Flamenco and dance with the work of the photographer Ruvén Afanador

In his works Mil Besos, published in 2009, and Ángel gitano, from 2014, the Colombian photographer Ruvén Afanador has integrated the image of flamenco into contemporary visual language in a very personal way. Under the Andalusian sun and in high-contrast black and white, this author of covers for magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair or Rolling Stone erases in the aforementioned photographic series -focusing, respectively, on female and male bodies- the traditional gender limits in a magnificent play of light and shadow.

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.