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  • Public contest. Complaints of "anti-gypsy" racism and mourning for the management of the Andalusian Flamenco Ballet

Antonio Canales . Seville, 1961. The bailaor and choreographer is in great shape, with multiple performances in sight and eager to go all the way with the resource he has filed after not being elected director of the Andalusian Flamenco Ballet.

He chose to direct the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, but the Board has not chosen him. Why? I put all my heart, my desire, determination and my love for Andalusia. Now, at 58 and with so much experience, it was time. There are people who say to me: 'Master, why do you put yourself in an eleven-rod shirt?' But I have strength and desire for commitment. But everything went wrong, it is a public contest that must be endorsed by a competent committee. There is a Constitution that is there to follow it, not to bypass it. I start from that base. In addition, there is Patricia del Pozo [the Minister of Culture], that her father is a great flamenco. I am not of any political color because I have been rewarded by the right and the left. The artist must be plural, for all audiences and all colors. It has been very sad, very painful, and I am still struggling. From here I tell the Minister of Culture to reconsider, be fair, and be a person capable of providing Andalusians with a company at the level that their community deserves. Flemish producer Ricardo Pachón, who was the president of the selection committee , affirms that there is an "anti-gypsy lobby" that pushed for you not to be chosen. Do you agree? It is an opinion of my colleague and friend Ricardo Pachón, about which I do not want to pronounce. He was tied with Úrsula López, the dancer who finally chose the Board for the position. I remained between the two finalists, which I smelled very bad. I do not know what hurts me the most: that they did not give it to me or that they tied me with Úrsula López, and not for her, my girl, with whom I have danced and whom I respect very much, but that tie of 9.25 cannot occur in a public contest, as recorded in the total scores of the BOJA applications. To choose a director, apart from the fact that the project is solvent and has weight, you must have experience in directing. You cannot use the Andalusian company to exercise in this work. They wanted to get there. It was quite a surprise. Was the plaza given in advance? For this reason I started the appeal process to clarify this whole matter. They cannot skip the Constitution to the bullfighter. I have many students and I am very close to conservatories and teaching. And what do you say to a young man who wants to qualify for it? That they become friends with someone? Or to be honest and present a project with clean hands? My wish is that the next generations will grow in love for dance and that they feel supported by the institutions that represent culture. What happened seems to me a shame, a disgrace to art and something we should not allow. No longer for me, that the truth I have no illusion right now, but I do want the truth to be uncovered and stop playing with public money, with us and with flamenco. Do you see many irregularities? Obviously, if not, there would be no started this process, asserting my rights and filing an appeal before the Board with all the cost involved. I hope someone speaks to me with decency, with honor and with respect towards myself and towards flamenco. Will it go to the end? Of course, I will go to the end, if I have to go to the Andalusian Parliament or to all the televisions, I will go at the time. I have a career behind me, which allows me, due to my artistic position, to defend the rights of artists, and that everyone knows that you can't play with flamenco, least of all with a teacher like me. I deserve respect, I am a dance personality, an illustrious person from Andalusia and a National Prize from Spain. Úrsula López still has a long way to go to be named director of the Andalusian Ballet. Taking a look at the candidates, it is clear that the figure with the most international projection is you, how would you rate that they have discarded you to choose Úrsula López ? It is to put themselves a trip and throw land on top. It is not the same that I go to New York, with my trajectory of so many years fighting for flamenco, than to take someone that nobody knows. I am internationally recognized. The counselor and the heads of the Agency are putting their interests before culture and that is very sad. The public must know that because it is not their money. If they want to have a company that they set up with their money, but not with the money of others, have they vetoed them? They completely veto me and the Andalusian authorities have no respect for me. But I am very dear to my land. This cannot be consented to. You became a star of the National Ballet. In 2011 she presented a project to run the company, but the Ministry did not choose her either. What do you think it is due to? It was a very troubled time in my personal life and career. Antonio Najarro and I were finalists, but they thought that the Ballet needed new blood. They called me, the minister spoke to me and I had to accept that the Najarro project was more suitable for the company. Defeats must be accepted. It is different from what happened now. He is the son and grandson of artists, to be flamenco you have to suck him as a child? Born in a favorable cradle long ago. When I was a child, the women in my house were very important. I played soccer and bullfighting with the children, but then I would go to the kitchen and tell my grandmother and my aunts to teach me how to dance. They replied: 'oh, how your father sees us! That that's girls, why don't you sing or play? ' But my feet were going away. What is dancing for you? Dancing is a consecration to the martyrdom of beauty. You must make a vow of chastity. Dance can be the best of mothers and the worst of stepmothers. It is a career that never ends and you have to be in a continuous fight. Director, bailaor, choreographer, actor ... is there nothing to resist? Yes, a little. My children say to me: 'Dad, where is the painting you painted?' No, no, leave it, I'm not good at it. I greatly admire men of the Renaissance, such as Leonardo da Vinci. They were inventors, painters, sculptors, thinkers ... We each have more than one gift, but we must search. You have to launch yourself, open up and not be so shy about trying new things. Since 1992 he runs his own company. What is the most difficult thing to maintain for so many years? The most important thing is to keep the illusion alive and convince hundreds and hundreds of dancers who have passed through it. I always say that stars come out of the company. Illusion is the engine that moves everything. She has shared the stage with great geniuses such as Nureyev, Julio Bocca, Vladimir Vasiliev, Paco de Lucía or Alejandro Sanz, yes, all of them megatomic and mega-stars. I have learned from his discipline and his love for the theater. Nureyev, with whom I dressed in the dressing room, told me that the most important thing is the stage presence in which you are the master of ceremonies. How did you experience confinement? At first, I was unable to dance, until one day I took out my portable platforms and put on my boots. In the patio of my house I began to shoe, I got soaked in sweat and I let off steam. It was like talking to a confessor. At eight in the afternoon the neighbors applauded the toilets and at a quarter past nine, me. If one day I didn't come out, they would yell at me: 'Master, okay? I still do it today on Mondays. I have more than a hundred guests on the balconies that cheer me. It is great. During the closure due to the coronavirus, he created an online flamenco festival, in which 28 artists participated. Yes, the Flamenco Vacuna Fest. It was 14 uninterrupted hours to raise funds for research into the coronavirus vaccine. We flamingos kill each other, but the word solidarity sounds and we are all there; the artists went out of their way. We hope that many lives can be saved. His name has sometimes been associated with scandals, such as when a 'paparazzi' caught him on a beach with his partner having sex in the year 2011. Has it harmed his career? and some things remain. You even learn from mistakes. It hurt me a lot morally, spiritually and at work, too. But they say to me: 'you are a Lola Flores, but a man'. Spain loves me. I'm not famous, I'm from the town. Since I don't sell my life, the public has forgiven me for something that is unforgivable. My father said to me: 'Antonio, I don't care what you suck or what you do, but that half the world doesn't see it'. I am Antonio Gómez de los Reyes, a poor devil from a humble family, but within me there is an unruly scoundrel who is Antonio Canales. That was the one that escaped me like a gas balloon. And I paid the consequences. I don't have to go to any Sálvame de Luxe to earn easy 100,000 euros to count my miseries. Those stay for me and my people. The dirty rags I prayed, we burned at the stake in San Juan and we turned the page. Do people not understand bisexuality? My mother said: 'if you fall in love with a cat, a cat enters the house'. We have not had complexes in my family with sexuality. I am bisexual since I was born, I did not convert. My wife and children have accepted me as I am; that is not a crime. The crime is losing control. But, that I was not in Chipiona or Sanlúcar, but in Sitges, on a gay nudist beach! There you are not going to scratch your boyfriend's back and they cheated on me. But hey, they're stupid excuses. I shouldn't have let my guard down, I owe it to my audience. For this reason, I apologize with all my heart for all the damage I could cause to my family, to flamenco lovers and to those who trust me. How much damage have drugs done to flamenco? In the past, you lived a lot at night, the Private parties, the suburbs, the dark gatherings ... The drug infected everything in the 80s, not just flamenco. The drug has killed and diverted many people. It was never my problem. I have consumed them at the time, but as something anecdotal. My life was pure health and training. Today, drugs have become obsolete. If someone takes a line in a dressing room it looks old. In the company they are completely prohibited, even smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol. Now flamenco does not have that scourge, but you did have a troubled time with drugs, I was in my forties and I took refuge in that cave because I lost the will to live. I wanted to die, but I didn't have the courage to take my life. She slept clinging to her dance boots like a little boy. For love, I lost my dignity and turned to it. Thanks to my father, my brother and the people around me, who never left me, I left there. When I returned, it seemed something that I had not experienced, did not recognize me. I tell people who have a problem with gambling or drugs that you can get out. Don't throw in the towel, don't be ashamed, fight to be able to say I beat you! And then re-emerge as a Phoenix bird.

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