| |
|
|
Stage Name |
Birth Name |
|
|
| Valencia Tortola |
n/a |
Reportedly born in Seville, Spain
to Florenc Tórtola Ferrer (Catalan) and Georgina Valencia
Valenzuela (Andalusian) who later passed away when she was about
9 years old. Around the age of three, the whole family moved to
London, England where she would get a great education and learn
to dance while living with a wealthy British family. She would
create her own unique style of dance she called "Natural
Dance" which paralleled Modern
Dance in style and date in time of creation and is said she
was influenced, like many of her time by Isadora
Duncan which is why she studied African, Arab, Greek and Indian
plus other cultures and their dance forms.
Tórtola's first public
Stage appearance was in 1908 at the Gaiety Theatre in London in
the show "Havana." |
| Her
Stage appearances would draw critics opinions which varied greatly
on her dancing many being average by those not well versed in
dance and others exclaiming genius. From 1921 to 1930 Tórtola
performed all over Latin America and in New York in 1917. She
excelled in the dances of her native Spanish culture as well and
was considered an asset to the Spanish
dance styles but her true love in dance was the Natural /
Modern dance form she helped to create. She abruptly danced for
the last time on November 23, 1930 in Guayaquil, Ecuador and suddenly
retired to Barcelona with her long time companion Angeles Magret
Vilá, although reportedly heterosexual, she never married. |
Birth Place |
Birth Date |
Spouse |
Offspring |
| Seville, Spain (Malaga ?) |
6/18/1882-3/15/1955 |
None: (Angeles Magret Vilá) |
None |
|
Posters, Lobby Cards etc. |
Sheet Music Covers |
Music Titles |
| n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Night Clubs / Stage |
Theaters |
Dance Partners |
| Follies Bergere (Paris) |
Century Theatre (New York 1917) |
Alice Réjane
(1909) |
| Gaiety Theatre (London 1908) |
Gaiety Theatre (London 1908) |
Raquel Meller (1915) |
| Cirkus Varieté of Copenhagen |
Romea Theatre (Madrid 1911) |
|
|
|
| |
Wintergarten (Germany) |
|
|
|
|
Films |
Tórtola Dance Routines |
| 1917 - Pacto de lágrimas |
Danza africana |
| 1917 - Pasionaria |
Danza árabe |
| |
Danza de la serpiente, the |
| |
Danza del incienso |
| |
La bayadera |
Other |
Political |
| n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
| |
|
|
Books, Magazine Articles on this dancer ... |
| Title |
Author |
Date Published |
Publisher |
| Archives of the Institut del Teatre of
Barcelona |
n/a |
1910s |
?? |
| Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish Literature |
Caulfield, Carlota |
1999 |
Greenwood Press |
| Tórtola Valencia and Her Times |
Sobrac, Odelot |
1982 |
|
| |
|
|
|
Musicians / Orchestra's |
Writers / Poets |
Artists |
Magazine / Newspapers |
| n/a |
n/a |
Esposio Amatller |
1916: Papitu Weekly |
| |
|
|
Troy Kinney* |
12/1926 - The Mentor Magazine |
| |
|
|
Tortola Valencia |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ballrooms
