Joaquín Cortés

Of gypsy blood, he was born in Cordoba in 1969 and at the age of twelve he 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 collaborated 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 Centre, 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 traveled 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 ("Gypsy Passion"), opened in 1995, with the participation of Giorgio Armani designing the wardrobe, the show has run all over Spain, showing in bullrings. 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 perform 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 collaborates 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.