Ballet Nacional de España brings Afanador to the heart of Germany

This weekend, the Ballet Nacional de España brings Afanador to the Schlossfestspiele in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The company, directed by Rubén Olmo, arrives in the German city with a production that has been winning over national and international stages since its premiere on December 1^st, 2023.

Inspired by the photography of Ruven Afanador, this work has shone in every theatre it has visited, from South Korea and Bruges to Austria and Italy, with Paris the latest city to surrender to the magnetism of Afanador.

In the words of Marcos Morau, creator of the concept and artistic director of the production, “Afanador is a work that stems from a sacred legacy and confronts our time and its changes. It is a work of rigour, beauty and mystery.”

It is one of the company’s most contemporary productions. To speak of Afanador is to speak of innovation in Spanish Dance. According to Rubén Olmo, director of the Ballet Nacional de España, it is precisely this originality that lies behind its great success: “The success of Afanador lies in its inspiration. We always draw inspiration from writers, poets and so on, but never from a photographer, from a photo shoot. It is something innovative in the world of dance.”

With its hypnotic choreography and performances that move between vitality and stillness, Afanador focuses on photographer Ruven Afanador’s surrealist vision of flamenco through a distorting lens, made of dreams, desire and memory, seeking to draw the audience in so they can discover a universe created from fascination and desire.

Ruven Afanador freezes movement with all the beauty and strength of Spanish art, while Morau allows those same bodies to move once again. In doing so, he reveals the tension between vitality and stillness, between the gaze and desire. The paradox of photography becomes tangible: a medium that freezes movement, yet is capable of making visible an entire current of life. In Afanador, according to Morau, “the bodies move again, not to imitate photography, but to understand what lies within that stillness.”

The choreography has been created by Marcos Morau himself, Lorena Nogal, Shay Partush, Jon López and Miguel Ángel Corbacho, assistant director of the Ballet Nacional de España. Large bows, pitchforks and bata de cola dresses accompany the musical composition created by Juan Cristóbal Saavedra, with the special collaboration of singer and composer Maria Arnal. This journey through worlds that dance along the borders of the dreamlike, death and life comes together with dramaturgy by Roberto Fratini Serafide, audiovisual design by Marc Salicrú and lighting design by Bernat Jansà.

The ballet Afanador has established itself as a phenomenon on the international stage. Since its debut, this Ballet Nacional de España production has received unanimous applause from audiences and specialised critics alike, winning major awards including five Max Awards, two Talía Awards and the Critics’ Awards of Catalonia, among others.

As Marcos Morau states, “I would like people to come and see us in that way, as in certain dreams, where we recognise places, people and landscapes and, without fully understanding what is happening to them, we know that they are speaking about us.”

Programme:
AFANADOR
Ballet Nacional de España

Forum am Schlosspark, Ludwigsburg, Germany

Friday, June 19, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 20, 2026, 7:30 p.m.

Last tickets:
https://schlossfestspiele.de/en/events/ballet-nacional-de-espana/