2024-08-16 23:38:02
MEXICO CITY (AP) — For Mexican dancer Isaac Hernández, every edition of his international dance extravaganza “Despertares” is special, but the 2024 event marks a milestone as it celebrates its first decade of history.
“When they tell you that life begins with realizing your dreams, that’s very accurate in a way,” he said in an interview in Mexico City. “I’m lucky to have a program for so many years at such a young age, a program that excites me so much or teaches me so much.”
Part of the challenge for the production was the logistics of attracting high-profile dancers and dance companies from different continents to Mexico on the same day. Another is getting support to make it happen. This year, they invited Citibanamex as one of their sponsors.
Dancers who will perform on August 23 include Romanian Alina Cojocaru, a former dancer with London’s Royal Ballet and English National Ballet; Russia’s Natalia Osipova, principal dancer with London’s Royal Ballet and the U.S. San Francisco Ballet soloist Katherine Bachman.
“Seeing them together is very special,” Hernandez said.
Alessandro Flora / Katherine Herring / Dores Andre / Tiller Peck / Esteban Hernandez / Braylon Brawler / James S Tritt/Juliano Nunes/Jason Kitberg/Romain Mejía/Germaine Louvet/Kyla Mack/Max Kevorn/Michelle Dorrance / Chey Jurado / Park Se-eun / Emily Suzuki, Lightbalance Company, pianist Ana Fernández and Aszure Barton Artists will also perform at the party.
“The artistic content includes works that I have been trying to bring for many years, or very symbolic works, such as Akram Khan’s “Giselle,” which has only appeared in a complete ballet. Crane allowed me to film the final pas de deux of the piece.
Hernandez was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1990. From 2015 to 2022, he served as principal dancer of the English National Ballet. At the age of 28, he was awarded the Benoit Dance Award for Best Dancer.
To his list of achievements, he added fatherhood to his youngest son, Mateo, 3, the product of his relationship with Spanish dancer Tamara Rojo.
“It’s fascinating to see a child grow up and feel responsibility and commitment to a person’s life. It’s very exciting. I really enjoy being a father and I really enjoyed talking to Mateo and bringing it to life. He was treated as a human being and laughed with him and found that it made sense. “One day he took a girl to the dance and he was a gentleman and those things made me very proud and happy in a way. “
In addition to her dance career, Hernandez has also branched out into acting, with roles in the Netflix miniseries Someone Must Die and Carlos Saura’s film King of the World. Another film directed by renowned Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco is about to be released. Filming was completed a few months ago.
“Two years ago, after ‘The Awakening,’ I invited him (Franco) to a party we had with the cast afterwards,” he said. “He told me ‘I’m looking for a role in you and I’m not promising you anything, but I think it might be fun'”
“Then he dropped the bomb on Jessica Chastain, and I was very doubtful about accepting that challenge,” Hernandez added. “I was very scared because it’s a difficult story and it’s not something to share a major work with an Oscar winner and a director as special as Michel, and I didn’t want this project to fail because it didn’t measure up in some way. .
They shot in San Francisco, which Hernandez calls “a wonderful creative thrill.” Hernandez did not reveal many details of the story but said he found similarities between his personality and his own life. To overcome his initial fears, he followed the advice of friends who knew Franco, who told him “if he thinks it works, it works.”
“I was waiting for the movie to come out, knowing how much time I was going to put in (acting), and I had been invited to a few other projects, but I also decided to prioritize ballet this time,” he said. “I can’t tell you that I’m going to want to do this when I stop dancing, I’m not really sure.”
For now, Hernandez is enjoying the fruits of Despertares’ decade, including overseas scholarships for Mexican ballet students and even other types of publicity.
“A person who first saw ‘Desperado’ as a girl… decided to devote herself to cultural promotion and now heads the cultural section of the Mexican Consulate in New York,” he said. “She firmly believes that a large part of her drive and inspiration to devote her life to projects like Despertares, and now she is on a platform that allows her to help other artists and allows her to position Mexico abroad. Through Art.
“You never know how much you can influence people and how much you can change the reality of the country with a project like this, but it’s possible,” he said.
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