I am very excited to share a new book with you by Duncan Tonatiuh, which I wrote about earlier in The Princess and the Warrior. Tonatiuh is from Mexico and writes beautiful stories about his native land, and he illustrates them in the style of the Mixtec and Mayan cultures.
Books about ballet are in short supply around here, so I was excited to buy a book about both ballet and Latin American culture. This biography of Amalia Hernandez is very interesting, even for people who aren’t ballet-inclined, i.e. me.
Amalia Hernandez decided to become a dancer at a very young age and was very dedicated to learning new styles of dance. What set her apart was her appreciation for the traditional cultural dances from the different regions of Mexico. Amalia loved them so much that she created a dance troupe and began choreographing the traditional dances into works of art.
Ballet Folklorico de Mexico has performed all over the world, and won many awards. I would jump at the chance to see them perform. Hernandez passed away in 2000 at the age of 83, but her contribution to Mexican culture will continue to live on thanks to her dance troupe, dance school and authors like Tonatiuh who honor her memory.
Advertisements Share this:
