Vicente Fernández
Who is Vicente Fernández?
Vicente Fernández Carrasco was born in 1974 in Linares, Jaén. A non-Roma bailaor, he trained from a very young age with teachers such as Antonio Mondéjar and Manolo Marín, a technical foundation that would define the traditional character of his dance. He made his professional debut in 1993, beginning a career that would lead him to work with some of the most acclaimed Spanish dance companies of his generation.
Career
His first major experience was with the Ballet Teatro de Rafael Aguilar, with whom he toured stages in Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Lebanon and Turkey. In 1997, already a principal dancer, he created choreography for “Yerma” and joined the ballet of Japanese choreographer Yoko Komatsubara. A year later he worked with the company of María Carrasco and with the ballet of Angelita Romero, and in 1999 he took on the artistic direction, the role of principal bailaor and choreography duties for the Ballet Esencias Andaluzas in Taiwan.
Already into the 2000s he took part in productions such as “Soniqueteando” and “Gipsy Fire,” the latter on tour in Hungary, collaborated with the orchestra Opera Pasión in France and danced alongside Rafael de Córdoba. He has performed in Madrid tablaos such as Casa Patas and Sala Cardamomo, and at festivals in Zamora, Quesada and his native Linares, where in 2009 he presented his own show “A Canela y Clavo,” recorded on DVD, after having also premiered “De Granada a Jerez.”
Style
His dance, rooted in tradition and marked by strong orthodoxy, stands out for the artistry and compás inherited from his earliest teachers, qualities he has maintained throughout a career developed both in Spanish dance companies and in flamenco tablaos and festivals.