Petipa: Paquita + Raymonda
National Dance Company

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  Thursday, September 25
  19:00 h
  28, 30 y 32€*
MUN Theatre

* Advance sale: buy your tickets with a 15% discount before August 31. (no cumulative discounts)

The MUN stage hosts the premiere of the revivals of two emblematic pieces of the best academic repertoire.

The National Dance Company, under the artistic direction of Muriel Romero, pays tribute to the great figure of Marius Petipa (1818-1910) who is considered the father of classical ballet. Born in Marseilles in 1818, Petipa is perhaps the most important choreographer in the history of dance. 

To this legendary French dancer and choreographer who settled in Imperial Russia we owe fundamental titles for dance such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Paquita, Raymonda or The Bayadère. These choreographies shaped the canon of Russian ballet in the 19th century, making Petipa the highest authority in this art. 

The National Dance Company has hosted Petipá's pieces since its beginnings and throughout its history. Different artistic directions chose to represent Raymonda, as did Maya Plisetskaya in 1987, José Carlos Martínez in 2013 and again, today, in 2025, Muriel Romero. The current director has chosen two titles by the great choreographer directed respectively by Azari Plisetski and José Carlos Martínez, both fundamental figures in the history of the Compañía Nacional de Danza. 

ARTISTIC FILE
Director: Muriel Romero
Assistant director: Mayda Islas
Assistant artistic director: Ana Catalina Román
Manager: Arturo Barral
Technical director: Ginés Caballero
Production director: Cristina Redondo
Communications Director: Maite Villanueva
Leading actors: Alessandro Riga, Kayoko Everhart, Giada Rossi
Principals: Cristina Casa, Yanier Gómez Noda, Isaac Montllor, Anthony Pina
Soloists: Ion Agirretxe, Elisabet Biosca, Ana María Calderón, Felipe Domingos, Mario Galindo, Elisa Ghisalberti, Thomas Giugovaz, Erez Ilan, Marina Jiménez, Daniel Lozano Martín, Aleix Mañé, Shlomi Shlomo Miara, Gaizka Morales, Natalia Muñoz, Mariavittoria Muscettola, YaeGee Park, Hamin Park, Shani Peretz, Benjamin Poirier, Irene Ureña
Dancing corps: Mar Aguiló, Niccolò Balossini, José Alberto Becerra, Emma Cámara, Juan José Carazo, Margaux Chesnais, Celia Dávila, Joshua Feist, Sara Fernández, Valeria García, Martina Giuffrida, Alba Hellín, Tamara Juárez, Sara Khatiboun, Roberto Lua, Álvaro Madrigal, Clara Maroto, Marcos Montes, Gianmarco Moschino, María Muñoz, Daniella Oropesa, Nora Peinador, Laura Pérez Hierro, Pauline Perraut, Alejandro Polo, Iván Sánchez, Roberto Sánchez, Rodrigo Sanz, Tomás Sanza, Francesca Sari, Rubén Vaquero, Bárbara Verdasco, Samantha Vottari Repeating teachers: Catalina Arteaga, Violeta Gastón, Yoko Taira.
Pianists: Carlos Faxas, Viktoriia Glushchenko, Mariana Palacios, Ayllín Plá

PROGRAM

PAQUITA - Grand pas Classique
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Duration: 30 minutes

First performance by the company of the Great Theater of St. Petersburg (Mariinsky Theater), December 27, 1881. Premiere by the National Dance Company (Ballet of the National Lyric Theater) at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid (Spain), November 19, 1988.

Paquita is about the seemingly impossible romance between a Spanish gypsy woman and a Napoleonic officer. Although the intervention of the male protagonist leaves its mark both in its variation and in the paso a dos, Paquita is above all a female ballet, a reflection of the stylistic moment in which it was created and as such places special emphasis on the finesse and precision of the most demanding classical figures, both in the interventions of the soloists and in the movements of the ensemble that Petipa intersperses throughout his choreography, granting the corps de ballet a certain prominence, a prelude to later trends.

Paquita shares with Don Quixote and other earlier works by Petipa the taste for the Spanish that the French-Russian choreographer cultivated during his stay in Spain. One of the greatest attractions of this ballet is the subtlety of the choreography in which Petipa dispenses with character dances and manages to recreate that folkloric spirit through small details. Paquita is a ballet that stands out for its elegance and for the grace that permeates even the most complex technical difficulties. The Grand pas Classique is structured with a pas de trois, four soloist variations and a paso a dos that with the prologue and the coda offer a wide margin for the protagonist couple and the rest of the cast to shine.

RAYMONDA DIVERTIMENTO
Choreography: José Carlos Martínez (inspired by the versions of Marius Petipa and Rudolph Nureyev)
Duration: 30 minutes

The ballet Raymonda, one of Marius Petipa's last great works, unfolds its three acts in a conventional Middle Ages, with heroes departing for the Crusades. In battle, the knight Jean de Brienne must save his fiancée Raymonda from the clutches of the Saracens. The last scene, at last, will reunite them. This "classical Hungarian passage" is an excerpt from the great final divertimento: the marriage of Raymonda and Jean de Brienne, celebrated in the presence of the King of Hungary. Just as the music takes its exotic tones from Magyar themes, the classical steps are also embellished with Hungarian flavors. If the legs dance in a pure classical style, the bust and arms adopt a "character dance" gesturality.
"Dedicated to Maya Plisetskaya".
José Carlos Martínez 

NATIONAL DANCE COMPANY
The National Dance Company was founded in 1979 under the name of National Classical Ballet with Víctor Ullate as its first director, who implemented Maurice Béjart's 20th Century Ballet style in the new company.
In 1983 the teacher María de Ávila took over the direction of the Spanish and Classical National Ballets. After María de Ávila's departure in 1986, Ray Barra held the position of artistic director until 1987, when Maya Plisétskaya was appointed artistic director of the Ballet del Teatro Lírico Nacional. Under her direction - and until 1990 - the company incorporated classical repertoire.
In June 1990, Nacho Duato took over the artistic direction of the Ballet Lírico Nacional which, at the end of 1992, was renamed Compañía Nacional de Danza. Duato held this position for twenty years, a period that marked a profound change in the company's repertoire with choreographies by Duato and important international choreographers. From 2010, Hervé Palito succeeds Duato as artistic director for one year. Between September 2011 and September 2019 José Carlos Martínez is the artistic director of the CND, eight years in which he incorporates classical works into the repertoire of the company. From September 2019 he is succeeded by Joaquín De Luz as artistic director of the company until August 2024, working to achieve a versatile company made up of dancers capable of tackling diverse styles and choreographic registers.
Since September 2024, Muriel Romero has been the new director of the company.

MURIEL ROMERO
Muriel Romero, artistic director, is a talented dancer and choreographer with an impressive career in the world of dance. From her beginnings in Murcia to her training at the Escuela Nacional de Danza in Madrid, she has accumulated numerous awards and recognitions throughout her career. She has been part of important companies, such as the National Dance Company, the Bayerische Staatsballett of Munich or the Deutsche Oper Berlin and has worked with renowned choreographers.
In 2000 she began her career as a freelance artist exploring new formats, collaborating with choreographers and avant-garde playwrights. In 2008 she founded the Stocos Institute in Madrid, together with composer Pablo Palacio, a transdisciplinary project that combines dance, music, mathematics, experimental psychology and artificial intelligence. He has also participated in international projects and has researched the intersection between dance and technology.
She has worked on new productions and European projects, exploring the relationship between different art forms. Her dedication to dance and her desire to innovate has led her to become the current director of the National Dance Company.

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Related activities
24 Sept, 6 p.m. Maya Plisetskaya and the Russian school at the National Dance Company. Round table

25 Sept, 5.30 p.m. Get a glimpse of dance with Elna Matamoros.