Trini Borrull

Both Trinidad and cousin Mercedes Borrull were members of the same family. Trinidad was born in Madrid in 1916 (some sources give 1914). Her father was Albert Flandorfer, an Austrian engineer who put into operation the first tram system in Barcelona, and her mother Dolores (Lola) Borrull was born in Valencia, daughter of Miguel Borrull Castelló, famed flamenco guitarist, and she herself was a guitarist. The family staged many shows at Barcelona's theaters, took part in the Exposició Internacional (World Fair) in 1929 and toured to Paris. Her aunts Julia (who was a model for painter Julio Romero de Torres) and Isabel Borrull were a duo of flamenco dancers known as Las Egipcias. They performed in Madrid and Paris and then the family finally settled in Barcelona. There they opened in the 1910s the Café Villa Rosa, an Andalusian-style tablao well known among the artists which would become a reference for flamenco music. Antonia Mercé "la Argentina" danced there and deeply impressed little Trini, becoming a lifelong inspiration. At five, during a performance by Pastora Imperio, Trini joined her onstage. Two years later she started taking lessons at the famed Julia Castelao ballet academy. Thereafter she went to the Bolera dance school with Ángel and Luisa Pericet. She also attended the Pauleta Pàmies dance academy, and took lessons from dancers Paco Reyes and El Estampío. Debuting at the Apolo theatre, she was introduced to Juan Magrinyà, first dancer at the Liceu, Barcelona's operatic theater. After a performance at the Palau de la Música was arranged, Trini joined the Liceu ballet staff, and soon became first dancer and choreographer. They staged together "Corrida de feria" and would collaborate in many other works, like "El amor brujo" which they premiered in Zurich in 1940. In 1944 Trini Borrull opened her own dance school in Barcelona, on 9 Petritxol Street. She also danced in a handful of movies, as flamenco dance was in vogue in Spanish cinema at the time. In 1946 she started her own ballet company and staged the Bolero de Ravel, "Capricho español" and many others, and reconstructed the original version of Falla's "El amor brujo" as danced by Antonia Mercé. During a national tour she met her husband-to-be at the Canary Islands and finally gave in to his proposal, dismissing a tempting offer from the Carnegie Hall (1949). In 1959 she opened a dance school in Las Palmas. There she would die in 2006 from Parkinson's disease, after figuring out a daily routine of exercises and castanet-playing to keep fit and collaborating with medical associations. Trini Borrull set an imprint on classical Spanish dance and flamenco dance, and through her teaching brought her father and Antonia Mercé's generation legacy to her time. She lectured on Spanish classical dance and wrote a book, "La danza española" (1965). She was often in demand as folcloric dance adviser. She was awarded the gold medal from Barcelona's Círculo de Bellas Artes in 1944 and the silver medal for artistic Merit from the Spanish Ministerio de Cultura in 1989. She was also a member of the Unesco Dance Commitee.