Tel Aviv, the Ballet Nacional de España’s new international tour with Invocación

From July 12^th to 15^th, the Ballet Nacional de España presented six performances of Invocación at The Tel Aviv Opera. This quadruple program, designed by Rubén Olmo, director of the Ballet Nacional de España, showcases the versatility and technical mastery of the dancers in three disciplines of Spanish dance: flamenco, stylized dance and escuela bolera. The production also includes a tribute to dancer and choreographer Mario Maya, one of the great masters of Spanish dance.

In Rubén Olmo’s words, it is a very complete program “in which audiences can enjoy flamenco full of life and strength on stage, a ballet of the purest stylized dance, and one of the few recent choreographies in the escuela bolera style.”

The program opens with Invocación Bolera, a piece by Olmo himself that updates the essence of traditional escuela bolera and pays tribute to the great masters who set the course for this style. This discipline is one of the most difficult in Spanish dance, requiring mastery of classical ballet, while also being one of the most spectacular because of the speed of its steps and jumps. The music is a contemporary composition created specifically for this piece by the young Sevillian composer and conductor Manuel Busto. The costumes, designed by Pedro Moreno, have been recovered from the Ballet Nacional de España’s archives and adapted for this work by the designer himself.

Jauleña, meanwhile, is a choreography conceived by Rubén Olmo as a transitional solo, fusing stylized dance, escuela bolera and flamenco, with particular prominence given to the granaína and zapateado. The music is also by Manuel Busto.

The first part of the program culminates with Eterna Iberia, a choreography by Antonio Najarro, in which castanets, the Spanish cape and the Cordovan hat come together with the technique and expressive force so characteristic of Spanish stylized dance. For this piece, the company dresses in the tones of earth and sea designed by Yaiza Pinillos. This work, with music by Manuel Moreno-Buendía, premiered in 2019 at the Víctor Villegas Auditorium Theatre in Murcia.

The second part of the program is devoted to De lo flamenco. Tribute to Mario Maya, with which the Ballet Nacional de España pays tribute to dancer and choreographer Mario Maya (1937–2008), a flamenco legend who had not previously featured in its repertoire.

Made up of seven movements, the piece is defined as a flamenco suite that reflects Mario Maya’s innovative personal style. Maya founded the Andalusian Dance Company in 1994, today the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía. Here, Rubén Olmo restages De lo flamenco, premiered in 1994, as faithfully as possible, adding two new choreographies by Rafaela Carrasco and Isabel Bayón, regular collaborators of Maya. According to the director, the work represented a refreshing and different approach to the flamenco being performed up to that point.

Invocación premiered in 2020 at the Teatro Villamarta in Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz, and since then the Ballet Nacional de España has performed it in Spain in cities such as Madrid, Valencia, Santander and Granada, among others, as well as internationally in Saint Petersburg, Dubai, Athens, Mexico City and Monterrey, among others.

Invocación
Ballet Nacional de España

Program:

Invocación bolera, by Rubén Olmo

Jauleña, by Rubén Olmo

Eterna Iberia, by Antonio Najarro

De lo flamenco. Tribute to Mario Maya, by Mario Maya, Milagros Menjíbar, A. Rueda “Toná”, Manolo Marín, Isabel Bayón and Rafaela Carrasco

The Tel Aviv Opera, Tel Aviv, Israel

July 12^th and 13^th, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
July 14^th, 2023, 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
July 15^th, 2023, 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.