The Ballet of Death

I have always been fascinated and repulsed by an art form peculiar to Iberia. It is an ambiguous art: always finely poised between force and form, passion and control, chaos and order, violence and elegance, spontaneity and restraint, barbarity and culture, courage and fear,  emotion and reason, heroism and banality, individuality and tradition and finally between life and death. It is the art of the Torreador. It is an art of brinkmanship. The torreador steals his triumph from the doorsteps of death. No. He openly and in full view of the crowd, defies death. He turns death into a public art. He dies for his society. He dies for an ideal:  the Spanish ideal of the pursuit of an impossible dream. He thereofore truly deserves our admiration. He gambles with his life. A tiny misjudgement, a false step, a trip when he digs the tip of his toes into the sand a little too deeply will mean a gory gash at his leg, his side or his heart. 

 

He enters the corrida or arena ( which orginally means simply sand in Spanish instead of the bullfighting ring) amidst the sound of a clarion or trumpet, head held high, in black, with golden brocades embroidered in intricate floral patterns ( in a traje de luces or literally suit of light), a blood red sash around his thin waist, a triangular sombrero designed more for elegance than for shielding him from the merciless sun, a red cape mounted on a thin straight rod, to hide the blood of the bull.  He waves his hands to the crowd who cheer him on and he lowers his hat  to the gathered dignitaries. The hat may also have significance because Spain is a Catholic country. Three may symbolise the three persons in the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The metadors may wish to be protected by God. It may also have signficance because the bullfighting occurs in three stages, called Tercios, or thirds.

 

The bull rushes into the ring. In traditional Spanish bull fighting, he will first be taunted by the three metadores who fight two bulls, each at least four years old. They will retire shortly afterwards, leaving the others to prepare the bulls for the final kill. They will have three asssitants called banderilleros or flagmen, or toreros de plata, literally silver bullfighters, because they will be wearing silver jackets. After a while, two picaodores or lancers will enter, riding on horses armed with leather mattress protection called petos . They will be running around trying to plunge thin sharp lances or varas on to to a special part of the bull's neck called morillo to cause loss of blood, to weaken it. Then it will be the turn of the banderilleros . This stage is called the tercio de banderillas ("the third of flags"). The three banderilleros will each attempt to plant two banderillas (sharp barbed spears) into the bull's shoulders. These anger and invigorate the bull which has been worn down and hurt by the lances from the picadores. They will try to wear the bull down still further by making passes or tandas with their capotes at the charging bull to test the preference of the bull in its charging postures and its modus operandi: whether it likes to use its left or right and what its antics are before it charges.  In the final stage, when the bull has been sufficiently exhausted by its numerous ineffecutal charges and sufficiently enraged, the metadores will re-enter the arena to kill the bull, with a well timed and well aimed stab of their sword or espada, at the aorta of the bull's heart between the shoulder blades, luring the bull on with his red cape or muleta, amidst the roar of the crowds in the third and final stage called the estocada.  In the process he will do his best to perform what is called faena or beautiful displays, moving as close to the charging bull as possible without getting hurt by dodging at the very last moment, tempting his fate. Here he will perform very elegant moves, moving in tiny and well timed and almost ballet like steps, thus drawing what he hopes will be huge applauses from the crowd.

 

The bull fight is thus a highly ritualized affair. First there is what is called a paseillo or parade when the whole team enters amidst the rousing sound of music with trumpets. Then it will be the initial

Corrida in Sevilla, Spain

tercios de varas, the turn of the picadores. If the picadors are successful, the bull will hold its head and horns lower during the following stages of the fight. This makes the bull's charges less dangerous and more reliable, enabling the matadors to perform. The first stage will be followed by the second, the tercio de banderillas. Then in the final stage, the the matador kills the bulls. Very rarely, if the public or the matador believes that the bull has fought bravely, they may petition the president of the plaza to grant the bull an indulto or an indulgence or reprieve before the tercio de muerte or the killing third of the drama. If so, the bull's life will be spared, rather like the emperor sparing the life of the gladiator in the Roman circus at the request of the crowd, out of respect for the bull's courage. 

Throughout the spectacle, one will feel the most primitive but contradictory urges of the Spanish soul for blood, for courage, for glory, for life.  It is literally the art of death!  Through confronting death, man affirms his life and his longing for the glory of being human, a triumph of wit and control over primitive violence and through that for immortality!