoted and sponsored by Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, then director of Televicentro.

With the responsibility of airing one dance program a week, the director, dancer and choreographer made use of her great talent to present something different on each occasion. The result was surprising: a total of sixty-seven programs were broadcast with a staff that increased to twenty dancers, including Amalia herself.

The small company also attracted the attention of the Mexican Department of Tourism, which asked its director to take her show, under official auspices to the North American countries. In this way, the recently-created dance company visited Cuba and Canada, and also participated in the Festival del Pacífico. In this same year, 1958, the group also traveled to Los Angeles, California, where it took part in the Mexican national celebrations.
La Marucha, Chiapas
In 1959, Ms. Hernández dance company was again invited to participate abroad on behalf of Mexico, This time, Miguel Álvarez Acosta, the director of the goverment´s International Cultural Promotion Organization, asked Amalia Hernández and her group to prepare a special program as representatives of Mexico at the Pan-American Games in Chicago. For this purpose, she organized a tour in which the fifty-member company adopted the name Ballet Folklorico de México. Among the most success-full pieces performed were "Los hijos del Sol" (Children of the Sun), "Antiguos sones de Michoacán," "El Cupidito," "Fiesta Veracruzana," "Los Quetzales," "La Danza del Venado" (Deer Dance) and "Navidad en Jalisco" (Christmas in Jalisco).

Vals from Chapa de Corzo, Chiapas.
Their success in Chicago launched the folk dance company on the road to greatness. The then-president of México, Adolfo López Mateos, showed a special interest in the group, and offered all of his support in order to make it "the best dance company in the world."

As a consequence of the presidential offer, the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) scheduled a weekly performance by Amalia Hernández´ dance group. After the exhibition made to the tourists of the famous crystal curtain every Sunday morning at 9:30, Amalia´s ballet began their performance. On October 11, 1959, the permanent program of the group that would be known, for a short time, as the Ballet Folklórico de Bellas Artes began.

To the surprise of many, their initial performances at Bellas Artes attracted such a following that the director of INBA, Celestino Gorostiza, offered Amalia Hernández an additional scheduling on Wednesday evenings. Since then, the dance group founded by Amalia Hernández has continuously performed in this theater, twice on Sundays (morning and night) and once on Wednesday evenings.

With only seven years of independent artistic life, the company had taken on international arenas and obtained official support for its work. Amalia Hernández had decided to make her dance company one of the best in the world of its kind, and thanks to her talent and professionalism, this goal was on its way to becoming a reality.

Diseño: INTELNET. Rev. 10 Febrero 97
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