Rosario
Who is Rosario?
Florencia Pérez Padilla, known artistically as Rosario, was born in Seville in 1918, daughter of Manuel Pérez, nicknamed “el Ronco,” who ran a drinks stall, and of Julia Padilla, who would go on to become her manager and main support throughout her entire career. From a very young age she showed a natural gift for dance, and her mother wasted no time channeling that talent into professional training.
She trained with maestro Realito, with Ángel Pericet in the escuela bolera, and learned alegrías from Juana la Macarrona; later, already in Barcelona, Vicente Reyes opened the door to choreography set to classical music, with pieces by Ravel and Granados as a reference point. She made her debut as a child, in 1928, at the Exposition of Liège as part of “Los petits sevillanitos,” and shortly afterward began dancing alongside Antonio, with whom she would form one of the most celebrated pairs in Spanish dance, performing before royalty as “los chavalillos sevillanos.”
Career
The Civil War drove her into exile in the south of France and later to Argentina, where she made her debut at the Teatro Maravillas in Buenos Aires, sharing the bill with Carmen Amaya. From there her career took off toward the United States: she made films in Hollywood such as “Ziegfeld Girls,” “Hollywood Canteen” and “Panamericana,” performed at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1944 and even danced before President Roosevelt at the White House.
At twenty-one she married the Italian pianist Silvio Masciarelli in Argentina, a marriage from which she later separated, and with whom she had a son, Rafael, whose godmother was Encarnación López “la Argentinita.” After professionally splitting from Antonio in 1952, Rosario ran her own company between 1953 and 1972, and reunited with her former partner on stage between 1962 and 1965.
Legacy
In her later years she devoted herself to teaching, counting the infantas Elena and Cristina among her students, and in 1995 she received the Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes. Already retired in Madrid and suffering from chronic bronchitis, she died in 2000, remembered as one half of the most admired Spanish dance couple of her generation.