Rubén Olmo, new BNE director

Rubén Olmo, Premio Nacional de Danza 2015, was director of the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, an institution under the Junta de Andalucía, a position he has held since 2011. In this period, he premiered his own productions like Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías or La muerte de un minotauro.

Before that, he set up his own company for which he created shows like Érase una vez que era, first performed at Madrid’s Teatro Albéniz (2003), Belmonte (Teatro Albéniz de Madrid, 2006), Pinocchio (Teatros de la Villa de Madrid, 2007), Tranquilo alboroto (Teatro Central de Sevilla, 2010), Las tentaciones de Poe (Teatro Central de Sevilla, 2012), Horas contigo (Teatro Fernán Gómez, 2018), Naturalmente Flamenco (Festival de Jerez, 2019) and Diálogo de Navegante (Bienal de Málaga, 2019).

In 1998, aged 18, he joined the corps de ballet of Ballet Nacional de España (BNE) under the directorship of Aída Gómez, being promoted to solo dancer a year later. While at the BNE he performed in Luz de alma, choreographed by Javier Latorre; La Celestina, with choreography by Ramón Oller and Adolfo Marsillach as stage director; Poeta, by Javier Latorre; Carmen, by José Antonio Ruiz; Ritmos, by Alberto Lorca; Oripando (Farruca), by Israel Galván; and Grito (Alegrías), by Antonio Canales. He left the Company in 2002.

After being selected through a public competition in April 2019, he returned to the Ballet Nacional de España with the intention of working to preserve and spread the traditional Spanish Dance repertoire, while including new creations and opening the door to the avantgarde and experimentation.

The projects to be developed under his directorship include alternating major productions with smaller and riskier shows that would allow the Ballet Nacional de España to widen its national and international scope. So, he will encourage the collaboration with international creators and the cooperation with other INAEM units, public institutions and private companies of other Spanish regional communities and other countries. This way he expects to achieve a more sustainable, transparent, and efficient economic management of resources. He will not overlook inclusion activities with people of differing abilities as well as attracting new audiences, especially families, which the BNE had already started.