Antonio Najarro, a flamenco choreographer on the Winter Olympic Games | Culture | EUROtoday

When he was a baby, Antonio Najarro (Madrid, 50 years previous) skated from his home to the Conservatory. Her vocation was dance and he or she developed it till she grew to become a distinguished determine in Spanish dance and flamenco, managing the National Ballet of Spain from 2011 to 2019. I didn’t know then that skating can be one other solution to form and disseminate dance. It was not even clear to him when in 2002 he acquired that first request to create a choreography for the French Olympic skaters Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, who had spent a while in Andalusia working with different flamenco creators, apparently with out a lot success. “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so grounded and rooted, that doing it on ice seemed almost crazy to me. But curiosity got the better of me,” he tells EL PAÍS by telephone. “They saw my work and that I had also choreographed for fashion and film, and I understand that that openness to taking dance beyond the stage interested them.”

Seduced by this journey on ice, Najarro packed his luggage and moved to Lyon, the place he spent lengthy intervals working with them, and two years later, the sports activities couple gained the gold medal on the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. The profitable piece, Malagueñacontributed new tones to determine skating and Najarro, new paths for the growth of flamenco and his personal creations.

The most up-to-date one is named The Matador and the Bull (The bullfighter and the bull) and this Saturday will compete within the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, carried out by American skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who’re seven-time United States champions and three-time world champions. “I’m not interested in bullfighting, but they had a very clear idea of ​​what they wanted. Through the relationship of a bullfighter [Chock] with a bull [Bates]they asked me to break gender stereotypes. And she ends up with her hand on his head, subdued.” Dressed in a type of cape skirt, longer than what’s styled on this sport, Chock has revealed herself in Najarro’s eyes as a flexible skater with the soul of a dancer. “In Spanish dance there is a lot of the gestures of bullfighting: positions, movements… and they have been able to capture them.”

The Matador and the Bullcon Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones because the soundtrack, in Ramin Djawadi’s model for the sequence Westworld (HBO), begins as a giant favourite on this Saturday’s occasion, after profitable three golds in a single fell swoop on the Cup of China (October), the Nagoya Grand Prix (December) and Skate America (November). The closing might be adopted stay on RTVE Play beginning at 10:05 p.m.

Since he started choreographing for ice skating, Antonio Najarro has gained seven Olympic gold medals, achieved along with his contribution that accentuates essentially the most inventive a part of the competitors. “Even Paloma del Río [periodista española y mítica voz de las retransmisiones de TVE] has praised on several occasions that quality of choreography that goes a little further,” says Najarro. “From that Malagueña that I choreographed, dance creators appeared more commonly in skating. Previously, it was the coaches themselves who assembled the pieces,” explains Najarro, who has labored with skaters from completely different nations, and who says he leaves political or nationwide points apart when deciding on a proposal.

What do you search for to say sure and work with one or the opposite? “In which they are not afraid and like to take risks,” explains the choreographer. “That they are open to taking different paths, perhaps uncomfortable at first, due to ignorance. I have also been lucky enough to work with the best technically,” he provides. The Spanish skater Javier Fernández is certainly one of them. Seven-time European champion and Olympic medalist, he additionally collaborated with Najarro past the competitors. It was with the present Flamenco on ice (2019), simply after retiring and after profitable his seventh consecutive gold on the European Championships in Minsk.

When Najarro took cost of this flamenco work on ice with Fernández, he was directing the National Ballet of Spain, a public firm of the Ministry of Culture, the place he additionally left that imprint of permeable Spanish dance that pursuits him. The one which breathes past tight compartments, pertains to different disciplines and turns into extra seen. For instance, via synchronized swimming, a sporting self-discipline during which the choreographer has additionally participated along with his creations. “My purpose is to project Spanish dance and flamenco to all possible contexts. And in the case of figure skating, I work so that authentic dancers can be seen on the ice. That is, skaters who soak up the artistic nature of the movement.” On the way in which again, from skating to dancing, he declares that he has realized a number of issues that he has later taken into consideration along with his firm. “For example, the fact that there is not a single focus or front for the audience. That concept of creating in 360º has helped me when it comes to expanding the stage vision.”

Najarro factors out the significance of realizing the completely different modalities of skating when going through choreography. He focuses on the ice dance class, a freer selection during which acrobatics should not an important factor. “They have a lot of rules; in fact, the first thing I do when I start riding is include them so I know what can and cannot be done.” A transparent sequence of choreographic steps, pirouettes and a diagonal, which have to be completed; doorways that elevate the skater above the skater’s shoulders, no. “Only those are allowed doors around the body.”

Meanwhile, the choreographer maintains exercise along with his dance firm, with three reveals on nationwide and worldwide excursions, which can take him to France, Russia and China within the coming months: Argentina in Paris. The smuggler and sonatina (this Saturday in Pozuelo de Alarcón), sleepwalking romance y Querencia.