Compañía Nacional de Danza

  The Compañía Nacional de Danza kicks off its new season with NumEros at the Santander International Festival and prepares to embark on an extensive national and international programme.    

We continue to foster dialogue around dance as an artistic language and its role in contemporary culture. On 21 April, Muriel Romero, Director of the Compañía Nacional de Danza, took part in the second day of Cultura26, created by Radio 3 and moderated by Natalia Sprenger, under the title. To Be Human Is to Dance, held at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

With the aim of continuing to bring the Compañía Nacional de Danza closer to interdisciplinary research and innovation, as well as strengthening the dialogue between choreographic creation and emerging technologies, on 20 April, CND Director Muriel Romero took part in the professional meetings Performing Arts Technologies and Hybrid Practices, held as part of the MMMAD Festival 2026.

“Someone, I tell you, will remember us, even in another time” (fragmento 77, Planta, 24). Safo de Lesbos. Once again, the Compañía Nacional de Danza commemorates International Women’s Day with an audiovisual project that engages in a dialogue with memory and presence through time. In Sappho’s verses, a simple idea emerges: that which has been truly lived does not dissolve with time. Inspired by the Greek concept of “Aletheia”, understood as revelation, this year’s 8 March message focuses on that which, although it may have remained hidden, never ceased to exist. Throughout history, many women’s experiences have been left out of the dominant narrative. Yet what was left unnamed did not disappear. It remained in memory, in lived experience, in everyday life, and in all the individual and collective paths forged by women. Each word that emerges in the video acts as an acknowledgement — a way of bringing into the present that which remained in the background for far too long. Through this process of revealing what has been hidden, presence through the body ceases to be invisible and becomes an affirmation.   You can watch the video via this link.

The CND presents ROM at Teatros del Canal of the Community of Madrid from March 12 to 15, 2026, in the Sala Roja Concha Velasco. ROM (Range of Motion) proposes a reflection on the different ranges of movement in the body and on the memory that these generate in dance. The program brings together two landmark work of contemporay European choreographic creation: The Second Detail by choreographer William Forsythe, and Become by Johan Inger. Through these two pieces, the program traces a journet through different choreographic languages that have shaped the evolution of dance in recent decades. From Forsythe’s abstract and algorithmic language to Inger’s expressionist and dramaturgical heritage, the stage becomes a space where styles, concepts, and perspectives on movement converge.As explained by Muriel Romero, director of the National Dance Company, ROM conceives the stage as a place of collective memory where different concepts of movement are preserved and transformed. It is a space where the works engage in dialogue with one another, allowing audiences to revisit the recent history of dance through two fundamental authors. You can watch the behind-the-scenes video of the photo session at the following link.

In collaboration with the Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (UNIR), on Monday, February 2 at 5:00 PM, there will be an open streaming class titled “Dance and Interactive Technologies: Dive into the work "#INCUBATIO - Circumambulatio". A training session on the work #INCUBATIO - Circumambulatio, a contemporary stage creation in which dance, electroacoustic music, and visuals interact with devices based on Artificial Intelligence systems. Participants include Muriel Romero, director of the CND, Pablo Palacio, musical composer, and Ana Colomer, director of the Master’s in Dance Studies at UNIR, who will discuss the interactive systems designed for the work, which integrate motion capture, live music generation, image synthesis, and lighting control through robotic and laser lights. The open class will include a theoretical presentation and a practical demonstration in which participants will observe how each gesture, in this case from the performer, becomes a trigger that modifies the sound and visual space, creating a unique immersive experience. The session will conclude with the presentation of the AI-Toolbox, a set of open-source resources aimed at promoting contemporary creation in dance and performing arts, developed within the framework of the European project ‘Premiere (Horizon Europe)’. Registration

The artists of the Company have posed for Javier Salas' camera, and the result has been a series of ELASTIC PORTRAITS with which we have prepared our 2026 calendar. "A dancer needs elasticity not only physically but also mentally, to connect their body with their consciousness and emotions. Thus, an elastic connection between psyche, emotion, the physical, and the spirit is what gives us a complete dancer: generous in listening inwardly and generous in listening outwardly." Muriel Romero "I have always been fascinated by the world of ballet and its environment. Those perfect bodies working to the limit to create beauty in motion. The dance scenes in performance or created for photography may be the most documented when considering a series of images. However, when you go to rehearsals, a lot of different realities appear that have inspired me." "ELASTIC PORTRAITS" tries to capture some of these situations that occur outside the scene. Impossible stretches, postures to the limit or, on some occasions, simply portraits. My objective was to enhance this elasticity from a photographic perspective, looking for an atypical point of view but without losing the beauty of dance." Javier Salas

On Wednesday, November 26, concluding the "Meeting of State Museums: Networks and Territorial Cohesion," the CND will bring to the Hall of Battles at the Palace of the Infantado in Guadalajara the segment dedicated to the queens from the work We Tell Truths that seem Like Lies. "The Queens" portray Queen Christina of Sweden in a duality that invites the viewer to reflect on dichotomies. Both the excerpt and the complete work draw a parallel between the sculptor's relationship with the material and the choreographer's relationship with the dancer's body. The title of the full work, premiered on March 8, 2025, in the Hall of the Muses at the Prado Museum, comes from verses sung by the Muses of Helicon in Hesiod's Theogony, which say: "We know how to tell lies with the appearance of truths." In this case, the order of the phrase is reversed: "we tell truths that seem like lies," to emphasize the role of art in creating an apparent reality that is seemingly fictional, but sometimes more intense and revealing of the mysteries of the reality around us.

We return from our recent tour to the People's Republic of China deeply saddened by the sudden passing of our dear colleague Ginés Martínez Caballero, a talented theater man, an exceptional professional, and a unique human being. Honoring his memory and the enormous effort and generosity he dedicated as Technical Director to this tour, we decided to carry on with it, driven by professional responsibility, though immersed in profound sadness at his loss. Our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. Ginés, you will always be in the hearts of all of us who are part of the CND. RIP

Graduated from the National Ballet School of Warsaw, the Polish master began his career as a soloist with the National Ballet of Poland. He worked at the Marseille Ballet, with Rosella Hightower and Roland Petit, at the Royal Swedish Ballet, and at Maurice Béjart's Ballet du XXème siècle, with whom he closely collaborated by assisting and restaging his ballets around the world. Together with the company's rehearsal mistresses and over the course of two weeks, Master Nardelli has conducted the daily preparatory class to strengthen the technique, flexibility, and musicality of the entire cast, motivating them to give the Shanghai and Beijing audiences their full artistic potential in the roles they will perform in José Carlos Martínez's ballet Don Quijote, from October 18 to 26. In his long career, the master has also been invited by the National Ballet of Montreal, the Opera of Rome, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Warsaw Opera, the National Ballet of Finland, the Ballet, the Tokyo Ballet, and many others.