Company

In 1952, the director Edgar Neville asked Antonio to prepare an original choreography for the film Duende y el misterio del flamenco (titled Duende in English). Not only did it feature the first ever dance routine set to a martinete, it also included a first (and shorter) version of the Sonatas, one of the most successful works of Soler Senior’s latter career. In this first version, it was already evident that his bolero influences broke with the tenets of the traditional school, from the dance steps to the arm motions, from the drumbeat to the Goyaesque aesthetic. The bolero school that Antonio presented within a palatial stage set, with infantas, courtesans and halberdiers, represents a combination of bolero and highly technical classical dance. A year later, for his Antonio Ballet Español company’s first programme, he included all eight sonatas in the suite, performed by the whole company of 35 dancers over the course of several scenes. This debut took place at the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada, in the Generalife Gardens.