The production of National Ballet of Spain (BNE) ‘Afanador’ will end its European tour in 2025 in a three-week tour of stages in France, as reported by the institution. He show will be presented between November 22 and December 6 in Cannes, Grenoble and Aix-en Provence.
He ‘Palais des Festivals et des Congrès’ of Cannes will be the first to host ‘Afanador’ next November 22 and 23. After that, he will visit Grenoble on the 27th, 28th and 29th and will end the tour in Aix-en-Provence on December 4th to 6th.
The BNE has explained that ‘Afanador’ seeks to show the surrealist view of flamenco by Colombian photographer Ruven Afanador through the language of dance and attract the viewer to discover a universe created from “fascination and desire.”
The artist’s works, ‘Ángel gitano’ and ‘Mil Besos’, have been the starting point to create this show in which Spanish dance merges with contemporary dance, achieving “see the world of flamenco through a distorting lens, which is a lens that starts from dream, desire, memory“, as explained by the person responsible for the idea and artistic direction of ‘Afanador’, Marcos Morau.
Thus, the BNE has indicated that while Afanador “freezes” the movement with all the beauty and strength of Spanish art, Morau allows those same bodies to move again. So you can show the ““tension between vitality and immobility, between gaze and desire.”
In this way, the paradox of photography becomes tangible: a medium that “freezes movement”, but is capable of giving visibility to an entire current of life. “In Afanador, the bodies move again, not to imitate photography, but to understand what lies within that stillness.”Morau said.
‘Afanador’ is “synonymous with innovation” in Spanish Dance. Thus, according to the director of the BNE, Rubén del Olmo, “its great success is its originality.” “Afanador’s success is his inspiration. We are always inspired by writers, poets, etc., but never by a photographer, in a photo shoot. It is something innovative in the world of dance,” added Olmo.
‘Afanador’ premiered in 2023 at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville and has filled national stages such as the Teatro Real and the Teatro de la Zarzuela (Madrid), Les Arts (Valencia) or the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), as well as international stages such as the ‘Yelmaru-ro’ Theater (Yeosu, Korea), ‘GS Arts Center’ Theater (Seoul, Korea), the Opera Theater in Rome and the ‘Concertgebouw’ in Bruges.
Likewise, the dance show has received several awards throughout 2025, including five Max awards, two Thalía awards and the Catalan critics’ awards.
On the other hand, to continue its work of disseminating Spanish dance, the BNE has published the brochure ‘Afanador for young people’, written by Elna Matamoros, with which you are invited to “travel and enjoy” with this ballet by Ruven AfanadorMarcos Morau and the BNE artists.