'Dansa València' performing arts festival to take over city streets

VALENCIA'S annual international dance festival is back for the first time since the pandemic, and part of it will spill out onto the streets – in total, 19 venues, indoors and out, and 32 performing arts companies from all over Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

Dansa València has increased its budget by two-thirds and upped the number of companies taking part from the previous 25, of which 11 are from the Comunidad Valenciana and 18 are from Catalunya, Madrid, the Basque Country, the Balearic Islands, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha and Galicia.

The remaining companies are made up of artists from the UK, Greece, Belgium and The Netherlands.

Of the 35 shows on the programme, nine are world premières, never before performed in public outside of rehearsals.

These premières include an adaptation of literary legend Federico García Lorca's poem El Público, a rare work in which he unmasks himself and speaks of himself as a 'minority', revealing he is gay.

Given that the Granada-born canon was killed during the Civil War, which ended in 1939, this type of admission was unprecedented, as well as extremely dangerous.

In fact, Lorca's burial site is one of Spanish popular culture's biggest mysteries; he would have ended up in an unmarked common grave, which has never been traced.

This opening act takes place at Valencia's Teatro Principal on Wednesday, April 6.

Galicia-born Janet Novás's act Where is Janet? is on at the CCCC (El Carmen Contemporary Culture Centre, C/ Museo) on Friday, April 8, and Andalucía's Alberto Cortés' One Night at the Golden Bar airs on April 7 at the Espacio Inestable.

Cyberexorcism, focusing on body image and TikTok, by Catalunya's Núria Guiu, is scheduled for April 10 at the Rialto Theatre.

Numerous shows will be taking place outside, including Alicante-born Carlos Peñalver's Ciaccona in the Plaza de los Fueros on Sunday (April 3) and Basque-based LASALA's Alive, about women's freedom of choice, on April 10 in the Plaza del Mercado.

The futuristic and prestigious opera house in the City of Arts and Sciences – the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía – plays host to home-grown dance company Maduixa with its award-winning reflection on migrant women, Migrare, on Saturday, April 9, whilst Lucía Montes & Mado Dallery, from Madrid, perform IN-SIDE in the La Mutant centre (C/ Joan Verdeguer) on the same day.

Also on Saturday, April 9, Greece's Christos Papadopoulos will première his show Ion, never before performed outside his home country, at the Teatre El Musical in the Plaça del Rosari, near the Veles e Vents building.

A multi-cultural, multi-experienced quintet aged from 22 to 54 will be performing Dutch-based creator Oliva Marina Mascarell's Orthopedica Corporatio at the Sala Matilde Salvador on April 6, and on Saturday, April 9, the UK-Catalunya 'Humanhood Dance Company' will be exploring the relationship between the moon and the human species in their show Sphera, on the Paseo de la Playa, or seafront esplanade.

Balearic company Una i Una will turn Valencia's Central Park (Parque Central) into an explosion of colour, light, and cheerleaders, to a soundtrack of hits from the early 2000s.

A full programme, plus booking for the indoor events, can be found on the regional government's Valencian Culture Institute (IVC) dedicated 'Dansa València' site, Dv.ivc.gva.es.