With just five years, after a school visit to Colón Theater, Valentín Batista He returned home and told his parents: “I’m going to dance there someday.” It was a child intuition, but also a declaration of principles. Son of actors and raised in a family where art was everyday, found in dance a passion that would always accompany him. At 14 he moved to Houston, to start his professional training.
However, thirteen years later, the clock made it time to return. His grandfather’s death seemed the signal to understand that it was time to recover his family’s daily love. And as if fate forced the way back, a fortuitous encounter with the renowned dancer Alejandro Parente convinced him to prove in Argentina already as a rising figure. Weeks later, he presented himself to the call of the Colón Theater and was selected, coinciding with the beginning of a new stage under the artistic direction of Julio Bocca.
His debut could not be more symbolic. He played Don José in “Carmen”, choreographic version of Marcia Haydée, and then starring the “mixed program” and “Don Quixote” ballets, the latter in the framework of the celebration for the 100 years of the Stable Ballet of Columbus which had the stellar presence of Marianela Núñez and Celeste Losa. After a few months of their repatriated, dance connoisseurs see it as a return with flavor to fate fulfilled. That which Batista represents that generation of artists trained abroad who choose to return with international background, to project the world again. Seeing him dance is appreciating freedom, passion and talent. In a high of his strenuous essays, he spoke with news.
News: In women, the approach to dance is a common place, but in man it is because of an internal desire that parents generally do not listen. In your case?
Valentín Batista: According to my parents, my brother and I looked at ballet on TV, and when they ended or changed it to see something else, we made a tremendous tantrum. Then they said resigned: “They go to dance classes, to try.” In turn, to see what wave, they also scored us in Taekwondo, drums, theater. But the only thing we were excited about and we did it for many years was dance.
News: Did they find their place in the world?
Cambric: Yes, absolutely. First we went to a summer study, where the class was almost for us alone. A dream. Then more girls came in and we started to behave badly. We climbed to the bars, we made a lot of mess and ended up throwing us. Then we went to the Julio Bocca Foundation and there they gave us a scholarship. But we were far away, so we went to Sara Restotko. We connect right away. He treated us as adults and we liked that. Over time my brother left and I continued. He entered the Buenos Aires National College and I the Teatro Colón.
News: When did you understand that the dance was going to be his profession and not a hobby?
Cambric: In sixth grade I click. I don’t know why, but there I knew I wanted to dedicate myself to that. He had gone very small to Columbus with school. We did not go to see Ballet, I think it was an orchestra, but when I returned home I told my parents: “I’m going to dance there one day.” Then I kept going. Once at the Academy my teacher asked me if I knew Marianela Núñez, I had no idea who she was, I looked for her on YouTube and fell in love with dance. Seeing their videos, their variations of “The Lake of the Swans”, “La Bayadera”. At the same time a friend of my grandfather gave me a video of “Don Quijote” by Barýshnikov. That was the first ballet that I saw whole and never stopped.
News: Why did he go to the United States so young having a promising career in your country?
Cambric: Because I wanted a more demanding training. I talked to my teacher RestoTko and also with Héctor Barriles del Colón, and I told them that I would like to study stronger. There were few class hours in the Columbus for my liking and they told me to try a summer course. I looked for ballet schools with more time load, which ones were better for men and they recommended Houston. I rented a living room, made a video, I sent it and accepted me for the summer course.
News: And that path led him very far.
Cambric: At 14 I went to Houston. First I went to this summer course, then I stayed three years. I went through Orlando, where I was in the second company, and ended at the Texas Ballet Theater. I also worked with the National Ballet of Cuba for a season. Each place gave me something different, but with Ben Stevenson in Texas I found a mentor. With him I began to make main roles.
News: What was he found at the beginning in Houston?
Cambric: A double day school, from Monday to Saturday, all in English, where we worked hard, residence inside the building. Bedrooms for 16 boys. Twelve women and four men. We only had free on Sundays. The strange thing is that Houston, in Texas, is the city number four in size in the United States. It is an important city, but the buildings are alone in the center and nobody moves because it is very hot. So there are as subterraine where people walk, there are businesses, all with air conditioning. You will never see people down the street. It was a very abrupt change with respect to Buenos Aires, but my mind was focused on dance.
News: A lot of competition or camaraderie?
Cambric: It was not so fierce, but with different codes. I was used to that if you have a problem with someone, you talk. There they go directly to authority. Then I had things that put me in trouble. But once I understood the dynamics, I knew how to handle. We were children everywhere. The majority Americans, but there were girls from Japan, Israel, Brazil. In Houston I spent three years and then I went to Orlando Ballet.
News: He never faltered? Because although he did what he liked, he was a boy.
Cambric: No, but the pandemic was very hard. All the functions were suspended, we could not go to the halls, and although they kept paying us, there was nothing to do, so not to go crazy I started to delight pizza and also Uber. I wanted to dance again but there was no where. I depressed, of course. I lived very dark moments, but I also laughed a lot. The delivery did not dislike, but then they made me clean the restaurant until midnight and I didn’t like it anymore. Delivery will have lasted a month and that of Uber a few more months.
News: Did you find that demand that I wanted in the United States?
Cambric: Yes, absolutely and I appreciate it. Both in learning and professional. There in December, “the Nutcracker” is made and we did between 35 and 40 functions per season, which for a ballet dancer is a lot. Here we do 10 per repertoire and there around 40.
News: How was it going to Argentina after so many years?
Cambric: I came to visit Argentina last year, I went to Columbus to greet and I crossed it to Alejandro Parente, famous dancer and now choreographer, who tells me: “Che, I came to greet Marianela.” While we were waiting for her, she introduces me to the director of Columbus as an Argentine dancer who was dancing abroad. He says: “I was just telling me that he wants to come to dance here.” He sold me like this but I hadn’t asked him for anything. I extended my visit in Buenos Aires to see the function of Marianela, then visited my grandfather and when I returned to the United States, my grandfather died. I said: “The fucking mother, I was 13 years away from my family, I have nephews and they don’t know who I am.” Then I understood that it was time to return and enjoy them, my grandmother and grandfather I still have and my whole family.
News: Wasing in his country, was Colón theater the goal?
Cambric: Yes, just Julio Bocca takes the address, he makes a call up to 27 years, age that I fulfilled in March and this was in February. I introduced myself, did the audition and stayed. Originally 500 dancers sent material, half, the majority, obviously, girls were presented to the audition. I felt weaker in the contemporary part, but then we did “I die” and it did very well. I had danced it several times. At two months, on April 5 I debuted. It was all very fast.
News: Argentines who return to live in the country cannot avoid comparing everything.
Cambric: It makes no sense to compare. Yes, everything changed when I went to today. The stage, daily work, my bond with the family. Now, for example, relatives came from Córdoba to see me and knowing that in the stalls there were my people, I felt nerves that I had never experienced there. Now I feel at home and that demands you more. As for companies each has its logic. In the United States you do 40 functions of “the Nutcracker” in a month and here the rhythm is another. But dancing in Columbus has something unique that would never find it in Houston or Orlando. In addition, it is the scenario I told my parents that I was going to arrive when I was five years old. And here I am. I fulfilled.
