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La Argentina was born Antonia Mercè to her dancer parents
Manuel Mercè (Andalusian) and dancer Josefina
Luque (Castilian). She learned to dance from her
father at the age of four and by nine debuted with the Royal
Opera Theater in Madrid, Spain. At the age of fourteen she
retired from Ballet (after her father died) and started
training with her mother in her native Spanish dances.
She was to devise and awaken an art that
belonged to the gypsies. She was a master of the Castanets,
and would be referred to as 'The Queen of the Castanets',
developing techniques never before seen.. From 1928 to 1936
Antonia made six transcontinental tours of North America.
She passed away at her summer home in France in 1936 of
a heart attack.
There
is another Spanish dancer by a similar name called La Argentinita.
Antonia also has a street named after her in Madrid Spain.
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