Antonio Canales

Antonio Canales (born December 3, 1961 in Seville ), actually Antonio Gómez de los Reyes , is a Spanish flamenco dancer and actor.

Life and artistic career

Antonio Canales comes from a family of artists. He completed his training and first appearances as a solo dancer at the Ballet Nacional de España . He then moved to Paris and became a member of Maguy Marín's ensemble . At that time he was invited as a choreographer to the international festival La Versiliana .

In 1988 he won the Navisela Prize for best dancer in Italy. In 1990 he and Julio Bocca won the prize for best international dancer in Mexico. In 1992 he founded his own company in Bilbao . She made her debut with two choreographies: Siempre flamenco and A ti, Carmen Amaya , a homage to the famous flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya . The two pieces marked a turning point in Antonio Canales' work, moving away from classical and modern ballet to flamenco in connection with other dance forms. Since then, a long chain of award-winning works and critical criticism has accompanied his work and his artistic conception.

Antonio Canales was the first solo dancer to appear in more than 50 choreographies in various companies. He has participated in numerous galas, among others, together with Rudolf Nureyev , Maya Plisetskaya , Vladimir Wasiler , Fernando Bujones , Sylvie Guillem , Patrick Dupond and Julio Bocca .

In 1992, to mark the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, a lot of cultural events took place in Spain, America and worldwide. Canales has performed at the World Financial Center in New York, at the Holland Festival and in Tokyo. His next performance, Torero , premiered in Montreal in 1993 and then went on an extensive tour. A year later it had its premiere in Madrid. It was performed there more than 1,000 times. In 1995 Antonio Canales won the Spanish Premio nacional de danza .

A year later, on the occasion of the Flamenco Biennale in Seville, Antonio Canales premiered the show Gitano at the Teatro Central there. Together with the Catalan set designer Lluis Pasqual he presented the Bengues show at the Madrid Autumn Festival in 1998. As a commission for the Ballet Nacional de España, he created the choreography Grito , which premiered in New York City Center .

In 1999 he opened his dance school Escuela de flamenco . In the same year he received the Max Prize for best dancer, appeared in the film Vengo , and was honored with the Andalucia Medalla . In 2000 he premiered Prometeo at the theater festival in the Roman theater of Mérida . The following year he toured Latin America and Spain with the piece Bailaor .

In 2002 Antonio Canales celebrated the tenth anniversary of his company with a new version of Torero . In 2003 he brought Ojos Verdes to the stage in Seville, a danced homage to the poet Fernando Villalón (1881–1930). For this piece he again received a Max Theater Prize for best dancer. With Carmen, Carmela , he showed his own version of Prosper Mérimée's novella Carmen in 2004 . Together with famous flamenco artists such as Paco de Lucía , Tomatito and Eva Yerbabuena , he performed at the Flamenco Biennale in Seville that year. At the 2005 Mérida Theater Festival, he presented Sangre de Edipo . In 2006 he premiered with the musical Flamenco Los Grandes in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria . With this piece he went on tour until 2007. In Caracas in 2009 he showed his personal version of Federico Garcia Lorca's play La Casa de Bernarda Alba .

In the following years, Antonio Canales contributed to the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Mexico's independence in the Mexican city of Guanajuato . He taught at the theater in Madrid, worked with the Cervantes Institute and staged his shows in major European and American cities.

In 2015 he went public with a relentlessly autobiographical piece, Una moneda de dos caras . At the festival Fire of Pamplona in August 2015 he danced in pair Manuela Carrasco .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Biografía. (No longer available online.) In: Artist's website. 2013, archived from the original on July 7, 2015 ; Retrieved August 24, 2015 (Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Antonio Canales. In: donquijote.org. Retrieved August 29, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Escuela de flamenco. (No longer available online.) In: Artist's website. Archived from the original on July 7, 2015 ; Retrieved August 29, 2015 (Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Margot Molina: Antonio Canales: “Mi otro yo es un canalla que me martirizaba”. In: El País . June 20, 2015, accessed August 29, 2015 (Spanish, interview with Antonio Canales). 
5. ↑ Antonio Parra: El baile es cosa de dos. In: El País. Retrieved August 29, 2015 (Spanish). 

Web links

• Artist's website
• Antonio Canales in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Seguiriya. (Video) Antonio Canales 1999. In: YouTube . August 5, 2011, accessed August 24, 2015 . 
• Farruca Flamenco. (Video) Antonio Canales (baile), J. Carmona “Habichuela” y Niňo del Tupé (toque). In: YouTube. October 23, 2014, accessed August 24, 2015 .