The dancer and choreographer Antonio Najarro (Madrid, 1975), formed by the most prestigious dance teachers in all styles – classical ballet, bolero school, Spanish classical, folklore, flamenco and contemporary dance, she earned honors in Spanish Dance from the Mariemma Royal Professional Dance Conservatory in Madrid. Her creative vocation soon led her to choreograph, participating in several editions of the Spanish Dance Choreographic Competition and Flamenco from Madrid. In 2000, he founded his own company, for which he has choreographed four productions: Tango Flamenco (2002) Flamencooriental (2006) jazzing Flamenco (2008) and Seville Suite (2011). In 2011, he was appointed director of the Spanish National Ballet. Since taking over as artistic director of the BNE, he has maintained the already vast repertoire, opened a path for new creations, and supported and expanded the dissemination of the complex spectrum of national folklore.
In this interview, maestro Najarro reflects on the current state of Spanish dance, his company and his piece Sleepwalking Romance, premiered and established in many national and international theaters since November 2024.
→ An interview with Manuel Cid.
– After touring this show in Spain this year and offering all styles of Spanish dance, how is the piece's reception in our country continuing?
– The truth is that the reception of the show Sleepwalking Romance It's been incredible. All the national theaters we're visiting are filling up. I think the message I wanted to get across is getting across, because the audience's response is, above all, one of great emotion. That's the main objective and what generally drives me to create my company's shows. They're very carefully crafted at every level: lighting, projections, costumes, choreography, and the level of the dancers. On a technical level, they're very carefully thought out, so we can then forget about all that technique and give way to the emotion, the performance, which is what most resonates with the audience.
- How do you find the current state of Spanish dance and specifically of flamenco?
– The current state of Spanish dance and flamenco I think it's very good. There are great performers and great choreographers. And specifically in the flamenco, which is one of the four branches of Spanish dance most exported, perhaps the most danced, the most performed at the level of cante, of touch, of dance. We have to continue giving the rest of the disciplines of Spanish dance, which are the bolero school, traditional dance and stylized dance, a push to reach the level that the flamencoI've been fighting for this practically since I started dancing. Since I founded my company in 2000, the main focus has been to position all styles of Spanish dance where I felt they should be. Since Spanish dance is one of the richest dance styles in the world, and above all out of respect for the performers—because I always say that Spanish dance performers are the best prepared—they have to defend very different, very complex styles: castanet tapping, footwork, highly refined classical ballet techniques, and that's what we're fighting for.
For me, the current situation is very good for performers, choreographers, and musicians. But it's true that there are not enough companies, not enough structures to provide work for more dancers, because many are finishing their studies and have nowhere else to go.
"The current situation of Spanish dance is very good in terms of performers, choreographers, and musicians. But it's true that there are not enough companies, not enough structures to provide work for more dancers, because many are finishing their studies and have nowhere else to go."
– García Lorca's poetics happens as he said in the last rooms of blood, where the duende is found, in that mysterious yet powerful place, full of earth, fire, mystery. Tell me about the preliminary work you've done, working not only with the dance troupe but with the entire prodigious team you've surrounded yourself with to achieve this Lorca-esque universe without falling into clichés.
– When I started to conceive this show – a year before its premiere, approximately – I had something very clear in my head and that was that I wanted to show something very different from what has always been shown about the work and life of Federico García Lorca through Spanish dance and the flamencoThe traditional side has always been much visited in the flamenco and in Spanish dance. What I wanted was to show the more dreamlike, more poetic side, and that's why I enlisted the help of playwright Alberto Conejero, who made a magnificent selection of poems in which I could address the four styles of Spanish dance in a very dreamlike way. My goal was for the audience to enter a dream world, for all of Federico's fantastical, dreamlike characters to be enveloped in a spiritual atmosphere. To achieve this, the entire creative team worked with that intention. From the costume designer, Yaiza Pinillos, who created costumes in keeping with this universe, representing real-life characters like Soledad Montoya, to non-human characters like the moon, Lorca's thoughts, water, and monsters played by the dancers in dreamlike costumes inspired by horsemen. The lighting is also focused to enhance this dreamlike side, there is a moment in which a large silver fabric appears that occupies the entire stage and is masterfully illuminated by Nicolás Fischtel, one of the best lighting designers we have in this country, illuminating the reflection of the moon on the sea, where it makes a pas de deux Lorca as a child with the moon. The projections are also very important. They place us inside the Alhambra in Granada, in the caves of the Albaicín, with designs and strokes inspired by Federico's own strokes and drawings to create these projections. And then the choreography, with so many dreamlike elements, so many stories to tell, so many poems to tackle, has given me the opportunity to showcase all the styles of Spanish dance, such as the classical and neoclassical ballet number performed by Daniel Ramos, playing Lorca as a child, wearing ballet slippers. This Lorca grows older, goes through adolescence, where he discovers his attraction to his own sex, and into adulthood before his death, where he witnesses and stars in several of the show's poems from the different styles of Spanish dance.
- In Sleepwalking RomanceAs you mention, different styles of Spanish dance are hybridized. How do these different styles coexist choreographically and sensorially in the piece? Each one emanates a different strength, expression, and almost a different pulse.
– I wanted to emphasize, as I always do, that my dancers are some of the best dancers in this country, especially for their versatility, which for me is a fundamental requirement, and their absolute mastery of all styles of Spanish dance. They are dancers with magnificent training in classical ballet, a very virtuoso castanet touch, a technique for stylized dance jumps and pirouettes, and a very deep knowledge of Spanish folklore or traditional dance. Each style of Spanish dance has a unique aesthetic and, as you say, a very different energy. The bolero school is a very brilliant, very fast dance with tremendous classical ballet technique. flamencoAs you know, it's down-to-earth, it's the complete opposite; it's a dance of roots, it's profound, it's more broken, more grotesque. In stylized dance, you need a very refined mastery of classical ballet, a very virtuoso castanet playing, and a very strong coordination of castanets and footwork. And Spanish folklore, well, it has an incredible diversity. In Spain, there's a diversity of folklore from north to south; east and west are absolutely different, in the way of performing, in the accompanying instruments, very different dances, even in the clothing. Due to the different climate in Spain, individuals dress in different ways, and the folklore and the way of dancing also vary. The footwear, of course, is different; it's danced with jota espadrilles, with shoes, with boots, barefoot... Spanish dance is incredibly varied and rich.
"My goal was to immerse the audience in a dreamlike world, to immerse all of Federico's fantastical, dreamlike characters in a spiritual atmosphere."
– What would you highlight about the piece? Sleepwalking Romance?
– Look, in the poem performed by the wounded riders, one of the poems danced by four of the company's dancers, we have recovered an instrument called chácaras, from the island of La Gomera, Canary Islands. They are wooden instruments similar to castanets, they are played like the thumbtacks of folklore, although they are larger, they have a shape like a split coconut. When I heard them and saw them in several videos from the island of La Gomera, the sound was exactly the same as that of horses' hooves when they hit the ground. So I created a number that is one of the star numbers of the show, because the audience loves it. These riders come out playing these chácaras, dancing for farruca And it's spectacular; it's a truly energetic and powerful number. Guitarist José Luis Montones' composition is magnificent. It's one of the key elements that enhances this level of dancers, who are also capable of playing these types of instruments while dancing.
– I am interested in how the body occupies a place in space. Continuing with Lorca, he speaks of the Devil, of the duende as possession, of a possession not only in the spirit but in the body. As he says in Theory of the duende, "The arrival of the duende always presupposes a radical change in all forms. On old planes, it gives sensations of completely unprecedented freshness, with a quality of a newly created rose, a miracle, that produces an almost religious enthusiasm." How do you manage to convey this power of your writings to movement? How do you spatially work the pieces?
– To understand how to interpret each of the poems, I followed Alberto Conejero. I worked with him when I was conducting the Spanish National Ballet’s ballet Electra, and I saw his wonderful ability to extract the core, the most important focus, in this case, of the work. Electra and in this case of each of Lorca's poems, to convey through dance the real message of each poem, without complexity, without having to give excessive information to the audience, but going to the focus, to the main axis of each of the poems, which for me is the most important thing. I, sincerely, before undertaking this show, which is my first story show, although it doesn't have a story from beginning to end, there are poems that must be told, and there is a Federico García Lorca who goes from being a child to his maturity. We begin with a lively, happy, innocent Federico, at the beginning of the show, until we go through moments through gloomy, grim, bloody places, like the wounded horsemen. Much more solemn moments, like the dance of the gypsies to the moon, some steps for two With a marvelous moon performed by María Fernández in a stylized bata de cola, it evokes the love, support, and trust that Lorca always seeks in the moon, which is his guide throughout the show. There's a saeta performed by singer María Mezcle that creates the dark, solemn, and gloomy atmosphere of this Gypsy number.
Alberto Conejero, apart from telling me the main message of the poems, has also helped me to place each of the poems in the space where they should be, emulating the sensations that each of us interprets in one way or another from Federico García Lorca's poems. Each poem has been studied down to the last detail to give it a lighting, to create an image, a very specific projection, a choreography very much in line with what needs to be conveyed to the audience, and a wardrobe that, of course, complements the movement and also complements the aesthetic, the spirit, and the message of Federico García Lorca.
«I am very grateful to the Flamenco On Fire that has a format like that of my company, which not only dances flamenco "It encompasses all the styles of Spanish dance. I think this helps open the audience's mind and helps them see the magnificence we have in the diversity of our dance styles."
– When does the company arrive at the festival? Flamenco on Fire? How are you getting there, Antonio?
– I think the company is experiencing an extraordinary moment right now. After eight years directing the Spanish National Ballet and having previously directed my own company for ten years, I simply wanted to demonstrate that a private company can also be large-scale, that we can present shows like the ones we're presenting.Querencia, Argentina in Paris, this Sleepwalking Romance–, Next year we're going to premiere a very powerful show revisiting ballets by Antonia Mercé from Argentina. We're going through a very good time, although it's hard to lead such a large company. We're almost thirty people traveling privately, with everything that entails. But I feel a responsibility to show the world that through the private sector, great productions can also be created, to bring great ballets, above all, to provide a foundation for that Spanish dance, which, if not through initiatives like this, could be lost, and I can't allow that. Everything I've worked hard to communicate and bring Spanish dance to film, to fashion, to figure skating, to synchronized swimming, to directing a public television program like A Country in Dance… I have to continue nurturing all of these projects through, in this case, my company, which is my artistic showcase. Thankfully, it's working very well; the public greatly appreciates the work we do, and we're really looking forward to getting to Pamplona on August 28th and showing it to the public. I'm also very grateful to the festival for having a format like my company's, which doesn't just focus on dance. flamenco It encompasses all the styles of Spanish dance. I think this helps open the audience's mind and helps them see the magnificence we have in the diversity of our dance styles.
Federico García Lorca, as I've said throughout this interview, will be very present, and in a very original way. I think we've taken advantage of him in a very different way than what has been shown in other representations through Spanish dance and the flamenco of this great poet and person. We hope the audience at the Baluarte in Pamplona will be moved by us, and we will be moved by them. ♦
