Blanca Gómez Cifuentes is a doctoral student in Art History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). She is co-editor of
Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing Technician at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Graduated in History in 2000, PhD in Prehistory in 2008. Member of the Geographic Information Systems and Digital Humanities Lab – CSIC since 2009. I have worked in issues regarding Data Modelling in UML, implementation and deployment of Spatial Databases, GIS and Remote Sensing Analysis, Spatial Data Infrastructures and Webmapping, in the context of Humanities Research Projects carried out within the Spanish National Resarch Council.
Specialist in Cartography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). She is a Engineer in Geodesy and Cartography from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) with Advanced Studies in Geographic Engineering from the UPM. She is officer career of Topographical Engineers (leave) and of Systems and Information Technologies of the State Administration (since 1992). She has developed her professional career at the National Geographic Institute of Spain (IGN) and since 2005, she is responsible for the GIS and Digital Humanities unit in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Idoia Murga Castro, PhD (History of Art) is Tenured Researcher at Instituto de Historia, CSIC, where she studies the relationships between dance and visual arts. She has a degree in Classical Dance from the RAD and the ISTD. She has worked in the field of museums as curator, adviser and coordinator of exhibitions; she is the author of various books and articles and directs several R&D projects about dance history.
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This study presents the results of the research project on the Ballets Espagnols de Antonia Mercé La Argentina, a dance company active between 1927 and 1929 that adapted the model of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes to a repertoire based on the construction of a national identity through the modern and avant-garde aesthetics of interwar Europe. The systematisation of the preserved sources and their visualisation in interactive maps permits research to be carried out on one of the most brilliant episodes in the history of Spanish dance and to collaborate in the recovery of a forgotten dance heritage.
Systematizing preserved sources of the Ballets Espagnols de Antonia Mercé La Argentina to create interactive maps which visualize their activity.
One of the difficulties encountered in research on Dance Studies, and especially in dance history, is the ephemeral condition of the object of study. Due to the impossibility of direct access to the primary source, which is the original performance of the dance work, it is necessary to trace its origin through the artistic, written, musical or audiovisual materials that have been preserved. The study of sketches of sets, costumes, scores, choreographic notation, films, sound recordings, librettos, newspaper reviews and documents, among others, will show the contribution made by each dance work when it was premiered. This information is the primary basis on which to establish the subsequent interpretive analysis. The frequent dispersion of these materials, as well as their poor preservation or loss, together with a short academic tradition and scarce research in certain contexts, mean that large gaps still exist in dance history. This is even more evident in the Spanish academic context in relation to dance research. Despite artistic manifestations such as flamenco, which was awarded UNESCO's World Heritage status in 2010, and other dance jewels, such as the bolero — a dance form legacy from the eighteenth century — Dance Studies are not established in the university system. Besides, research in dance history is still limited and depends on other humanistic and artistic disciplines. Therefore, the advance in the application of new methods in Digital Humanities and their open access offers great potential for research into the history of Spanish dance, increasing the level of interpretation of the preserved sources, and the possibilities of integration and impact on international art history narratives, from which it has traditionally been excluded.
This article presents the case study of the research project
Spanish-styleversion of the model of Sergei Diaghilev's successful Ballets Russes, which had dazzled Western audiences and critics since 1909 with its repertoire of ballets by the most outstanding creators and intellectuals, such as Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Natalia Goncharova, Manuel de Falla, Vaslav and Bronislava Nijinska, among many others.
Diaghilev's previous success encouraged the foundation of other groups that examined their respective roots and national identities in order to propose modern pieces, which include the Ballets Suédois, Ballets Romantiques Russes, Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and, in this case, the Ballets Espagnols. In these works, La Argentina surrounded herself with outstanding Spanish musicians, painters and writers in the creation of a repertoire based on Spanish cultural legacies. Some of her most outstanding works were
total work of art— derived from Richard Wagner's
The Ballets Espagnols were conceived mainly for a foreign audience and the ensemble
never performed in Spain, making internationalisation a key element in understanding the
acceptance of Spanish dance and its legacy in the memory of Western dance from then on.
Despite the repercussion that both Antonia Mercé and her company had on Spanish dance,
no monographic study of the Ballets Espagnols existed to date. Only some studies examine
her biography and trajectory, and some articles and books propose readings of her
context.
It was therefore essential to have a tool that would enable the systematic examination of the preserved sources of diverse typology located in different countries. Besides, it was also possible to analyse the presence of this company in very specific sections using spatiotemporal coordinates. The research project was carried out between 2018 and 2020 within the framework of the State Programme for the Promotion of Scientific and Technical Research of Excellence, under Europe Excellence Dynamization Actions of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, at the Department of Art History and Heritage of the Institute of History of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), in collaboration with the Unit of Geographic Information Systems and Digital Humanities at the Centre for Human and Social Sciences. Part of this work has also been continued in a new research project, entitled
The application of Digital Humanities to dance has become a fertile field for the advancement of knowledge in a discipline traditionally very attached to physical, oral and face-to-face transmission through body language techniques. Paradoxically, the context of extended reality is offering new advantages for areas of historical research, such as the recovery and reconstruction of dance heritage.
Many initiatives along these lines are currently being carried out, such as the
projects developed at Florida State University with the ViFlow augmented reality
platform for dance
Regarding exploration of new software for performing arts research along the lines of
theatre analytics
Furthermore, Digital Humanities have provided fundamental tools for the assessment of
the spatiotemporal coordinates in dance history research, focusing on the evidence
preserved through interactive mapping. Of particular importance are the contributions of
Harmony Bench (Ohio University) and Kate Elswit (Royal Central School of Speech and
Drama) whose application of new digital research methodologies in conjunction with
traditional tools have made it possible to manage, analyse and compare on a large scale
the vast amount of data obtained on the different tours of dance companies in the
twentieth century, giving rise to what has become known as dynamic spatial histories of
movement
The implementation of a Digital Humanities project of this nature requires addressing
the systematisation of information by designing and creating data models.
This is what
is known, generically, as the description of the universe of discourse
or the part of
the real world we wish to study and represent
Data modelling is a current topic of discussion in Digital Humanities. Its definition,
within this spectrum, is not very different from the one usually used in computer
sciences. There are authors who believe that data modelling should be one of the main
tasks of research projects in humanities interpretation
of an
object, both in the real and virtual world; a constructive and creative process in which
the functions of digital technology determine which aspects should be modelled
Within the framework of our research project, we have undertaken a joint work process
between the mentioned research group and the technology unit of Geographic Information
Systems and Digital Humanities CCHS-CSIC, the latter having extensive experience in the
modelling of scientific data
Data systematisation involved designing a model containing the classes, possible relationships and properties of our information. The extensive collection was extracted from diverse sources, from national and international institutions, and will provide support for future consultations, studies, spatiotemporal analyses and visualisations to understand the contributions of the repertoire and the performances of the Ballets Espagnols and the individual recitals of Antonia Mercé La Argentina.
The data modelling of our project has been carried out according to the UML (Unified
Modelling Language) standard. Being an internationally used language, it enables our
work to be understandable, scalable and reusable by any other researcher working on a
related topic. Despite the potential of UML, its extension within the humanities is
relatively limited. For several years, XML has been used for work in the field of text
editing and analysis. There are therefore several examples of transformation of literary
works to XML format
The class diagram that describes our universe of discourse, within the framework of this art and dance history project, takes into account the georeferenced nature of the data and has been implemented in a database through an Entity-Relationship model using a free software management system, PostgreSQL and the PostGIS spatial extension. This "spatial" database structure offers not only the power of SQL queries, but also the possibility of integration in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for subsequent spatiotemporal analysis and the generation of maps and dynamic visualisations.
This potential also extends to the development of different forms of access, for example
through a map viewer, and the reuse of the information generated by other researchers or
a more general public. Thanks to the georeferenced nature of the data, web map services
have been implemented that comply with the regulations and standardisation of spatial
data (in particular with the specifications of the Open Geospatial Consortium), as well
as other types of access to the data, still to be determined, always in an open science
context
In order to fulfil those principles, the datasetfindable
through web
searches. Data are also accessible
in an open spatial format such as GeoJSON and
interoperable thanks to the above-mentioned Web Map Service, described in a standard
language that enables linkage to other projects regardless of protocols, software or
operating systems. The creative commons (by-nc-sa) licencing grants reuse to other
researchers as long as terms such as attribution are observed.
The data model of
As has been stated, the main sources are the shows’ handbills preserved from various locations. The information they contain has been broken down into many items to enable atomized database storage that ensures the implementation of complex queries and their versatility.
The logic of the model starts from a show that takes place in a specific location and on
specific dates. A show is made up of musical numbers in which a fragment of a play is
enacted by a series of performers (dancers, musicians and conductor). Musical numbers
may have been filmed by an author, and that footage may be kept in a private or public
collection. Handbills and posters made for each show are also registered, along with
their physical description, and location of known copies. The class Play
registers all
information regarding the original play: title, authors, and date. Each piece of
information related to the show’s development is detailed as a specialization of the
class Component.
There are many components in a show: set design, models,
choreographies, costumes, librettos and scores. Their authors, title (if applicable),
current location, date and dimensions (if applicable) are registered, along with
information about formats, techniques (if applicable) and, for scores, recordings if
any.
The following two aspects of the components of each show should be highlighted: whether it is possible to specify their current location (for example, in a museum or collection) and the existence of copies.
The data model acknowledges two types of people: authors and performers. Basic biodata on both is registered, plus their specialty. The whole project is geographically pinned whenever the information can be spatialized: current location of the show’s components, handbills, posters, recordings, footage and most significantly, the location of theatres where the shows took place. Locations of all kinds are managed through the class "Place", where a point is stored in geographic WGS84 coordinates. All places are attached to the worldwide locations layer downloaded from Natural Earth’s ( https://www.naturalearthdata.com/) populated places and subsequently to a country. This way the spatial component enables future queries to be aggregated by country or locality.
Despite the fact that many theatres no longer exist, thorough research has yielded an accurate position for almost all of them. In that case the generic locality’s coordinates taken from the Natural Earth layer are displayed in the map. Although this is a data model designed for this project, we believe that the development of sufficiently generic classes and the introspection carried out on the nature of the information make it an easily reusable model for any other project in the same field.
The implementation of the model has consisted of the direct development of an Entity-Relationship model adjusted to the definition of classes. Given the need for a geographic data manager and the potential use of the database in online projects, it was decided to host the model in a PostgreSQL Database Management System (DBMS) with its PostGIS spatial extension. All coordinates have been defined in geographical WGS84. Access to basic Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) operations has been enabled through the development of a web interface in PHP. This allows the project researchers to maintain and extend the database.
The database has been completed with the help of the developed tools, adding plays, authors, performers, programmes, etc. The location of the theatres was first carried out using a geocoding service, but has finally required an exhaustive revision through searches on Google Maps and in some cases more specific revisions when the theatre has disappeared or its name has been altered. In any case, all theatre locations refer to a GIS layer of places, so that in cases where it has been impossible to obtain the exact location of a venue, the coordinates of the centroid of the place in which it is located are used (this is the case of 3 theatres out of a total of 115).
The developed system (database + user interface) has been the tool to systematise the large amount of dispersed materials and documentation currently held in different international institutions, such as libraries, archives, museums and documentation centres. The collections held in the institutions listed below were consulted during the development of the project:
Among the large number of primary sources conserved in these institutions, programs, posters, press clippings and correspondence were essential as they provided the vital space-time information. Furthermore, it was necessary to contrast the data with other sources such as photographs, costume and set designs, wardrobe and video recordings. Other studies about Antonia Mercé and her Ballets Espagnols were equally important.
At the same time, and in line with the
Likewise, given the enormous number of performances that Antonia Mercé gave both with
the Ballets Espagnols and in individual recitals, it was necessary to clarify the layout
of her itineraries, separating both types of programmes, but offering an overall reading
that would facilitate the comprehension the context of the collective and the individual
pieces — both the newly created solos and those numbers taken from the ballets that
ended up working better as solo performances by the choreographer
The atomisation of the information collected allows it to be used in many ways,
including analysis or visualisation. The development of a made-to-measure
web
map
The logic followed from the data model considers that the succession of programmes
ordered by date generates a line that describes what could be called a tour.
Lines
have been generated by linking the performances of the Ballets Espagnols and Antonia
Mercé for each of the years considered in the project: 1927, 1928 and 1929. The points
of each theatre allow access to the rest of the information collected by the research
group: performances, performers, authors of the works and elements. In addition, there
is also the possibility of filtering all the content shown according to the start and
end dates of the performances, using a time bar.
Interoperable services and metadata have also been generated for the project to adhere
to the FAIR Principles mentioned above, following the specifications of the Open
Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the ISO standard for geographic data and data services
(ISO 19100 series). Consequently, the Web Map Service (WMS) of "investigacionendanza"
allows any user to consult the project data using desktop GIS software or to upload it
to their online project.
From a technical point of view, the webmap has been developed entirely in JavaScript,
using OpenLayers, and drivers written in PHP for database connections. The WMS service
is generated from a Geoserver server provided by the Spatial Humanities project Imago
Orbis
In short, the analysed case study illustrates how the methods employed by Digital Humanities, and specifically the Spatial Humanities, make it possible to extend and amplify the interpretative level of many different historical sources scattered in numerous locations. The consultation of an enormous amount of documentation, distributed among institutions in different countries, has been complemented, ordered and arranged for the reconstruction of the trajectories of the Ballets Espagnols de Antonia Mercé La Argentina, temporarily based in Paris in interwar Europe. The impact of this project can be seen especially in the interactive visualisation, the delimitation of the monthly time periods of the company's activities over the two years and the ability to distinguish between Antonia Mercé's individual recitals and the performances of the whole company. Moreover, the project has provided the opportunity to assess each performance in the context of the critical response and artistic production.
In spatial terms, the georeferenced assessment of the dancer's performances in different theatres in the same city is particularly interesting, as it provides a better idea of the prestige that her shows were acquiring over time. The exact location of each performance also makes it possible to understand the type of audience that might attend the shows, depending on the district where the theatre was located, the distance from the city centre and the different categories of venues. Therefore, in the early days, the circuits in which the Ballets Espagnols were shown were somewhat peripheral — it is worth noting their world premiere in the German city of Krefeld. Their first steps were taken in Germany and Italy, but it was not until later, when the performers were more experienced on stage and familiar with a more refined repertoire, that the Ballets Espagnols premiered in Paris.
However, it is noticeable that even Antonia Mercé did not dance on the first-class stages, such as the Paris Opera, until a few months before her death in 1936, after several attempts to revive her frustrated project of the Ballets Espagnols. The seasonal itineraries through numerous European cities between 1927 and 1929 confirm that Antonia Mercé's company had not yet achieved the prestige of other, more established international dance groups, who enjoyed a more constant and prolonged presence in leading cultural centres (Fig. 6). The Théâtre National de l'Opéra Comique (Paris) and Town Hall (New York) stand out as key centres in the dancer's career (Fig. 7).
However, research into the period between 1929 and 1936 points to successive attempts to revive the company by touring other countries in America and Europe, including Spain. In this respect, it is also relevant to analyse the global dimension of the individual recitals of Antonia Mercé, who, in her tours outside Europe, set a precedent for the scope of Spanish dance in places such as Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and the United States, with diverse connotations.
Another of the analysed issues was the internal development of the company, in particular its components. Although in-depth research into the composition of the corps de ballet of the Ballets Espagnols in its different seasons is still lacking, this qualitative approach yields some interesting indicators. Between 1927 and 1929, the group had a total of 91 dancers in its various performances, which varied each season. In 1927, there were 31, the following year 54 and the last season 43. Antonia Mercé starred in a total of 151 performances, accompanied mainly by the three most recurrent dancers: Irene Ibáñez (50 performances), Carmen Joselito (49 performances) and Carmen Juárez (46 performances). In a second group, other performers stand out, such as Mercedes Dalmau (39), Juan Relámpago (38), Otilio López (35), Lolita Mas (29), Blanca Minondo (28), Carmen Mora (27), and Pepita López (27). We must also point out the absolute prominence of Carmencita Pérez as piano accompanist (with 63 performances).
In short, the possibility of visualising all these trajectories reconstructed step by step on the interactive map motivates new interpretations to be made of exchanges in European circuits, in the relationship with the Americas, and in East-West relations. Besides it proposes renewed interpretations of the role of dance as a vehicle for the construction and dissemination of cultural identities. Looking at Spanish dance from a Digital Humanities point of view helps to obtain a broader and deeper understanding of historical heritage and strengthen the dialogues between the virtual and the physical, the permanent and the ephemeral, the past and the future. The case study of the Ballets Espagnols can open the door to new ways of understanding the role of dance in the mapping of identities, aesthetics and ideologies from transnational and transcultural perspectives in the early 20th century.
This study is supported by the R+D+I projects: