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 Ballets Españoles (1927-1929): A Dance Company for the Internationalisation of Modern Art (ref. ERC2018-092829), aimed at analysing the impact of transnational modern and avant-garde art and interdisciplinary creation that was disseminated through the Ballets Espagnols, the dance company founded by Antonia Mercé, aka La Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1890-Bordeaux, 1936). This group, which was active between 1927 and 1929, was the first to produce a “Spanish-style” version 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 El amor brujo, El fandango de candil, Au coeur de Seville (Cuadro flamenco), Juerga, Sonatina and Triana. Over the years she had the support of writers such as Cipriano de Rivas Cherif, Federico García Lorca and Tomás Borras; musicians such as Manuel de Falla, Ernesto Halffter, Julián Bautista, Joaquín Turina and Enrique Fernández-Arbós; stage designers such as Néstor, Gustavo Bacarisas, Manuel Fontanals and Mariano Andreu; and dancers such as Vicente Escudero, Carmita García, Pastora Imperio and Miguel de Molina. The transcendence of these names in their respective areas highlights the impact of the Russian model. Considering a ballet as a “total work of art” — derived from Richard Wagner's gesamtkunswerg — different elements were entrusted to outstanding personalities of their field with a certain innovative and modern outlook. Moreover, the company united examples of the most outstanding contributions of the arts and literature of the time, in what Spanish historiography considers the so-called Generations of 1898, 1914 and 1927. These protagonists of the movement of cultural renewal would constitute the period know as the Silver Age, interrupted by the military uprising that started the Spanish Civil War on 18 July, 1936, the same day on which Antonia Mercé La Argentina died suddenly of a heart attack.

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. [1] Therefore, this research sought to locate, analyse and interpret the Ballets Espagnols repertoire in order to assess its impact on the definition of Spanish imaginaries through the modern interpretation of interwar Europe.

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 Dance Studies and Digital Humanities (ref. 202010E150), undertaken by the CSIC, which seeks to extend the development and application of these tools to research into Spanish dance history, and which is running from 2020 to 2023. The main aim is to share the results of this study in the application of Digital Humanities in dance, and specifically, for future research in the rich field of Spanish dance and its various aspects including flamenco, bolero, folk dances and stylised dance.

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 [VVAA 2016] or the completed WhoLoDance (Whole-body Interaction Learning for Dance Education) [VVAA 2018], as well as various international conferences specialised in the relationship between the performing arts and technology: International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO) and Conference for Research in Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI). It is important to highlight the specialised spaces that host these interdisciplinary works, such as the Google Arts & Culture Lab, New Frontier Artist Residency Programme (Sundance) or Advanced Computing Centre for the Arts and Design (ACCAD, The Ohio State University).[2] In Spain, these spaces include the Aula de las Artes Art and Science Platform of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the Dance and New Media Lab (DANM) of the Etopia Art and Technology Centre in the city of Zaragoza.

Regarding exploration of new software for performing arts research along the lines of “theatre analytics” [Bardiot 2020] and its assessment of the complexity of the associated data, different projects are exploring the relationships and exchanges that link the ephemeral with the permanent, the physical with the virtual. Some current initiatives are based on the development of digital archives, such as Siobhan Davies Replay: The Archive of Siobhan Davies Dance [3] or the Carmen Beuchat Archive.[4]

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” [Bench y Elswit 2016]. Moving Bodies, Moving Culture [5] follows the American Ballet Caravan company on its tours of Latin America during the 1940s; Mapping Touring [6] presents a database accessible through a map viewer containing the performances of various dancers, choreographers and companies from the turn of the century, such as Ruth Saint Denis, Ted Shawn, Erick Hawkins, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo or Original Ballet Russe. Finally, the tours made by the African-American dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham between the 1930s and 1960s illustrate the recent project Dance in Transit and Dunham's Data: Katherine Dunham and Digital Methods for Dance Historical Inquiry. [7]

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 [Flanders & Jannidis, 2015]. The data modelling process involves identifying the most relevant entities or classes in our project and describing their main features and the connections between them.

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 [Jannidis & Flanders, 2013]. Nevertheless, neither a theory nor extensive scientific literature on the subject is apparent, perhaps because it is believed that there is already enough in the field of computer technologies. Data modelling, in Humanities, is understood as an “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 [Flanders & Jannidis, 2015, 14]. Nowadays, data modelling is applied more and more frequently and is a prior and indispensable step in systematising information in Digital Humanities projects. This is well summarised in the work of Ciula & Marras (2016), which highlights the upward trajectory of works that incorporate these technologies to develop their research. Two phases must be distinguished in data modelling: on the one hand, design modelling, which describes the entities from the universe of discourse with which we are going to work; and on the other hand, logical modelling, which is the implementation of the former in a database environment.

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 [Fernández Freire et al. 2013].

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 [Kimber, 2000]; [Hayashi & Hatton, 2001] and their storage in TEI format [Teehan & Keating, 2010]; [Portela & Rito Silva, 2015]. These works have approached this technology from the perspective of text analysis, semantic web and ontologies, as well as extraction of annotations from ancient documents through a UML schema [Luzzi, 2012]. More recently, there has been an updated volume [Schraibman, Siemens & Unsworth, 2016] dedicated exclusively to Digital Humanities that explores through authors, pioneers in research in this field, the infrastructures, creation, analysis, dissemination and future of Digital Humanities itself.

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 [Del Bosque González, 2020, 36], protecting their authorship as recommended for scientific research. Since 2017, and with the aim of enhancing and developing this philosophy, the European Commission has stipulated that all publicly funded projects guarantee free access to research data under the FAIR Principles (acronym for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). For data generated in scientific research [Wilkinson et al, 2016], the FAIR Principles are already an institutional mandate in some organisations such as the CSIC and a framework by which we intend to abide in this project.

In order to fulfil those principles, the dataset[8] generated within this project has been metadated according to ISO 19119 and incorporated into a public metadata catalogue, making data “findable” 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.

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: Ballets Españoles (1927-1929): Una compañía de danza para la internacionalización del arte moderno (Acciones de Dinamización Europa Excelencia, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación/Agencia Estatal de Investigación, ref. ERC2018-092829) and Dance Studies y Humanidades Digitales (CSIC ref. 202010E150).