RAFAEL AMARGO

Rafael Amargo is an eclectic dancer and choreographer. He has been inspired by the purest flamenco of his masters, but at the same time he has assimilated other types of choreographic tendencies, such as the teachings at Marta Graham’s school during his stay in New York.

He has an incessant contact with the artistic and cultural world, which has allowed him to be sponsored at the beginning of his career by plastic artists such as Luis Gordillo or Esperanza D’Ors; to be photographed by Bruce Weber and Christopher Makos, or Annie Leibowitz, or to choreograph, for the Chillida Museum of Hernani, a piece inspired by the work of the sculptor.

His shows have been performed in the best festivals and theaters in the world: Beijing National Opera (China), Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, New York City Center, Carneggie Hall (next to Paquito de Rivera, Bebo Valdés and Cachao) and New Town Hall York, Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Casino de Paris (France), Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto (Italy), Opera and Gran Rex Theater in Buenos Aires (Argentina), National Auditorium of Mexico, Coliseu dos Recreios de Lisbon, Jacquie Gleason Theater of Miami, Forest Nationale de Bruxelles … and in the most important theaters of Spain.

Rafael Amargo and his shows have received numerous awards including four Max Performing Arts Awards: two for AMARGO (Best Show and Best Male Dance Performer), one for POETA IN NEW YORK (Best Male Dance Performer) and one by EL AMOR BRUJO (Best male dance performer); the Positano Prize Leonide Massine de la Danza as a dancer and choreographer (the most important dance award in Italy, which has received figures such as Rudolf Nureyev, Carla Fracci, Maurice Bejart, Alexandra Ferri, Moses Pendleton, or Lindsay Kemp among others), Prize of the APDE (Association of Spanish and Flamenco Dance Teachers of Spain), together with Antonio Gades and Matilde Coral; the PavónTeatro Copa for Young Performers (1998).

But it is the public who has best welcomed the creations of Rafael Amargo filling the theaters in which he acts. An audience that has also been awarded the prize for Best Dance Show of EL PAÍS de las Temptaciones by AMARGO (2000) and POETA EN NUEVAYORK (2002), which has also been chosen as Best Show of the Decade, the following year . El Zorro At the beginning of 2008, choreography for the West End of London, the musical ZORRO, produced by Isabel Allende with Adam Kenwright (producer of musicals such as Hairspray, Priscilla Queen of The Desert or Legally Blonde) and directed by Chris Renshaw (Creator of musicals like We Will RockYou and Taboo), with music by Gipsy Kings and John Cameron (Les Miserables). This musical has premiered in different places in the world such as Paris, Tokyo, Moscow, Amsterdam, Sofia, Rio de Janeiro and with a broad tour of the US that includes its premiere on Broadway.

Rafael Amargo was a finalist for this work at the Lawrence Olivier Awards (highest distinction in British theater) as BestTheater Choreographer in 2008 and at the John Kraaijkamp Musical Awards (major distinction of musical theater in the Netherlands) in 2011. The Television The mediatic character of Rafael Amargo has made him frequently participate in television programs in several countries, which have given him enormous popularity, such as Star Academy for TF1 France as a professor of body language and jury; Dancing for a Dream, for Televisa Mexico as a jury; Dancing with le Stelle for the RAI Italia as Jury; or in OperaciónTriunfo for Tele5 Spain, as a professor at the Academy.

Rafael Amargo has faced for the first time the cinematographic direction, directing the documentary film El Amor Amargo de Chavela, fruit of their friendship and their encounters with one of the myths of the Latin American song: Chavela Vargas. This film is one of the last and most emotive graphic documents of the singer. Amor Amargo de Chavela was premiered in 2013 at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival and is touring international festivals.