|
Profile
of Joaquín Cortés.
 Of
gipsy blood, he was born in Cordoba in 1969 and at the age of twelve,
moved to Madrid where he began his dance training. He joined the Spanish
National Ballet when he was fifteen and quickly rose to the ranks of solo
artist. Joaquín toured all over the world with this company, performing
in the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and the Kremlin´s Congress
Palace in Moscow.
After leaving the
National Ballet, he took part in a number of gala performances alongside
such great figures as Maya Plisetskaya, Silvie Guillen, Pere Schauffus,
Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julio Bocca and colaborated in several
different companies and shows as guest artist or choreographer. These
works include the choreography for Carmen at the Arena in Verona, his
participation in the Summer Flamenco Festival of Tokyo, in various
performances at the New York Lincoln Center, his participation in the
classical "Don Quijote" with the Caracas Ballet.
After performing at the
Champs-Elysée Theatre in Paris in 1992, he created his own company, the
Joaquín Cortés Flamenco Ballet. His first show, Cibayí, toured
throughout Spain and travelled to Japan, France, Italy, Venezuela and The
United States.
Pedro Almodóvar cast him
in his first film role in La Flor de mi Secreto (The Flower of my Secret).
Later, Joaquín repeated the experience in Carlos Saura's Flamenco, in
which he shared the screen with Spain's top flamenco artists.
His second creation, Pasión
Gitana (Gipsy Passion), opened in 1995, with the participation of Giorgio
Armani designing the wardrobe, the show has run all over Spain, showing in
bull rings. Pasión Gitana has also been a success in Europe. It was the
first dance show to have closed the prestigious Spoleto Festival (Italy)
in its forty eight years of existence and more than five thousand people
went to his performance in the Forum of Milan.
In 1996 he did his first
tour of USA where he presented, among other places in the Radio City Music
Hall in New York (he was the first Spanish dancer to perfom there with his
own show), and in the Universal Amphitheatre of Los Angeles.
In 1997 Joaquín launched
a CD with his own band the “Gipsy Passion Band” on which he composes
and directs the music and colaborates on percussion. The CD contains music
from the show as well as new arrangements.
After creating new
choreographies for Pasión Gitana in 1997, the show continued touring
Latin America and has most recently had success in 1998 in the Sydney
Festival, Tokyo, Canada and New York.
In January 1999 the
dancer from Córdoba went to New York where he came into contact with
other areas of music and dance. It was during this period that he began an
artistic collaboration with the choreographer Debbie Allen with whom he
went on to participate in the Oscar ceremony of the 71st Academy Awards of
Hollywood's academy of motion picture arts. He returned to Spain to
prepare his participation in the opening ceremony of the World Athletics
championship in Seville where he embodied the person of Hercules for the
gala closing ceremony rebroadcast via television throughout the world and
viewed by an estimated audience of 25 million.
In early 2000 he debuted
in the cinema with his first starring role. Filming began of the movie
Gitano written by Arturo Pérez Reverte and directed by Manuel Palacios.
The cast also includes the French model Laetitia Casta as well as Pilar
Bardem, Marta Belaustegui and José Luis Gómez. At the same time Cortés
was on the road with his international tour of 'Soul', a show he
eventually brought to London's Sadler's Wells, Beijing, Hannover's Expo
2000, Beirut's Beittedine festival as well as to South America.
For Joaquín Cortés the
year 2001 began with the opening of the Viña del Mar, a festival of Latin
American music where no dancer had taken part in forty-two years. Around
the same time, together with Pino Saliocco, he produced the show Pura Pasión
directed by his uncle Cristóbal Reyes. The premiere performance was on
February 28th, 2001. A few days later another premiere took place in
Barcelona at the Teatro Tívoli with the show 'Live'. This work continues
to be current on stages throughout the world after having been presented
in the most important cities of Latin America, Europe and Russia. A
hundred thousand spectators were able to enjoy the show throughout the
season.
|
Properties in Spain 
airports:
