All the imagery and accessories are there – the shawl, the fan, the castanets, the bata de cola, the long, ruffled train typical of the female costume – but redistributed according to the codes of a queer flamenco, very much present on contemporary stages. Men and women exchange their wardrobes.

Rosita Boisseau, “Dialogue fertile entre danse et photographie » (Fertile Dialogue Between Dance and Photography), Le Monde, 7 February 2025, p. 22.

 Directed by Rubén Olmo, the Ballet Nacional de España, founded in 1978, is the leading dance company funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sports. Its mission is twofold: the preservation of the traditional folk and classical dance repertoire and the creation of new works. Consequently, the dancers, in addition to their mastery of classical technique, are also specialized in bolero and flamenco. Created on 1 December 2023 at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Afanador by Marcos Morau meets all the criteria, simultaneously highlighting tradition, creation, and experimentation.

The grandson of a photographer who himself studied photography, choreographer Marcos Morau was inspired for this ballet by two books created by Ruvén Afanador: Ángel gitano: hombres de flamenco and Mil besos. The first is dedicated to men, the second to women. These two books were the genesis of a work in which Marcos Morau experimented with a form of dialogue between photographic and choreographic compositions. The choreographer sees the smallest common denominator of these two art forms as “the carnal desire to capture life – the kind that, by definition, cannot be captured.” One day, the famous Colombian photographer Ruvén Afanador, who works for publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times and has photographed stars worldwide, settled in Andalusia to conduct a photoshoot dedicated to the foundations of Spanish culture (flamenco, bullfighting, religion). The ballet begins precisely where his work stopped, not to paraphrase Afanador’s piece, but rather to suggest a change of focus.

SECRETS OF A WORK

To find out more about the Ballet Nacional de España, a presentation of the performance takes place 45 minutes before the start of the show, in the Salon Diaghilev. Animated by Rosita Boisseau, journalist and critic, specialist in dance, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.15 pm (free entry, reserved for ticket holders for that day’s performance).