Flamenco-world.com, November 2005

Israel Galván breaks into the élite of baile flamenco. The Seville-born bailaor has obtained the 2005 Spanish Premio Nacional de Danza award for creativity. The jury, which unanimously opted for him, underlined “his capacity, in an artform such as flamenco, to generate a new breed of creativity without ever losing sight of the true roots that have underpinned the flamenco arts to this day, and that make it the universal genre it has become”.

	Israel Galván (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

This is the second time that the most prized of Spanish dance awards for creativity goes to a flamenco artist, María Pagés being the other award-winner in 2002. The other bailaores who have won awards from the Spanish National Institute for the Scenic Arts and Music - a sub-institution of Spain's Ministerio de Cultura - won recognition in the performance category, including Sara Baras (2003) and Eva Yerbabuena (2001). Antonio Canales (1995), Mario Maya (1992), Cristina Hoyos (1991) and Antonio Gades (1988) complete the list of award-winners.

Israel Galván receives this award as he pieces together his forthcoming project ‘Tabula rasa’ that will be premièred as part of Seville's Jueves Flamencos season on 23rd February 2006, alongside cantaora Inés Bacán and pianist Diego Amador, as he revealed in a recent interview with Flamenco-world.com. Meanwhile, he continues to showcase his most recent creations: ‘Arena’, premièred at the last Festival Bienal de Sevilla, and ‘La edad de oro’, alongside Fernando Terremoto and Alfredo Lagos. In addition, he's a sough-after guest artist for big names like Enrique Morente, who's made him one of the stars of the movie ‘Morente sueña La Alhambra’, dancing with Blanca Li to the sounds of ‘Generalife’. Cantaora Estrella Morente also invited the bailaor to take part in ‘Estrella 1922’ a few weeks ago at Madrid's Teatro Español.

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