Israel Galván turns Centro Danza Matadero into a fairground pavilion. For many years, Galván has owed a debt to the Seville Fair. The debt goes back to the days when, as a child, his father, José Galván, a flamenco dancer and teacher, entered him into sevillana dance competitions... And he never won, because he danced freely, and besides, he doesn’t like to dance with a partner. The show is a pure extravagance in the best Galván style, where performance art combines with dance, music, and, above all and in this piece more than ever, humour.

Accompanied by the charanga band Los Sones de Olivares - who add a perfect party feel to the show - and the guitar and marvellous singing of María Marín, the music of sevillanas is everywhere as Galván emerges bedecked in a short yellow and black, 1960s-style flamenco outfit, and dancing boots.

Israel Galván dances sevillanas. This is a global creation in which the genius explores his roots. The artist hasn’t cared about prizes for many years now. But such recognition is important for children and when he was a boy, Galván, the heir, as everyone knows, to a dynasty of bailaores who instilled the craft of dance into him at an early age, won nearly every award imaginable. He won so many that his colleagues nick-named him, quite simply, “Premio” (“Prize”).

It is true however, that Israel Galván never managed to win any of the numerous sevillana contests that his parents entered him for. In fact, Galván is perfectly willing to admit that he doesn’t know how to dance sevillanas. Moreover, he declares himself incapable of dancing in any way competently with a partner, in any style or form. Perhaps that’s why the bailaor tends to simultaneously adopt multiple characters, gestures, and identities within his own body? This new work forces the different roles that are activated when dancing sevillanas (at the fair in his city, at a school in Japan, at any international competition...) to coexist within the “schizophrenic” Galván.