Ballet Nacional de España premieres Afanador in South Korea

Performances will take place in the coastal city of Yeosu and in the Korean capital, Seoul

Afanador premieres today for the first time outside Spain in Yeosu, the Korean coastal city that will host two performances of the latest production by the Ballet Nacional de España, directed by Rubén Olmo. After tomorrow’s performance, the company will travel to the country’s capital, where it will premiere the work on April 30^th. The show can be enjoyed in two further performances on May 1^st.

Premiered in December 2023 at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, it has since toured successfully to the Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro Mira in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Teatros del Canal in Madrid, Les Arts in Valencia, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

“We are thrilled to be able to present this production abroad and show the ability of Spanish dance to adapt to 21st-century languages,” said Rubén Olmo, director of the Ballet Nacional de España, about the international premiere of this work. For Olmo, “Afanador is an example of how dialogue between different artistic disciplines enriches when it is undertaken without prejudice,” and of how “Spanish dance can benefit from this exchange while maintaining its character and essence.”

In Afanador, Spanish and contemporary dance come together to reflect photographer Ruven Afanador’s vision of flamenco. Captured in his celebrated works Ángel Gitano and Mil Besos, the protagonists of both books inspired Marcos Morau, who is responsible for the concept and artistic direction, to create Afanador.

For Morau, Afanador “observes the world of flamenco through a distorting lens, a lens born of dreams, desire and memory.” And it is this surrealist gaze that the work evokes, with each scene starting from one of the Colombian photographer’s iconic images. The stage transports us to the instant captured by the camera lens, and the evocation comes to life. Electronic music, minera, seguiriya, harvest songs and echoes of Holy Week provoke the dance, accompany it and awaken the memory of the black-and-white photographs. Rubén Olmo himself, the protagonist of one of the iconic pages of Ángel Gitano, brings the photograph to life, also through his dance, in this original proposal.

In the production presented today in Korea, the black and white of photography predominate, in a stark contrast that transforms the traditional costumes and set design of flamenco — designed by Silvia Delagneau and Max Glaenzel, respectively — into strange and unrecognizable elements: waterfalls, avalanches and storms.

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 batas de cola accompany the musical composition created by Juan Cristóbal Saavedra, with the special collaboration of singer and composer Maria Arnal. Afanador moves along the boundaries of the dreamlike, life and death, guided by dramaturg Roberto Fratini Serafide, Marc Salicrú’s audiovisual design and Bernat Jansà’s lighting design.

For Marcos Morau, “Afanador is a work that starts from a sacred legacy and confronts our time and its changes. It is a work of rigour, beauty and mystery: because only by mixing the past with the present can we discover and launch ourselves forward. And this is what Afanador wants: to respect the legacy, mix it with our present and launch it into the future.”

Program:

AFANADOR
Ballet Nacional de España

Yeosu

Thursday, April 24^th, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 25^th, 2025, 7:30 p.m.

Seoul

Wednesday, April 30^th, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 1^st, 2025, two performances: 7:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.

Marcos Morau & La Veronal, choreographer

Trained between Barcelona and New York in photography, movement and theatre, Marcos Morau, Valencia, 1982, constructs imaginary worlds and landscapes where movement and image meet and devour each other.

For more than ten years, Marcos has directed La Veronal as director, choreographer and designer of sets, costumes and lighting. He is also a guest artist with various companies and theatres around the world, where he develops new creations that are always halfway between the performing arts and dance.

As Spain’s youngest National Dance Award winner, Marcos Morau’s language is an inheritance of abstract movement and physical theatre. Marcos Morau has also received the FAD Sebastià Gasch Award, granted by the FAD Foundation for Arts and Design; the Time Out Award for Best Creator; the Italian Danza&Danza Award for Best Creator of the Year, among many others. With his creations, he has won awards in numerous national and international choreography competitions, including the international choreography competitions of Hanover, Copenhagen and Madrid.

Since 2024, Marcos Morau has been an associate artist at the Staatsballett Berlin, where he will premiere a new creation each year with one of Europe’s largest companies, linked to the Deutsche Oper, Komische Oper and Staatsoper Unter den Linden.