Eugenia Eiriz

Trained as assistant director at Saint Charles College in Madrid, she started her career in the Department of Communication at the Teatro Real (1997-2008), a position that allowed her to join the world of cultural management and meet numerous talented artists. It is during this time that she developed a great love for Spanish and Flamenco dance, delving into this art with teachers like Tomás de Madrid and Carmen “La Talegona” at the Amor de Díos Dance Center. In 2005, the newly created Department of Educational Activities at the Teatro Real was incorporated under the direction of Fernando Palacios, and she focused her efforts on work with the North American educator Mary Ruth McGinn for the start-up of the Opera as a Vehicle of Learning (LOVA for its acronym in Spanish) project. As part of this project, she traveled to Washington with a group of Spanish professors to learn firsthand the origins and content of this project which will later inspire the Antonio Gades Foundation’s “Flamenco en la Aula (Flamenco in the Classroom)” educational initiative, developed by Silvia Marín.

After the death of her husband, Antonio Gades (2004), and following his wishes, she temporarily steps down from her responsibilities at the Teatro Royal to establish the Antonio Gades Foundation, an organization that conserves, protects and promotes the choreographer’s artistic legacy. In 2009, she was nominated by other members of the Board as Chair of the Foundation, supervising the Company’s work recovering Gades’ choreographic repertoire for the stage. She has also published the iconic book Antonio Gades, worked as a consultant for TVE (Spanish public TV channel) on the “Imprescindibles, La ética de la Danza (Indispensable: The Ethics of the Dance” series, and together with Teatro Real has co-produced the filming and editing of Antonio Gades’ ballets to be released for film and TV in Europe and America. She edited the book “Carmen-Gades 25 años (Carmen-Gades, 25 Years)” and was the driving force behind the development of tutorials for Gades’ ballets.

In the creative field, and on the occasion of the commemorations of the 75 anniversary of the birth of Antonio Gades, she wrote “La Danza de la Punta al Tacón (Dance: From Heel to Toe)”, an educational show about Spanish dance that premiered at the Teatro Real in Madrid.