The final scene of The Motorcycle Diaries focuses on an old guy - an old guy who 50 years before had shared an extraordinary journey - a journey with his pal "Che" in Argentinian argot.
Both men took much from their formative experience - Ernesto deciding that the best way to alleviate suffering was to take up arms against it. Alberto decided to follow a career in medicine.
His father was a militant trade unionist and he first met Ernesto Guevara in police cells after he (Alberto) had taken part in a high school revolt. He was jailed in 1943 for a year after protesting against the Peron junta and after earned an MSc in biochemistry and a place at the Instituto Malbran before embarking on his trek on his Norton 500c - La Poderosa II. Granados tour ended in Caracas where he worked at the Cabo Blanca leprosarium in Maiquetia before taking a scholarship to the Istituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome.He married on his return to Argentina.
In 1960 he first visited Cuba on Guevaras invitation. He moved to Cuba the year afterwards and became trhe Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Havana. He founded the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Santiago in 1962 and worked there as senior professor from 1970-74. Between 1975 and 1986 he obtained his doctorate in biological sciences. He later became president of the Cuban Genetics Society and worked in the development of Holstein Tropical cattle breeds. He devoted the rest of his career to validating the methodologyof his previous research.
Che - adorner of t-shirts. Alberto - a lifetime devoted to the welfare of the common man.
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Sunday 6 March 2011
The Red Shoes
Having a break this afternnon and lazing in front of the TV. I missed the beginning hour of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - strong candidate for my most favourite film of all time and am nw settling in to watch The Red Shoes. Its been a while...
Ballet films arent perhaps the most well populated genre around - I can think of two the sublime The Red Shoes and Black Swan - which i have yet to say. I have to say that it never really appealed. Its got a lot to live up to following the technicolour gorgeousness that is The Red Shoes and its world gone by - Watching Covent garden when it was still a market...
Anyhoo another London trip courtesy of work and we decided to take a trek out to Barnes and then stroll back along the Thames to Fulham via Putney.
Its anothe month til the boat race and we did see the Cambridge Womens crew out on the water.
Little Em is taking ballet lessons although not possessed of a dancers physique and I cant say that its an artform that I have any huge interest in so this was an educational one for me.
Dame Ninette de Valois was born Edris Stannus in Co Wicklow Ireland daughter of a British officer and a glassmaker. She began taking ballet lessons when she was 10 and began her professional training when she was 13, she made her professional debut in pantomine.
At 21 she was appointed principal dancer of the Beecham Opera. She continued to study under eminent teachers and at 25 joined the Ballet Russes, the renowned company created by Diaghilev, she stayed for 3 years and was promoted to Soloist and created roles in some of the companys best known ballets - Les Biches and Le Train Bleu. She was also mentor to Markova.
She left the Ballet Russes in 1927 and founded the Academy of Choreographic Art, a dancing school for girls who would gain experience in the Old Vic with de Valois choreographing several short ballets for the theatre attempting to create a particularly English form of dance . Lilian Baylis, the owner of the Old Vic and later of the Sadlers Wells theatre employed her to stage full scale ballets and in 1931 de Valois moved her school to the Sadlers Wells and renamed it the Sadlers Wells Ballet School. the school and the ballet company associated with the theatre would later become the basis of the Royal Ballet, The Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School.
On its foundation the Vic Wells had only a half dozen female dancers with de Valois as both lead dancer and choreographer. Once Alicia Markova joined the company she retired from the stage to concentrate her energies on her choreography including severalof her own works Job (1931), The Rakes Progress (1935) and Checkmate (1937). The company also became on of the first western companies to dance the repertoire of the Imperial Russian Ballet. the reputation of the Vic-Wells Ballet was spreading and attracted some of the greats talents of the Ballet world - Margot Fonteyn, Moira Shearer (as seen in The Red Shoes) and Beryl Grey.
She formed the Turkish National Ballet in Ankara in 1947 and also spent tiem ensuring that her company was richly supplied with talent. She officially retired from ballet in 1963 although her fearsome presence loomed over the English world of Ballet for decades after.
She died at the age of 102 in 2001.
Ballet films arent perhaps the most well populated genre around - I can think of two the sublime The Red Shoes and Black Swan - which i have yet to say. I have to say that it never really appealed. Its got a lot to live up to following the technicolour gorgeousness that is The Red Shoes and its world gone by - Watching Covent garden when it was still a market...
Anyhoo another London trip courtesy of work and we decided to take a trek out to Barnes and then stroll back along the Thames to Fulham via Putney.
Its anothe month til the boat race and we did see the Cambridge Womens crew out on the water.
Little Em is taking ballet lessons although not possessed of a dancers physique and I cant say that its an artform that I have any huge interest in so this was an educational one for me.
Dame Ninette de Valois was born Edris Stannus in Co Wicklow Ireland daughter of a British officer and a glassmaker. She began taking ballet lessons when she was 10 and began her professional training when she was 13, she made her professional debut in pantomine.
At 21 she was appointed principal dancer of the Beecham Opera. She continued to study under eminent teachers and at 25 joined the Ballet Russes, the renowned company created by Diaghilev, she stayed for 3 years and was promoted to Soloist and created roles in some of the companys best known ballets - Les Biches and Le Train Bleu. She was also mentor to Markova.
She left the Ballet Russes in 1927 and founded the Academy of Choreographic Art, a dancing school for girls who would gain experience in the Old Vic with de Valois choreographing several short ballets for the theatre attempting to create a particularly English form of dance . Lilian Baylis, the owner of the Old Vic and later of the Sadlers Wells theatre employed her to stage full scale ballets and in 1931 de Valois moved her school to the Sadlers Wells and renamed it the Sadlers Wells Ballet School. the school and the ballet company associated with the theatre would later become the basis of the Royal Ballet, The Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School.
On its foundation the Vic Wells had only a half dozen female dancers with de Valois as both lead dancer and choreographer. Once Alicia Markova joined the company she retired from the stage to concentrate her energies on her choreography including severalof her own works Job (1931), The Rakes Progress (1935) and Checkmate (1937). The company also became on of the first western companies to dance the repertoire of the Imperial Russian Ballet. the reputation of the Vic-Wells Ballet was spreading and attracted some of the greats talents of the Ballet world - Margot Fonteyn, Moira Shearer (as seen in The Red Shoes) and Beryl Grey.
She formed the Turkish National Ballet in Ankara in 1947 and also spent tiem ensuring that her company was richly supplied with talent. She officially retired from ballet in 1963 although her fearsome presence loomed over the English world of Ballet for decades after.
She died at the age of 102 in 2001.
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