A great master of dancers, Fernando Belmonte has died at the age of 81 in Jerez. His legacy is a legacy of great flamenco dancers such as Joaquín Grilo, Antonio El Pipa and Andrés Peña.
Fallece Fernando Belmonte. Foto: redes sociales.
He was born in Jerez in 1942, in a house full of bullfighting art, cradle of one of the greatest bullfighting dynasties. So dancing was not an option for Fernando Belmonte. His mother’s support, his great talent and a bit of luck (at the age of 16 he joined the company of Antonio El Bailarín) led him to show his art all over the world.
“My mother supported me and, thanks to Antonio Gallardo, I went to Madrid with La Paquera. From there everything came about. When my brothers found out, they turned up in Madrid and it was just the day before an audition with Antonio El Bailarín. When they found out that I was going to join his company, with the personality that Antonio had, they kept quiet and everything went ahead”, he said in an interview with Diario de Jerez.
Fernando Belmonte leaves school
Belmonte would form a stage partnership with María Rosa for four years until he finally decided to prioritise teaching. He set up a dance school in his homeland which enjoyed impeccable prestige. With the most brilliant pupils, in the 80s, he created a children’s ballet with the name of his native neighbourhood, Albarizuela. This period was very mediatic and televised, ending in the early 1990s.
His academy and Albarizuela were the school and springboard for great dancers, such as Joaquín Grilo, one of his most outstanding students, as he always explained, and Andrés Peña, Antonio El Pipa, Sara Baras…
The year 2010 marked his reunion with the stage within the framework of the Festival de Jerez. He had been out of the spotlight for 30 years, devoting himself almost exclusively to teaching. It was a great success and the public presented him with his first award for his show, Reencuentro. Fernando reviewed his life, with the presence of some of his former students (Grilo himself, for example). That same year he also received the Jerez Cup for teaching.
Four months ago, in March, and again at the Festival de Jerez, he was presented with a plaque in tribute to his legacy. It read: “For a life dedicated to the art of dance and flamenco, which she has always known how to transmit with love and elegance”.