Israel Galván

La Edad de Oro

Choreography and Dance

Israel Galván

Cante

David Lagos

Guitar

Alfredo Lagos


Sound

Pedro León / Félix Vázquez

Lights

Benito Jiménez / Valentin Donaire


Management

Rosario Gallardo

Distribution

Rial & Eshelman


Production

IGalván Company

in collaboration with

INAEM

In flamenco, as in all arts, historians, specialists and critics progressively defined the reference periods. The period that they called ‘La Edad de Oro’, The Golden Age of Flamenco, corresponds to a period running from the end of the 19th century to the 30’s of the 20th. This Golden Age made particular reference to singing and dancing, guitar not taking its rightful rise until much later. According to this approach, no singer or dancer today, except in exceptional cases will be able to equal the quality, purity and creativity of those who carrying flamenco its peak, marked this Golden Age. Since then, there has been a decline in the formal model of flamenco art that was established in the period, impoverishing, simplifying, crossings and fusions but also a loss of the content, the sense and spirit which animate this art. From the concert with David Lagos, a singer who treasures with care the singings from golden ages, and Alfredo Lagos, a guitarist from Jerez, birth town of flamenco, Israel Galván attaches himself to references tracking the normal approaches and pushes away ‘Age’ profiting just from the ‘Gold’, one gold in the present day, there just under our eyes, in front of our senses.

tour dates

Switzerland Lugano LAC 11 february 2023

Italy Florence Dance Festival 11-12 July 2022

Germany TanzBiennale Heidelberg, Hebelhalle – 19 July 2021

Italy Brescia, Teatro Grande – 22 May 2021

Italy Pavia, Teatro Fraschini – 21 May 2021

Italy Ferrara, Teatro Comunale – 20 May 2021

Spain IX Festival de Jerez – 26 February 2005 (opening)

©Felix Vazquez / ©Umberto Favretto

Born in Sevilla, Spain, into the dancing family of José Galván and Eugenia de los Reyes, Israel Galván underwent classical flamenco training but since his first creation ¡Mira! / Los zapatos rojos (1998), that paves the way for a manifesto for a new spirit of flamenco dance, he has gradually transformed into un unclassified dancer and choreographer. Galván recodifies the physical language of flamenco, using not only modes of expression genealogically close to it, such as bullfighting, but also performative aspects of other rituals of popular culture, from football to activism and cross-dressing. He produces a multiplicity of bodies for a flamenco that is itself going through a process of change. Each of his creations is to be a milestone in his pursuit of a dance that seeks to free itself from certain features inherited from a crystallized flamenco. He wants to refocus dance on the actual act of dancing.

Israel Galván was honoured with the most prestigious prizes such as the Premio Nacional de Danza (Spain), the New York Bessie Performance Award, the National Dance Award for Exceptional Artistry (UK). In 2016, he was promoted to the rank of Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.

When the cantaor (flamenco singer) David Lagos won the Lámpara Minera award in 2014, he had already had a professional career of over 20 years. His complicit and collaborative voice has accompanied Israel Galván in the most advanced flamenco creations of the last decade.

His lyrics and his cante adaptations and compositions are requested by numerous artists, since David is also a creator who, with a firm step, opens new paths for flamenco singing. Together with Israel Galván, he has sung in Arena, La Edad de Oro, Fla.Co.Men, Lo Real/ Le Réel/ The Real, El Amor Brujo. He has published two solo albums – El Espejo En Que Me Miro (Flamenco World Music, 2009) and Mi Retoque al Cante Jerezano (2014), which he released independently – in which he pays homage to the great cante figures and recovers a traditional repertoire, while always giving it his personal touch. In 2018, he directed the day dedicated to Japan at the Bulería de Jerez Festival and released his third album.