The Ballet Nacional de España (BNE), directed by Rubén Olmo since September 2019, has been the leading public company in Spanish dance since it was founded in the late 1970s under the name Ballet Nacional Español. Since then, this company has been part of the programme of Veranos de la Villa, a festival to which it returns this year with a programme that is part of the celebration of the Year of Picasso.
In Estampas flamencas, Rubén Olmo and Miguel Ángel Corbacho have created four pieces inspired by the style, aesthetics and character of Antonio Ruiz Soler. These choreographies cover traditional flamenco from its origins, both costumes and musically.
Hijo del alba, a solo inspired by Picasso, interpreted by Rubén Olmo with his personal dance language, represents the birth of a new life: man and artist. It is the representation of feelings, differences and contradictions of each of them in a single character: the harlequin.
And finally, El sombrero de tres picos, one of the most emblematic works in his repertoire. Both the score by Manuel de Falla – performed on this occasion by the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, under the musical direction of maestro Manuel Coves – and the choreography by Antonio Ruiz Soler are both masterpieces of stylised popular rhythms and dances. This production also recovers the costumes and reproduces the backdrops and set design that Pablo Picasso made for the London premiere in 1919 of Léonide Massine’s version with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
