La Macarrona
Who is La Macarrona?
Juana Vargas de las Heras, La Macarrona, was born on 3 May 1870 in the Santiago district of Jerez de la Frontera, a descendant of Tío Juan and Tío Vicente Macarrón, and sister of the dancer María la Macarrona. She began performing as a very young child, and by eight was already under contract at the Café de La Escalerilla in Seville.
Career
Her career unfolded during the golden age of the cafés cantantes: she performed at the Café de las Siete Revueltas in Málaga, the Café de Silverio in Seville, and also worked the café circuit in Barcelona. She made her Paris debut in 1889, at the Gran Teatro of the Exposition Universelle, where her art won the admiration of the Shah of Persia; she returned to the French capital in 1912 to give a solo recital. In Madrid she performed in 1922 as part of the cycle “Ases del arte flamenco.” By the 1930s she shared the stage with La Argentinita, and after the Civil War she worked with Concha Piquer’s company. Throughout her career she performed alongside figures such as Antonio Chacón, Fernanda Antúnez, Ramón Montoya and La Malena.
Style
Fernando el de Triana called her the most representative woman of the flamenco dance of her time, praise that reflects the critical consensus on her technical mastery. She is remembered for her stage presence — “gypsy face, sculptural figure, bodily flexibility” — and for her virtuoso handling of the mantón de Manila and the bata de cola, elements she made a hallmark of her dancing.
Legacy
In 1946, a year before her death, she was honored with a benefit tribute concert at the Teatro San Fernando in Seville, the city where she died on 17 April 1947. She is considered one of the most outstanding bailaoras in the entire history of flamenco, for her technical mastery, her compás and the mark she left on later generations of bailaoras.