Once again this year, the most exceptional figures of contemporary Spanish dance will meet again in Jerez, the undisputed cradle of flamenco, giving special prominence to this dance discipline that is the identity of this land. Jerez Festival will open the doors of its twenty-ninth edition between February 21 and March 8, 2025. An essential event for lovers and fans of flamenco This time, the emphasis will be on generational change, with the presence of great exponents and new figures who, led by the first, are taking up the mantle of this unique and universal art.
All the aspects and ways of understanding the flamenco will flood the city and tour its corners in a new edition whose programming draws the transfer of knowledge of an art and culture of oral transmission, from masters to disciples, in the cante, the touch and the dance. The Festival de Jerez, whose tickets go on sale on November 26, brings together a diversity of creators, with more classic proposals and others that transcend tradition and heritage, but without losing the duende and magic of the flamenco, creating a first-class poster.
On the other hand, this city with a rich flamenco tradition will welcome an audience eager for excitement who will witness a total of 45 shows, with 10 world premieres, two national, four regional and three album presentations. All of them will be held in different venues. And in this edition, the Festival de Jerez opens up to other neighborhoods, but without moving away from the city center. To the stages of the Villamarta Theater, the Blas Infante Social Center, the Sala Compañía, the Los Apóstoles winery of González Byass, the Villavicencio Palace and different peñaThe city's flamenco shows will feature artists of the stature of Eva Yerbabuena, Antonio Rey, La Macanita, Rafaela Carrasco, Angeles Toledano, Jesus Mendez or Israel Galvan, among many others, to show the public of Jerez their latest stage proposals.
There will also be space to remember some of the great masters of all time who, although they are no longer with us, are still present through today's artists and their ways of creating and doing things. With all this, the Jerez Festival will be a reflection of the passing of the cultures that make up the flamenco and Spanish dance as a whole, which continue to evolve with freshness but with respect for the legacies, as a heritage value that deserves recognition and memory. In this sense, the spirit and the integrative capacity are other axes of the programming of this festival, in which the public has the opportunity to enjoy the tradition according to the different generations of the flamenco and the dance that will take place on the stages.
And for almost three decades, this Festival has become the great event in Jerez. flamenco. An event marked in red on the calendar by the public who come to Jerez to be enchanted by the best of the toque, the cante and dance. The artists, who find here an unbeatable meeting place to show their talent in this art. And, of course, the students who share and acquire new knowledge every year and who in this edition will have an offer of 46 courses.
Regarding the image of this edition, the artist from Jerez Daniel Diosdado has once again been in charge of creating the work that identifies the Festival de Jerez, focusing on “the idea of generational change, not change, where several generations can coexist.” In this sense, Diosdado points out, the poster reflects “the learning, the inheritance and the transmission of art flamenco in those generations” through “three protagonists who had not yet been in any of my posters: that older dancer, with an apron and her roete, grandmother, wise and flamenco teacher. The girl who is just starting out and who is a whirlwind of excitement, repeating each of the grandmother’s movements. And the Villamarta Theatre itself as the third protagonist, and as the stage for these generations, where there is room for everyone.”
Villamarta Theatre: Cathedral of Dance
As usual, the Villamarta Theatre will once again be the central venue of the Jerez Festival and the space that will host the opening show, as well as another 13 shows that will take place throughout the event, always with dance as the protagonist. The 21th edition will be inaugurated on the evening of February XNUMX with the performance, on its stage, of Ballet Flamenco Andalusia and the show Pineda. Popular romance in three pictures, a work that marks the debut of Patricia guerrero as artistic director of the ballet. Inspired by the drama Mariana Pineda by Federico García Lorca, his staging mixes the emotional intensity of Lorca's text with the expressive language of flamenco.
A day later, on Saturday, February 22, the dancer and choreographer Eva Yerbabuena will arrive in Jerez with Dark bright, her nineteenth show, to show her uniqueness and versatility, appealing to duality as an expressive and reflective form. The artist, one of the great names in flamenco dance in recent decades, moves in this proposal between the most absolute rigidity and the most resounding flexibility, between stillness and movement, light and darkness, song and dance, classicism and avant-garde, craftsmanship and technology…
On Tuesday 25th it will be the turn of the company Antonio Najarro. Argentina in Paris. The Smuggler and Sonatina This is the title of this proposal in which the choreographer pays tribute to Antonia Mercé La Argentina, one of the greatest exponents of Spanish dance, who in 1928 marked a milestone in history by bringing together the best Spanish creators in the fields of music, dance, costume and set design in the Ballets Espagnols. Najarro here recovers two ballets that premiered that year at the Théâtre Fémina in Paris, to great success with the public and critics: Sonatina, by Ernesto Halffter; and The smuggler, by Oscar Esplá.
He will take over on Wednesday 26th, Rafaela Carrasco. Recognized with the National Dance Award in 2023, she arrives at the Jerez Festival to present Creaviva. A show composed of a suite of nine unrelated pieces, in which she reflects on the concept of creation in the feminine to reach the conclusion that women are synonymous with creation. And she does so by dancing in a sound space in which the flamenco coexists with the airs and rhythms of national folklore through cante and live instrumentation to which previously recorded pieces are added.
Another name of the dance will follow flamenco. Mercedes of Cordoba will step onto the Villamarta stage on Thursday 27th to present the result of the Work in progress which was presented at the last edition: Forgotten (the hatless), where the dancer pays her own tribute to the women of the Generation of 27 who were relegated to oblivion. The work, deeply emotional and full of symbolism, becomes an act of poetic and artistic justice.
The Jerez theatre will host on Friday 28th the world premiere of the latest show by the dancer, also from Jerez, Maria Jose Franco. Tararamía is his own particular ode to the beauty and mystery of femininity through dance. From the girl who dances non-stop, to the spirit of someone who never stops dancing in her soul. A song for which Franco will have two guest artists on stage, the dancer África Moreno and the singer Luis Moneo.
The Festival programme at Villamarta kicks off in March with the performance of two leading figures in dance with brilliant careers who have been taking part in the Festival since the beginning of their respective careers until now. The first to appear on the stage will be Manuel Linan. Recognized, among other awards, with the 2017 National Dance Award, he will stage, on Saturday 1, his Dead in love accompanied by more than a dozen artists who will take the audience through a choreographic landscape with the character of a copla that points to different atmospheres: desire, fantasy, provocation... Only one day later, on Sunday 2, the Cadiz native Eduardo Guerrero premieres Traces of light. This is the closing of a trilogy of shows that he has shown to the public for the first time within the framework of the Festival. On this occasion, Guerrero explores the human condition, the fragility of being and the search for meaning, and the symbolic figure of the sheltered, women whose faces remain under a cloak, evoking both refuge and resistance. Through them, she invites us to reflect on the nature of what is hidden and what is shown, on what is lost in time and what remains.
In this edition the Antonio Gades Company, and will do so at the Villamarta Theatre on Tuesday 4th. Dedicated to the conservation and dissemination of one of the most outstanding dancers of the XNUMXth century and who laid the foundations of current Spanish dance, the company will perform the iconic Carmen, thus commemorating the 150th anniversary of the premiere of Bizet's opera. And just one day later, on Wednesday 5th, the dancer from Arcos de la Frontera Marcos Flores will premiere the show in Andalusia Wild with the singer from Jerez Cello Pantoja as a guest artist. National Award for Flamenco, among other recognitions, Flores is inspired by the most classic forms of flamenco and in some concepts related to the origin of this art (folklore, popular or Ibero-American) to build from a freedom that leads to a reinterpretation of the classical, the traditional, the rites and the sacred.
Already on Thursday 6th, Israel Galvan returns to the Festival de Jerez to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its first participation. And it does so by revisiting the show that premiered back then, The Golden Age, a classic from his repertoire that, after being released for the first time in Jerez, has had hundreds of performances around the world and that Galván, winner of the 2005 Dance Prize in the creation category and Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts among many other awards, now renews with the voice of María Marín and the guitar of Rafael Rodríguez.
El Ballet Flamenco from Cadiz, under the direction of Pilar Ogalla y Andrés Peña, will also take part in this 7th edition. It will be on Friday XNUMXth when both, together with the rest of the cast, will go up on stage at the Villamarta Theatre to present Watercolor with salt, a work full of light and strength in which the dance flamenco It begins as if on a blank canvas to create, grow and colour until it reaches the maximum expression of emotion through movement, fusion and colours. The Jerez dancer Juan Ogalla will participate as a guest artist in its staging.
And will close the Festival's programming at the Villamarta Theater Maria del Mar Moreno, which on Saturday 8th will put the finishing touch in this space with the absolute premiere of Love and glory. With several guest artists (Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Pastora Galván, Rosario Toledo and Ana Salazar), and coinciding with the closing ceremony of International Women's Day, the Jerez-born dancer shows in this show the insecurities that she has had to face as an artist and as a woman throughout her career and how all of them have transformed her into the confident, firm and independent artist that she is today.
«The Jerez Festival, whose tickets go on sale on November 26, once again brings together a diversity of creators, with more classic proposals and others that transcend tradition and heritage, but without losing the duende and magic of the flamenco, creating a first-class poster»
The Blas Infante Social Center, second performing arts space
In the opening of the Jerez Festival to other neighborhoods of the city, the Blas Infante Social Center is configured as the second stage space of the edition, with eight performances and a stage that will be open on Sunday, February 23 (18.30:XNUMX p.m.) with the absolute premiere of the latest proposal by the dancer from Almería. Rocio Garrido, Of lives. Winner of the Desplante Award at the Festival of Cante from the Minas de la Unión in 2023, Garrido has the direction of Eva Yerbabuena and Rubén Olmo as guest choreographer in this piece in which he remembers Carmen Amaya, La Chana and La Singla.
It is also a world premiere in this edition. Lucia live, show of Lucia Alvarez 'The Pine' which comes to this same stage on Monday 24th (20.30pm) and seeks to break the rigid structure of traditional dance shows and present an energetic and vitalist work that breathes and is nourished by the energy of all participants, whether actively or unconsciously, in a living piece, allowing itself to evolve as required by the musicians, the audience or its own mood.
And from one world premiere to another that takes place in Andalusia. Marta Galvez will put on the stage of the Blas Infante Social Center on the afternoon of Tuesday 25 (18.30:XNUMX p.m.) his Lady of the night, a journey in which, through the darkness and shadows of the night, the dancer shows different scenes of the beautiful transformation process that this flower undergoes. The choreographer María Pagés and the writer, poet and playwright El Arbi El Harti have participated in the construction of the dramaturgy and the choreographic and stage direction of the piece. And the following day, Wednesday 26 (18.30:XNUMX p.m.), it will also be seen for the first time in Andalusia. shaky, the latest production of the Jerez dancer Miguel Angel Heredia and Alberto Selles, An intimate and passionate show in which the two dancers explore the paths of emotion through dance. flamenco.
Antonio Molina 'The Thief' will be the next artist to pass through this space. On March 1 (18.30:XNUMX p.m.) he will present To ignite (an act of combustion). With the creative accompaniment of Rocío Molina and Ernesto Artillo, the dancer stages all the meanings of the verb prender: from its meaning as to sustain to that of combust, passing through the one referring to the deprivation of liberty, in this case, of his dance. Two days later, on Monday 3 (20.30:XNUMX p.m.) it will be Karime Amaya who takes the lead role in premiering his film in Spain Counterpoint. Granddaughter of the legendary Carmen Amaya, the artist, born in Mexico, makes her solo debut at the Jerez event with this proposal that, inspired by the musical concept of counterpoint, stages a dynamic conversation between the different elements of flamenco: the guitar, the cante and the dance.
He will be followed on Tuesday 4th (18.30pm) by the winner of the Breakthrough Artist Award in the 2023 edition, Rafael Ramirez. Chronicle of an event is the title of his stage creation. A very personal show where he recalls the figure of Antonio Gades, making clear his notions, his essence, his revolution, his daring and his concept of stage space. All this using the turning points in Gades' life as a rudder to bring, body and soul, his dance and his concept into the 21st century.
And closes the programming of the edition at the Blas Infante Social Center Glory of the RosaryThe Sevillian dancer praises the figure of her teacher, Merche Esmeralda, From your hand. On Thursday, March 6 (18.30:XNUMX p.m.), the student will highlight the relevance of Merche Esmeralda in the history of flamenco, putting the emphasis on her dance and her manners, and featuring Esmeralda herself as a guest artist on stage.
Sala Compañía, where new talents take over
One more edition, the Company Room It will be a versatile space that will accommodate different generations and diverse proposals. The present and future of flamenco will be performing a series of eight shows, including several starring the new generations of flamenco sagas and several absolute premieres. This is the case of Only the echo of the night, Joan Fenollar, emerging talent of Spanish dance who will make her solo debut on Saturday, February 22, putting on stage this dance poem collection in which various branches of dance converge and interconnect with the sound and environmental space that, in turn, is based on an abstract set design and conceptual video art to give life to Azorín's verses.
The Sevillian bailaor Pepe Torres, Coming from a family with Flemish roots, he will take over on Monday 24th. The dance flamenco by Pepe Torres will reveal his unique way of doing things on stage, collecting the legacy of his elders to adapt it to his way of feeling and expressing. Also with roots in what jondo, Manuela Carrasco daughter She arrives at the XXIX edition of the Jerez Festival, taking over from her mother and becoming a new figure in dance. flamenco. On Thursday 27th, the Sala Compañía will premiere Anagram. Change in the order of letters that gives rise to another word. and she will stand before the public with the desire to be recognized for herself, for her way of dancing, in which her ability to adapt plays an essential role.
And from one world premiere to another. The young dancer from Barbate The Trick, son of La Truco and grandson of El Truco, a saga that has combined the art of the tablao with teaching, comes to the Festival on Friday 28th with Brijilí. The artist, winner of the AISGE Foundation Award for Outstanding Dancer in the XXXIII Spanish Dance Choreography Competition and Flamenco Teatro Fernán Gómez will share with those present moments of their own creation that derive from everything they have experienced and from the feelings and bonds created around their life experience.
There will also be room for the cante in the Sala Compañía, which will be brought to us by the hand of Jose Carpio Fernandez 'Mijita', who will present his album South of freedom On Sunday, March 2, the singer from Jerez, who has invited the dancer Carmen Herrera for the occasion, recounts his life story on this album, starting with the musical experiences of his childhood, which largely flourished in his home in the popular Federico Mayo neighborhood.
Just one day later, on Monday the 3rd, the Malaga dancer Luisa Palicio will present the Work in progress of his latest stage proposal, The penultimate coupletA show set in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century, starring a group of women who took to the stage to defend a genre that was considered insignificant but which completely changed the history of art and music.
The new canteA group of young artists from the neighborhoods of Santiago and San Miguel will fill the stage of the Sala Compañía on Wednesday the 5th. Children of the compass is the name of this group that brings together the new exponents of the sagas of the Rubichi, Agujetas, Moraos, Junqueras, Montoya, Soto, Los Pipa, Pantoja, Valencia and Remendaos. cante de Manuel Junquera, Bernardo Rubichi, Enrique Remache and Luis Montoya Chanquita, the dance of Antonio El Pipa Jr., the guitars of Manuel Rubichi, Antonio Morao and Curro Carrasco Jr., And the palmas de Curro del London, Juan Diego Valencia and Curro de Remendao will fill this recital baptized as with art Jerez, 21st century, which has the musical and artistic direction of Pedro Garrido and which will be part of the documentary also called Children of the compass.
The last night in this space, Thursday March 7, will be for the Andalusian premiere of My way 2.0, of the young member of the National Ballet of Spain stela alonso, one of the most outstanding dancers of the bolero school, who in this show expresses the flamenco from a personal point of view, in which this school takes center stage, but evolved and brought to the present, enriched with rhythms flamencoand contemporary dance.
The González Byass Wineries and the festival
González Byass Winery and the Jerez Festival maintain their ties also in this edition. Thus, this cathedral of wine will once again become a stage flamenco to house different ways of feeling and expressing the flamenco tradition. The Apostles' Wine Cellars will open their doors for the first time on Saturday, February 22 to welcome the guitarist Antonio Rey, who comes to the Festival to present his sixth and latest album, Stories of a flamenco, with her sister, Mara Rey, as a guest artist at the cante. Rey has just won his second Latin Grammy Award (the first was received in 2020) for Best Album Flamenco for this work that we will have the opportunity to enjoy live in Jerez.
The canteThe most identifiable people of Jerez will be the focus of the recital that will be offered The Macanita On Sunday 23rd, the singer from Jerez makes her debut at the Festival Gold mill, in which she will take a tour of the black sounds that have seen her grow up in her neighborhood of Santiago. And the cante will return to this space on Thursday 27th with the help of the young Angels Toledano. Recognized with the Best Award Cante Accompaniment in the last edition, will present his album in concert Dirty blood. A work that, with its own lyrics and voice, is the fruit of this singer's contemporaneity and that, on stage, promises an exciting journey.
The singer from Jerez will also take to the stage at the Apóstoles wineries Jesus Mendez. It will be on Friday 28th when I present to the respectable I want to sing to you, a show in which he recalls some of the titles that have accompanied him since his childhood, covering classical and contemporary masters while musically betting on lesser-known registers.
And finally, the concert nights in this space will be closed by the also Jerez-born Ana Crisman, who after presenting a work in progress at the last edition comes to this one with his album Arpaora, Saturday March 1. Accompanied by several guest artists (Vicente Soto 'Sordera', La Macanita and José Valencia), the artist will present the compositions from what is considered the first flamenco harp album in the history of music.
Other spaces flooded by the flamenco
El Villavicencio Palace It will also witness the transfer and generational change in the cante with three performances that will feature new blood, starting with the recital that will be conducted by Matthew Solea on Tuesday, March 4 (17.00:XNUMX p.m.). The veteran singer from Jerez will take advantage of his performance to make way for a new generation of young people who walk the path of cante more orthodox, starting by introducing his grandson, Ramon de Solea, one of the new voices on the scene, just like that of Pepe the Boleco who, despite his youth, embodies the cante more traditional gypsy, as he will show the public on Friday 7th (23.00:XNUMX p.m.). There it will happen the next day, Saturday 8th (18.30 pm), Manuel Monje, who is only 12 years old and in the last edition won the Federation Award Peñas Flamencos from Jerez.
Precisely, organized by the Federation, the Jerez Festival will once again feature the traditional Cycle Of Peña en Peña to make visible those many young local artists, who give meaning to Andalusian art, and make it continue to grow and reinvent itself.
Courses for all levels
As in all its editions, the importance of the training area at the Jerez Festival is indisputable as a space for the dissemination and transmission of the technique but, above all, of the different flamenco cultures by the hand of its main protagonists, who are the artists themselves. The wide and varied training offer defines and distinguishes this event.
On this occasion, 46 courses are being offered and will once again bring together hundreds of students from all corners of the world. In fact, thirty of them have already filled their registration quota. Through these courses, the participants will be able to get started in the world of flamenco or perfect your technique with the help of great masters such as Manuel Liñán, Olga Pericet, Rafaela Carrasco, Eduardo Guerrero, Manuel Betanzos, Mercedes de Córdoba or Ana Morales, among many others. Students will thus be able to choose between the proposed options, with a wide range of workshops on dance techniques and styles in different palos flamencos.
Likewise, one more year the Jerez Festival will have a parallel program to the performances, not only in the form of courses, but also complementary activities that annually bring together lovers and fans of the city. flamenco, around exhibitions, meetings and conversations that enrich the experience of a competition that reflects on the artistic and evolutionary development of this cultural manifestation.
