Generaciones Zaragoza

13 July 1984 is a turning point in Spanish dance. That day the Ballet Nacional de España presented at the Zarzuela a programme that thirty years later still remains in the memory of those who watched it. One of the numbers was Ritmos, a piece Alberto Lorca dedicated to one of the icons of Spanish dance, Encarnación López “La Argentinita”. With this choreography Lorca did the same that George Balanchine had done regarding classical dance, with a piece like Theme and Variations. José Nieto’s music –a score both “heterodox” and fascinating– provides the backdrop for classical-pure Spanish dance movements, a range of steps in a work ruled by abstraction and full of magnetic dynamism. 

Ritmos performance (Teatro de la Zarzuela, 2009)

This piece has its origins in the time Rubén Olmo asked me to create a new ad-hoc choreography with the First Dancer of the Ballet Nacional de España, Inmaculada Salomón. We had struck up a mutual understanding while putting together Electra (2017), a complicity that allowed us to go deeper into the creative process this time round, with an intimacy that is inherent in solo performance, but with a subtlety and nuance that only a performer of her sensitivity, maturity and experience can aspire to. As a result of my interest in Spain’s musical heritage, I discovered the Sevillian composer, Manuel Blasco De Nebra (1750-1784), and his original repertoire of Sonatas and Pastorelas for harpsichord and pianoforte. It was playing around with his music that inspired this creation. Its choreographic
language navigates, without prejudice, the bolero school and stylised contemporary dance, placing Goyaesque cadences and deconstructions alongside elements from the dance of today. With pristine
lighting and old-time wardrobe design, Pastorela is a poetic dialogue between music and movement, between the ephemeral and the eternal. A miniature of that which is past, a relic of that which is to come.
Antonio Ruz

AURORA: To blunt, or break, the dawn.
1. Verbal phrase: To begin to dawn.
It is born out of a photograph of predetermination, of the Self. And the need to reach, on the way, the breaking point that forces us to leave our comfort zone and pass through multiple personalities,
creating a composite image that represents us in a truer way. A meeting place between our honour and our vulnerability, a space to recognise and accept ourselves in the abyss. “Just like the first light of morning, this dawn breaks, ready to discover the fullness of its nature”.
Jesús Carmona

"In our collective imaginery, jacaranda is the tree that grows in many cities in Latin America. It is synonymous with the arrival of spring and its blossoms. It is an ornamental tree with tubular, blue-purple flowers, but also a symbol of femininity, beauty, essence, fragrance. Jacaranda is a sunset stroll, the dance of a woman. It is a symbiosis between the essences of nature and womanhood."
Rubén Olmo

This jota, premiered in 1975, is the most danced of the Spanish repertory. Salvador Ruiz de Luna composed the music, based on traditional aragonian music, in deep collaboration with the choreographer, Pedro Azorín. This is key to explain the impressive stage performance that has contributed to its popularity. Jota Aragón was premiered by the Ballet Nacional de España on the 21st of December, 2023, as a part of the 45º Anniversary Show, due to the declaration of jota as an Intangible Cultural Heritage representative element.

Jota Aragon workshop

Antonio Canales created this choreography for the Ballet Nacional de España. The ballet goes briefly through different types of flamenco: Seguiriyas, Soleás, Alegrías, Tientos and Tangos.

Teaser 1

Teaser 2