Antonio Gades

Antonio Gades (November 14, 1936 - July 20, 2004) was a Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer (born Antonio Esteve Ródenas in Elda, Alicante, Spain). He helped to popularise the art form on the international stage. His most notable works included dance adaptations of Prosper Merimée's Carmen and Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre), as well as a feature-length adaptation of Manuel de Falla's 23-minute ballet El Amor Brujo. In the 1990s, he toured the world with his show Fuenteovejuna, based on Lope de Vega's play of the same name. He collaborated closely with the Spanish director Carlos Saura in the filming of these adaptations, and also with Cristina Hoyos, one of the most prolific contemporary female flamenco dancers.

Gades also co-founded and became the artistic director of the Spanish National Ballet (Ballet Nacional de España) in 1978. He died in Madrid after a long battle with cancer. About six weeks before his death, he had been decorated with the "Order of José Marti", one of the highest honors of Cuba, by the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in Havana, Cuba. In 2004 his ashes were interred at the Mausoleum of the Frank País Second Eastern Front, a memorial cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.

He was prominent as a political activist in Alicante, where he proclaimed self-determination for the Catalan nation during the Spanish Transition between the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peoples of Spain, a marxist-leninist organization.