Tickets are now on sale for the award-winning production, which will be performed in the Symphony Hall on 5 and 6 September.
The Auditorio de Tenerife has put tickets on sale for two performances of Afanador by the Ballet Nacional de España (BNE), taking place in the Symphony Hall on 5 September at 7.30 p.m. and 6 September at 6.00 p.m. The production will open the cultural venue’s new season. Details were announced by José Carlos Acha, Councillor for Cultural Affairs of the Tenerife Island Council, and José Luis Rivero, Artistic Director of the Auditorio de Tenerife.
Acha said: “It is a pleasure to open the 2026–27 season with a spectacular production like this, which has won nine awards and marks the BNE’s return to the Auditorio de Tenerife after 16 years. Its last appearance here was also in the Symphony Hall, with El café de las chinitas.”
“We are delighted to be bringing this major production to the Auditorio de Tenerife at very affordable prices: €15 for a standard ticket and €5 for those under 30,” said José Carlos Acha. “The production is inspired by two photographic books by Ruven Afanador (Colombia, 1959), a passionate admirer of flamenco. Audiences can therefore look forward to an ephemeral experience—as dance inevitably is—and a visual spectacle of the highest calibre, with more than 30 dancers on stage.”
José Luis Rivero commented: “Since its inception, the Auditorio de Tenerife has championed dance as a form of theatrical expression. As in recent years, we are opening the season with dance, in this case with a production that builds on the work we are currently developing through MAPAS.”
“This is one of the most important choreographic works created in Spain and the Ballet Nacional de España’s most internationally acclaimed production,” said Rivero, who expressed particular thanks to “Rubén Olmo, director of the BNE, for making it possible to bring the production to the Canary Islands. Its technical complexity makes the Auditorio de Tenerife an ideal venue for a production of this scale.”
Rivero also highlighted its expressionist choreography, “which seeks to create images that remain etched in the memory, with a technical complexity that, rather than being concealed, is deliberately laid bare on stage.”
Marcos Morau, artistic director of the production, explains that the work draws inspiration from Ruven Afanador’s books Ángel gitano and Mil besos, as well as from the photographer’s shoots. According to Morau, Afanador views flamenco through a distorting lens shaped by dreams, desire and memory. The choreographer also sees a strong affinity between the Colombian photographer’s surrealist vision of flamenco and the artistic language he has developed over his years at the helm of La Veronal company. Roberto Fratini, the production’s dramaturg, explains that the work seeks to reflect the way in which Ruven Afanador sees his models.
With nine awards to its name across 2024 and 2025, Afanador has established itself as a landmark production in contemporary Spanish dance and a defining work for the Ballet Nacional de España. At the 2024 Godot Awards, Afanador won Best Choreography in Spanish Dance and Flamenco, while the 2024 Catalan Performing Arts Critics’ Awards named it Best Choreography. Both distinctions recognised the work of Marcos Morau, Shay Partush, Jon López and Miguel Ángel Corbacho.
At the 2025 Max Awards, Afanador received five honours: Best Dance Production, Best Stage Direction (Marcos Morau), Best Lighting Design (Bernat Jansá), Best Costume Design (Silvia Delagneau) and Best Original Score for a Stage Production (Juan Cristóbal Saavedra, Enrique Bermúdez, Jonathan Bermúdez, Gabriel Georgio González and Roberto Vozmediano). At the Talía Awards, presented by the Spanish Academy of Performing Arts, the production received two further accolades: Best Dance Production and Best Choreography.
The Ballet Nacional de España, under the artistic direction of Rubén Olmo since September 2019, has been Spain’s leading public dance company since its foundation in 1978, when Antonio Gades became its first director. The company is one of the production units of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), part of Spain’s Ministry of Culture.
The BNE’s mission is to preserve, promote and pass on Spain’s rich choreographic heritage in all its stylistic diversity and traditions, encompassing academic, stylised and folk dance, the escuela bolera and flamenco. It also seeks to engage new audiences and strengthen its national and international profile while maintaining full artistic and creative autonomy.
One of the priorities of its current Master Plan is to develop a programme that strikes a balance between new creation, the preservation of the traditional Spanish dance repertoire and the incorporation of new works. To this end, the BNE has launched a creative initiative embracing avant-garde and emerging trends and inviting international choreographers and emerging artists to collaborate with the company.
To broaden the reach of Spanish dance, the BNE promotes touring by alternating large-scale productions with more intimate formats. It also supports sustainable financial management by fostering partnerships with public institutions and private-sector organisations.
Tickets, priced at €15 (€5 for under-30s), can be purchased on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the box office from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 17:00 and on Saturdays from 10:00 to 14:00, and by telephone on 902 317 327 during the same hours. Check the special discounts for students, unemployed people and large families, among others.