Grandmaster Arnold Taraborrelli Has Died

Arnold Taraborrelli (Philadelphia 1931), who died this afternoon in Madrid, was neither particularly well-known nor popular with the general public. He already made sure of that by fleeing anything that would bring him fame; He even liked to hide the fame of his students. Now if there is anyone who is over thirty or forty years old and is engaged in the profession of acting, dancing and even singing and does not know who he is, let him see it. Because there are hundreds of actors and singers who have passed through his hands, through his courses, through his workshop… But not only to give a course: many are those who have never given up on his teachings and always come back to them returned to him until The End. Point that there are students who have been taking his courses for more than a decade or two.

He completed the training of actors and singers in a way that hardly anyone can match. The worn-out term “bodily expression,” which entered the world of teaching in the sixties and seventies of the last century, was an adjective that Taraborrelli did not hate because he left this world without knowing what it means to hate , but the truth is that he didn't like using that adjective at all, and certainly not when referring to his work or being referred to. Arnold's thing was something different, it was about teaching professionals who cannot do without their bodies to say something, to know how to use it and, above all, that feelings, whatever they may be, are not just verbal or can be expressed through the eyes. or the face. He showed the way so that the steps, the arms, the body… also made the pain, the joy, the anger visible…

He was born in the USA and spent his childhood in Italy, never leaving Philadelphia. At home, his family made wine, ate pasta every day, not to mention ravioli on Thursdays, and his parents refused to give him dance lessons, which he had asked for at the age of 11, because it was “not for boys.” until they saw him dancing and triumphing with a friend in an almost neighborly performance. She received a scholarship to study fine arts, went to university and moved to New York, where she studied with José, among others Limón and Lensky studied dance. Between 1954 and 1964 he worked as a dancer and choreographer with the San Juan Ballet in Puerto Rico, where he met Lola Flores, who eventually moved him to Spain after he had worked in London for a season.

In Madrid he began working at the famous Karen Taft studio on Calle Libertad and gradually distinguished himself as a choreographer, actor trainer, set designer and poster designer. But perhaps the most crucial thing in his career was his fruitful encounters with actors, although they stood out more than directors: William Layton and Miguel Narros. Together with them, he became the most important professor of movement through several projects they created, such as the Madrid Studio Theater, the TEM and the TEC, which achieved great prestige in the late Franco era and later in the still famous era William Layton Laboratory.

These years highlighted his regular collaboration with José Carlos Plaza, born over many years, although he also flew alone with the courses that he said gave him life. There are also several collaborations with directors such as the unforgettable José Luis Alonso, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Francisco Nieva and many others. His work in history-making productions such as “Uncle Vania”, “Portrait of a Lady with a Dog”, “So Five Years Go By”, “Woyzeck”, “Carmen, Carmen” and “A Midsummer Night's Dream” and many others, was of great importance. Among his students we can mention the names Nacho Duato, Carmen Maura, Miguel Ríos, Miguel Bosé, Luz Casal, José Pedro Carrión, Elio Pedregal, Carmen Machi, Eloy Azorín, Alberto Amarilla or family legends of actors such as Ana Belén and her daughter Marina San José or María Pastor as well as her mother and grandmother, who were also her students. Many of them spent those days at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation in Madrid, where he died.

He dedicated his entire life to them, including the last decade during which he was continuously on dialysis, but the most amazing thing about Taraborrelli, whom his student José Pedro Carrión called “a walking work of art,” is that the entire profession and everyone who knew him , spoke wonders about his character, his brilliant teaching and his good nature

As Taraborrelli wanted, there will be no wake or funeral (his body was donated to science) and he requested that no tribute be paid to him. In 2012, a kind of tribute was paid to him at the National Dramatic Center and in his presence, attended by Ernesto Caballero, Antonio Onetti, Eloy Azorín, Fermín Cabal, Carlos Hipólito, Carmen Machi and Begoña Valle, all of whom became deep admirers of About This Man The exact documentary “Dos palmas” was filmed, a title given in reference to the sound gesture that he always used in his lessons. His well-known nephew Jay Randy Taraborrelli (biographer of celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra) was supposed to deal with the biography of this extraordinary man.

Grandmaster Arnold Taraborrelli has died

Babelia