The award-winning production will open the Auditorio de Tenerife’s 2026-2027 season, marking the Ballet Nacional de España’s return to the island after 16 years
The Ballet Nacional de España (BNE) will return to Tenerife this September with Afanador, an acclaimed dance production inspired by the striking photography of Colombian photographer Ruven Afanador.
The show will open the Auditorio de Tenerife’s 2026-2027 season, with two performances in the Sala Sinfónica on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September.
📅 Date: Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 2026
📍 Area: Auditorio de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Directed artistically by Marcos Morau, Afanador brings together 39 dancers and takes inspiration from Afanador’s photographic work and his fascination with flamenco.
The production also marks the Ballet Nacional de España’s first appearance at the Auditorio de Tenerife in 16 years. The company’s previous performance at the venue was El café de las chinitas, also presented in the Sala Sinfónica.
Flamenco through a different lens
Morau’s starting point was Afanador’s books Ángel gitano and Mil besos, as well as his celebrated photographic sessions with flamenco figures including Israel Galván, Matilde Coral, Eva Yerbabuena, José Antonio and Rubén Olmo.
Rather than attempting to reproduce the photographs on stage, the production explores the strange, dreamlike quality behind them.
Morau describes Afanador’s view of flamenco as one shaped by dream, desire and memory, and sees a connection with the surrealist approach that has influenced his own work with the dance company La Veronal.
From photography to choreography
Photography is particularly important to Morau’s creative approach. Having studied photography and grown up as the grandson of a photographer, he sees a natural relationship between photographic composition and choreography.
The challenge, as he describes it, is capturing something that by its nature cannot really be captured: life itself.
That idea runs through Afanador, where familiar elements of flamenco are deliberately transformed and made strange.
The result is not intended to be a straightforward retelling of Afanador’s photographs. Instead, the production creates its own world, drawing on the photographer’s visual language while giving the dancers space to explore movement, atmosphere and identity.
Morau’s hope is that audiences approach the performance without trying to work everything out in advance.
Perhaps that’s a reasonable way to watch dance like this. Sit down, let it happen and see what it reminds you of afterwards.