Armando Navarro (1930-2013): Scapino Ballet for more than just children

Armando Navarro (Argentina, 1930 - Amsterdam 2013), former artistic director of Scapino Ballet, passed away last Sunday. Together with his wife Marian Sarstädt formed Navarro one of the Netherlands' best-known dance couples, alongside Han Ebbelaar and Alexandra Radius (Het Nationale Ballet) and Jiří Kylián and Sabine Kupferberg (Nederlands Dans Theater).

Navarro began his dance career at the Theatro Colon in Buenos Aires and danced with Alicia Alonso's ballet in
Cuba. In 1956, he left for Europe, where he danced with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. There he met Marian Sarstädt (b. 1942), whom he married. They moved to the Netherlands where Sarstädt became a dancer, and later artistic director, at the Nederlands Dans Theater.

Sonia Gaskell, artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet, did not have a contract for the classically inclined Navarro. Aart Verstegen, however, asked the Argentine to join Scapino Ballet's artistic staff with his international experience. By then, the company had already been emphasising dance for children for 25 years under founder Hans Snoek. This course was shifted under Navarro: the company would focus on adults, with children as one of its target audiences. Approach was: 'Dancers are not trained to dance for children.'

From 1977, Navarro became artistic director himself, proving to be an able administrator who strives for quality in dance and fights for his company's right to exist. After Nils Christe entered the picture as a prospective successor, the company, which had moved to Rotterdam, presented Ed Wubbe as its new artistic director in 1992. Scapino Ballet Rotterdam is now fully mature.