Up until his death in March 1995, Rafael Aguilar was regarded as one of the most important choreographers in Spain. His works Carmen Flamenco, Matador, Yerma, Bolero and Retrato de Mujer add to his reputation. He discovered outstanding talents such as Joaquín Cortés, Antonio Canales, Lola Greco, El Grilo, Antonio Marquéz and Javier Barón.

With Antonio Gades he had formed a deep friendship and successful cooperation. Antonio Gades danced the "Mother" in Rafael Aguilar’s El Rango - a choreography for the Ballet Nacional de España which bases on Federíco García Lorcas drama "La casa de Bernarda Alba". El Rango is said to be the world’s first flamenco theatrical dance piece.

With this piece Rafael Aguilar set up his unique artistic style and his very own form of theater. The grand success of El Rango paved the way for his productions to the great stages of the world: Carmen Flamenco was performed at the opera in Paris-Percy, the Milan Scala and other famous venues. Jérôme Savary requested Rafael Aguilar to choreograph the production of Carmen at the Bregenz Festival in order to create since Aguilar’s unique and extraordinary style combining pure flamenco with drama elements.

The dramaturgical means with which Rafael Aguilar mixes various dance and music styles such as George Bizet’s famous compositions and traditional flamenco rhythms give a timeless appeal to his work and set him apart from the classical, pure flamenco of Antonio Gades or Cristina Hoyos.

He left a rich legacy of choreographic creations to his faithful companion, the prima ballerina Manuela Aguilar who died in 1998, and his still underage daughter Jacinta, as well as the company they established together in 1960, the Ballet Teatro Español. Since 1999 the long-time artistic assistant and friend of the Aguilars, Carmen Salinas, has led the company from one success to the next.

With Aguilar’s choreographies Carmen Flamenco and Bolero the Ballet Teatro Español triumphed at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Teatro Olimpico in Rome, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt as well as at the Ronacher in Vienna.

For further information on BOLERO FLAMENCO, Dr. Elke Rudolph of the production company's press team, BB Promotion will be glad to assist you under tel.: 0049 / 621 / 107 92 - 507, fax: 0049 / 621 / 107 92 – 500, email: e.rudolph@bb-promotion.com

Currently, Ballet Teatro Español de Rafael Aguilar consists of 35 excellent dancers, musicians and singers, who, to this day, exclusively present choreographies of the ballet's founder. For good reason, since the contemporary and modern styles of Rafael Aguilar's choreographies remain unsurpassed. Staged by an extraordinary ensemble grouped around excellent soloists they excite audiences the world over.

Directed by Carmen Salinas the company has scored overwhelming success with the choreographies Carmen Flamenco and Bolero especially at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Hamburg's Staatsoper, the Teatro Olimpico in Rome and The Ronacher Theatre in Vienna, only to name a few.

The repertory of Ballet Teatro Español de Rafael Aguilar includes a great variety of its founder's choreographies, among others the award-winning Matador (Jefferson Award, 1988; Laurence Olivier Award, 1991), El Rango (created for the Ballet Nacional de España, 1979), Bolero (Best Choreography 1987, awarded at the Festival de la Versiliana) and Diquela de la Alhambra, which is to return to the stage in 2003.

All dancers of the Ballet Teatro Español have received thorough education in classical and Spanish dance, as well as in flamenco. A large number of the soloists join Ballet Teatro Español from Ballet Nacional de España in order to perfect their dancing and artistic skills. The musicians and singers are among the best in Spain.

In the course of the 35 years in which Rafael Aguilar directed the Ballet personally, he discovered such famous flamenco stars as Jooaquín Cortés, Antonio Canales, Lola Greco, El Grilo, Antonio Marquéz, Adrian Galía, Miguel Angel Espino, Rafael Amargo, Carmen Linares, Mariquilla, María Pagés and Javier Barón.

The Ballet Teatro Español works and rehearses in the company-owned studio, which is also used by a number of other flamenco artists and ensembles such as Sara Baras and her company.

With Bolero, the Ballet Teatro Español presents a dance experience featuring three select masterpieces by legendary choreographer Rafael Aguilar.

Music: Gregorian Chants and Flamenco guitar
Choreography: Rafael Aguilar
Costumes: Manuela Aguilar
Length: 33 minutes

- Guitar solo -

BOLERO
Rafael Aguilar's sensual Flamenco vision set to the famous score by the composer Maurice Ravel.

Music: Maurice Ravel
Choreography: Rafael Aguilar
Costumes: Manuela Aguilar
Length: 17 minutes

- Interlude -

SUITE FLAMENCA
An anthology of the most diverse Spanish dance styles with traditional song and music by first-class Flamenco musicians.

Music: Flamenco popular
Choreography: Rafael Aguilar
Costumes: Manuela Aguilar
Length: 60 minutes

El Rango
Rafael Aguilar created two ballets based on the works of Spanish author Federíco García Lorca: El Rango (1979) and Yerma (1988). El Rango was commissioned by Antonio Gades and premiered in 1979 at the Spoleto Festival.

El Rango (best translated as "The Social Rank", in order to express the mother's obsession with status) follows the main story line in García Lorca's 1936 dramatic novel "The House of Bernada Alba".

With her daughters the mother returns home from her husband's funeral. There, she confronts her youngest daughter with repressive authority. The daughter in turn spites her mother by living out her erotic desires by dancing through the night. The clash of rebellion and matriarchy ends in tragedy.

Bolero

«By using the language and the rhythm of Flamenco, I offer a very personal interpretation of this piece which is so rich in atmosphere and sensuality, and so deeply interwoven in the Spanish psyche.»

Rafael Aguilar

The Bolero is a variation of the Fandango and is closely related to the Cachucha. Traditionally, it is a solo dance, accompanied by song and castanets.

Ravel's relationship to ballet goes back to the year 1909, when he was working together with Diaghilew during his first season in Paris. In 1912, he composed Daphnis und Chloé for the Ballets Russes. In 1914, he spent a lot of time collaborating with the set designer Alexandre Benois in his Basque home town of St. Jean de Luz. Together, they looked for local rural dances as a basis for creating a Spanish ballet. The outbreak of war interrupted the planning phase, and only after a fourteen years was the project finally brought to life.

Ida Rubinstein, formerly a star dancer with Diaghilew, commissioned Ravel with an exotic Spanish ballet composition for the duration of her own ensemble's stay in Paris. Ravel postponed his original idea of orchestrating Iberia by Albeniz, and instead composed Bolero. The debut on 22 November 1928 at the Parisian Opera House was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, the set was designed by Alexandre Benois. This ballet in which eighteen young dancers yearn for the prima ballerina Ida Rubinstein at a table in a dive bar became an instant success, and has since been choreographed again and again.

Bolero became Ravel's most famous piece, on which he always commented with a tone of bitter self-irony: "I have only ever written one masterpiece, the Bolero. Unfortunately it contains no music."

In this sense, Ravel's Bolero consists of one fixed theme integrated in a crescendo created only by means of instrumentation, which spans beginning to end. This musical experiment - derived from the Spanish Bolero of the eighteenth century - coaxes from a single melody and rhythm a crescendo that closes with an orgiastic frenzy like in La valse, and has lost none of its fascination.

Suite Flamenca

«Man as an individual, his way of living, feeling and loving; that is the essence of Flamenco.» Javier Palacios

For many years, Rafael Aguilar studied the origins of Flamenco and its Arabian, Jewish and Hindu influences. In the Suite, a sort of anthology of Flamenco, the ensemble presents the four essential elements of Flamenco: dance, song, guitar music, and Jaleo, where the ensemble claps together and spurns on the dancers.

Jondo – deep, inspired, passionate, depressed
and
Chico - light, extravagant, colourful and almost ironic.

«A Suite», according to one critic in the French newspaper La Montagne, «that immediately conjures up impressions of the Carlos Sauras Film El Amor Brujo with its perfectly balanced aesthetic between modernism and traditionalism. The full dramatic nature of Flamenco, and the entire Andalusian grace are given ample room for development.»

Andalusia on the Isar: The Ballet Teatro Español caused a stir with "Bolero Flamenco" at the Deutsche Theater

Once again, it is the rhythm that sets off sparks in the Deutsche Theater, brilliantly setting alight the audience's enthusiasm as early as the first numbers. The Ballet Teatro Español is back in town and as perfect as ever, so that nobody need ever catch onto the fact that the company's founder and choreographer Rafael Aguilar has been deceased for several years. After "Carmen Flamenco", the Spaniards were more than beguiling with "Bolero Flamenco".

The centrepiece is, of course, Ravel's "Boléro" which Aguilar obviously directed under the inspiration of Maurice Béjart. With its sophisticated lighting and choreographic mixture of blown-up flamenco and elements of classical modernism, Aguilar's "hero" is nevertheless a man. Javier Palacios' aura is phenomenal, as the sequence of solos and the group dynamic render Ravel's seemingly monotonous "Boléro" truly breathtaking.

Until now, the colourful, contrastive effect to the red and black "Bolero Flamenco" was offered by the "Aires de ida y vuelta" – an overture in the truest and best sense of the word. It was the simplicity of Flamenco, the provocatively proud airs and graces of both genders, for which one waits on such a night. All of this was experienced in the furious "Suite Flamenca". At last there it was: the live song by Marisa Martos and Pedro Jiménez and the company dancing to the music of guitarists Miguel Linares and Javier Romanos and flautist Moises Pascua. All facets of the art of Flamenco could be seen and heard. But which was most exciting? Maybe it was the Farruca by Francisco Guerrerro.

Caption: A hero with a breathtaking aura: Javier Palacios of the Ballet Teatro Español

From Madrid, Rafael Aguilar's "Ballet Teatro Español" at the Alte Oper

And at the end, even the most ponderous of audience members was ripped out his seat: the dancers and singers on the stage, the audience in the auditorium, all were unified in the hard, pounding rhythm of the Flamenco beat of clapping hands. Six years after the death of its founder, the "Ballet Teatro Español de Rafael Aguilar" company presented a modernized adaptation of classical Spanish dance that enticed its audience. Until 1^st July, the troupe will be presenting three choreographies by its prematurely deceased master in the "Boléro" programme.

The successful routines of the eighties and early nineties remain in place: "Aires de ida y vuelta" ("Currents of Coming and Going") opens the evening. In this piece of approximately twenty minutes, the composer Alberto Ginastera attempts to depict the evolution of Spanish dance music, and the choreography attempts to correspond to this form of genealogy. If the piece were devised merely as a note to step adaptation, it would probably be a little thin. However, the verve of the sophisticatedly arranged troupe's formation dances, which lets history be history, neatly dances a gracefully modernized, yet traditionally footed repertoire of steps, in solos and ensemble pieces.

The "Boléro", the title choreography of the evening from the eponymous music piece by Maurice Ravel, also adapts the music directly. It allows a topless Javier Palacios, who has been dancing the main role for years, the opportunity to slowly sway his arms in a provocative manner, as if following the crescendo of the music with the ecstatic circling of his hips. The drove of female dancers, effectively depicted in red velvet and fans against a black stage, stamps the rhythm of Boléro and is drawn more and more into the action until the final fortissimo lures the entire ensemble into a maelstrom. Reflecting the music precisely, the solo and ensemble dance sequences are repeated. Despite the impressive images, this is a risqué game with monotony that ultimately works thanks to the confidence of the charismatic, leading performer.

Above all, it is the "Suite Flamenca", which lasts at least one hour in the second part of the evening, that fascinates. This is due to the fact that the piece presents a representative cross-section of Flamenco tradition, evoking spontaneity and joie-de-vivre in an almost prototypically Spanish manner. No story is told, and the choreographic skill disappears into the background. Instead, they dance, sing, and clap according to the traditions and demonstrate the utmost individual perfection. Guitarists and singers – among them Marísa Matcos who sings impressively – assemble with the dancers on the stage.

The spirit of Flamenco is revealed in the individual appearances by, for instance, Trinidad Artiguez. She dances the Peteneras, curls up like a yellow rose in a Flamenco dress with a long train. In the Siguiriyas, Gala Vivancos increases the pace of her footwork from the dragging turns (suggestive of melancholy) to the almost aggressively triumphant self-confidence in the drum rolls induced by her heels. Above all, the sensuous and somehow powerful dance of Francisco Guerrerro in a Farruca counts as one of the evening's highlights. The spurning clapping and yelping of the ensemble drives dancers and audience alike into the rush of the Flamenco. In the truest sense of the word, the "Ballet Teatro Español" is an excellent entertainment.

The Ballet Teatro Español performs among others Rafael Aguilar's "Boléro" in Frankfurt's Alte Oper

The Flamenco has translated desire into ceremony. As expressively as expressively as almost any other form of dance, it calls to memory mating habits, those of birds in particular. Although stylised, the movements are of an unmistakable blatancy. The bodies are in a constant state of exhilaration, which creates a tension that reproduces the moment of lust.

Therefore, it is only logical that Rafael Aguilar should in his Flamenco adaptation of Ravel's Boléro – choreographed in 1987 – concentrate on someone so obviously driven by sexual desire. Aguilar clearly denies this character a direct opposite that could be courted, instead letting him flaunt himself in a circle of light while a dozen women who spurn on the rhythm and open their thighs lewdly remain in the dark until the finale. Javier Palacios, soloist in the Ballet Teatro Español, dances this solo with considerable expressive aspiration and never lets up for one second his concentration and physical tautness.

Rafael Aguilar, who died in 1995, completed his classic ballet education in England; the arm gestures in his works, in particular, reveal this fact. Aguilar's main goal, however, was the modernization of Spanish dance. He made alterations to the tradition only carefully, as is illustrated by the Boléro evening in the Alte Oper. The performance consists of three of his choreographies performed – under the direction of Carmen Salinas – by his "Ballet Teatro Español", the ensemble that sustains Aguilar’s legacy with great attention to detail. For although he understood how to integrate the Flamenco, actually a solo dance, into a greater structure, it was the combination of motion inventory with classical gestures that removed these movements from their pathetic and lifeless form of the eighties.

This is one of the reasons why the three piece evening in the Alte Oper – with the Boléro at the centre – unfolds its greatest strength, despite Javier Palacios' undeniable skill, when the music is no longer issued from tape and the ensemble returns to the traditional dialogue between musicians performing live on stage with the dancers. This is the case in the Suite Flamenco, right up to the pert little skip by the singer Marisa Mateos. In the Suite Flamenco, Francisco Guerrero lays down more than a bold performance, countering Javier Palacios' thorough fervour with palpable satisfaction. And even though he is no less precise, his self-irony pleasantly relaxes the mating ritual. It almost seems as if the company is dancing itself free of bounds during the course of the evening. Pale at the beginning in the "Aires de ida y vuelta": Aguilar's dominant ensemble scenes often turned out somewhat calculated, lacklustre, and cliché-laden. Yet up through the encores, the atmosphere in the auditorium rose constantly. A dialogue is forged, for after all it is the audience that is addressed in this dance of desire.

Cologne Summer Festival: The Ballet Teatro Español enticing at the Philharmonic - Rafael Aguilar choreographed "Boléro"

Cologne. They hardly need a backdrop, or extensive lighting effects, the ten female and seven male dancers of the Ballet Teatro Español. As soon as they take to the stage in their colourful parrot-like clothes and black-purple attire, it is as if they develop a furious firework of narrative theatre from scratch.

Set to the music of Alberto Ginasteras, "Aires de ida y vuelta" tells in dance the story of the fusion of flamenco, introduced in the 16^th century by the gypsies, with Indian influences brought back by the Spanish Conquistadors from South America. What gestures, facial expressions, and above all the looks aimed at the gesticulation mean to Spanish dance culture has seldom been carved out so expressively as in Rafael Aguilar's choreography to "Boléro", written in 1987 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Ravel's death. Like no other classical work, "Boléro" evokes Flamenco rhythms, and the topless dancer Javier Palacios drains the dance of its machismo myths up to the point of cockiness.

The ruby red, black-dropped costumes of the female dancers and their provocative motions speak of the proximity between love and death, while the rhythmic beating of fans against palms "whip up" the movements of the dancers until the orgiastic finale presents a fusion of passion and (gender) war. Here, music and dance are blended into an uncompromising, but also unbroken expression of cultural identity.

Surely, this expression receives its embodiment in the figure of Angel Munoz dancing his enflaming solo in the "Suite Flamenca," which closes the evening's programme. The vibrations that emanate from his persona make all of the feet in the auditorium twitch with excitement. And the entire ensemble entices us with the anthology of Flamenco written by Rafael Aguilar – without a doubt, next to Antonio Gades, the most inspired choreographer in Spanish dance theatre – which sensuously unifies the four main elements of this art form: dance, song, guitar (astounding: Javier Romanos, Jesus Heredia) and Jaleo, the communal hand-clapping ritual that spurns the dancers on.

In the encore, clapped on by an excited audience, the singer Marisa Mateos, despite her age, exploded onto the stage like a volcano, turning into the symbol for the proverbial "fiery Spaniard". This memorable (dance) evening can make one fully understand why Flamenco makes the blood surge.

Rafael Aguilar has elegantly cultivated traditional choreography by discovering and promoting all of the possibilities of flamenco.

His works include the Arabic-Andalusian piece Macama Jonda, Rango, a flamenco version of Frederico García Lorca’s "Bernada Alba’s House", Amor y eternidad, inspired by Spanish author Miquel de Unamuno’s philosophical writing "Del sentimiento tragico de la vida", with music by Maurice Ohana and Llanto, with lyrics by Vicente Aleixandre and music by Luis de Pablo. Furthermore, he staged the ballet piece Retrato de Mujer for the Spanish Ballet Nacional with Manuel Vargas, to the music of composer Cristobál Halffter and designed the choreography for Mata Hari, a musical comedy by Adolfo Marsilach and Antón García Abril.

Among other important works of the last decade of his life were:

1986 his piece Diquela de la Alhambra celebrated its premiere in Venice.

1987 he finally created Bolero as an homage to composer Ravel for the "Festival della Versiliana" and received the award for "Best Choreography of the Year". This piece has been performed more than 250 times in Italy alone.

1988 he conceived the full programme ballet Yerma, after the tragical composition by Garcia Lorca, which premiered at the Festival de Otoño in Madrid and received critical acclaim as the most innovative flamenco theatre production ever.

In the same year, he collaborated in the staging of the mega-production of Carmen in Paris-Bercy, with a cast of more than 600 performers.

He created dance scenes for the musical comedy Matador, for which he received the prestigious Jefferson Award for "Best Choreography of the Year in Chicago".

At the VI. International Dance Festival in Cannes 1990 he was responsible for the re-interpretation of the drama Yerma, a triumphant success that was hailed a "masterpiece" by the press. This production took him on tour in France, and he later made guest appearances at the Milan Teatro Smeraldo, at the Bregenz Festival in Austria, and also in London.

In 1991 he received an Olivier Award for "Best Choreography" for Matador.

In 1992 he presented his full programme dance spectacle Carmen Flamenco in Tokyo, with which he later managed to thrill audiences in France and other European countries.

In 1995, during a guest appearance of Bolero in Madrid, Rafael Aguilar died after long suffering, leaving behind an artistic legacy of unusual sensitivity.

In addition to working as an assistant and ballet master in nearly all of her husband’s greatest choreographies, Manuela Aguilar was also responsible for the outfits and costumes. From then on, the two organised tours with their company around the world.

In 1963, Manuela Aguilar created the role of the mother in the choreographic work Rango, set to dance after the drama Bernarda Alba´s House by Federíco García Lorca.

In 1982, she left this interpretation to Antonio Gades for his guest appearance in Paris. In 1986, she created the role of "La Petenera" for the ballet Diquela de la Alhambra, as well as the characterization of "La Luna" in Yerma in 1988. Manuela Aguilar was Rafael Aguilar’s closest collaborator, and continued the artistic legacy of her husband when she took on the role of creative director for the Ballett Teatro Español after his death of her husband.

She died 6^th December 1998.

When Rafael Aguilar started his first own ensemble in 1961, he signed on Carmen Salinas as a dancer. In the following years she worked as his assistant, where she also took over some responsibility for many of his choreographies. She has been fortunate to collaborate with all renowned artists of the Spanish dance scene, among those also with Antonio Gades.

Out of her deep affection for the family, she became the godmother of the Aguilars' daughter, Jacinta. Carmen Salinas adopted legal guardianship of Jacinta and has become the custodian to the artistic heritage of the Aguilar family. She has lead the company to new splendour and success. Under her guidance the Ballet Teatro Español de Rafael Aguilar has again been appearing on stage all over Europe since 1999.

With twelve years, he was admitted to the renowned Mayte Galan dancing school, where he resumed his studies in classical, Spanish, and modern dance in addition to folk dance and Flamenco. After a further three years, he gave his professional debut as a soloist and a little later as the company's leading dancer.

As a seventeen year-old, Francisco Guerrero finally graduated with honours from the Royal School of Dramatic Art & Dance, Madrid. At the same time, he elaborated upon his repertoire with even more styles of dance and took up extra studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Granada from which he graduated successfully in 1997.

After that, he planned choreographies for the dance company Mayte Galan.

In 1998, Francisco Guerrero relocated to Madrid. To begin with, he took on the leading role in Salome in a performance by the Flamenco Ensemble of Carmen Cortes, under the direction of Gerardo Vera.

Following this engagement, he appeared and performed with Sara Baras and other renowned dance companies, and at the same time worked for various television productions.

In the Suite Flamenca choreography by Rafael Aguilar he dances Farruca, giving him a chance to demonstrate his own inimitable, outstanding style for which he has garnered widespread praise.

Between 1993 and 1996 she resumed her dance studies at another renowned institute of dance in Barcelona, and at the same time performed in several shows all around Spain.

In 1995, during her final year, she passed the auditions for admission to the Ensemble of the Ballet Nacional de España, where she was engaged in 1996 under the direction of Aurora Pons, Nana Lorca and Victoria Eugenia.

Under the direction of Aída Gómez, she danced her first solo performances in 1998: in Maestro José Granero's choreography of Bolero, and in the role of "Areusa" in La Celestina by Ramón Oller at the Teatro Real.

For the gala celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Ballet Nacional de España at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in January 1999, she danced the primaballerina role "El Manton" in Danza y Tronío by Mariemma.

Between 1999 and 2001, she danced the primaballerina in the role of "Amiga" to Javier Latorre's choreography of Poeta, and in José Granero's Bolero. Whilst working for the Ballet Nacional de España under the direction of Elvira Andrés, she was seen performing in Mujeres by Elvira Andrés, and Fuenteovejuna by Antonio Gades.

In the June of 2001, together with Saulo Garrido and Candela Peña, Helena won the first prize for her Igual que tu choreography at the Tenth Choreography Competition of Spanish Dance and Flamenco, held at the Teatro Albeñiz.

At the same ceremony, Helena was also awarded the prize for "Bailarina Sobresaliente" (Most Outstanding Dancer).

For 2002, she has been engaged by the Ballet Teatro Español de Rafael Aguilar for the leading role in Carmen Flamenco.