Antonio Granjero
Director
was born in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). He began his studies of classical Spanish, classical ballet, and flamenco when he was ten years old, with the teachers Fernando Belmonte and Paco del Río. A year-and-a-half later, he made his debut in "Centro Cultural de la Villa" in Madrid with the children's Albarizuela ballet, which was managed by the aforementioned teachers and presided over by the prince and the princess of Spain.
For several years until this company came to be composed of adults, Granjero performed in theatres of countries such as Israel, Italy, England, Switzerland, France, Japan, and others. There, he appeared in various popular television programs.
As a final phase as a child's ballet, Albarizuela performed in the Alcázares of Seville where Granjero performed as the first dancer for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II of England. Afterward, he participated in the International Dance festivals of Bordeaux,” (France) and Todi (Italy).
In 1991 Granjero left Albarizuela, moving to Madrid and joining the “Carmen Cortes Dance Company,” where he had the opportunity to share the stage with such prestigious artists as Antonio Canales, Gerardo Nuñez, and others. The following year he was invited to reappear with Albarizuela in order to represent Jerez in the International Exposition in Seville (EXPO 92) throughout the entire event.
After finishing the Expo 92, Granjero returned to Madrid where he remained for two years performing flamenco dance in the tablaos of Madrid: Venta del Gato, La Alcazaba and Café de Chinitas, where he was the dancing partner of La Chunga. He also worked in concert rooms such as Casa Patas, Caracol and Revolver.
At the end of 1994, Granjero toured Germany and Poland as the guest artist of the flamenco company Alhama; collaborating also in the choreography of the show "Viva Sevilla." He appears in the live compact disc recording of this show. After many years with this company, he concentrated most of his work on collaborations with other artists from Madrid such as La Tati, Manolete, Juan Maya “Marote”, Victor Monge “Serranito” and El Güito.
In Barcelona, he danced as a soloist with La Tati in her show “El Pueblo Español.” With the company of El Güito, Antonio Granjero and Domingo Ortega performed an Alegrías which was singled-out in several national newspapers including El Pais and ABC, with comments such as: "exceptional talents" and reviews stating “…they danced an Alegrias with a good design and better confection.”
In the summer of 1995, Granjero traveled to the United States to join María Benitez Teatro Flamenco as a soloist and choreographer. He has maintained his collaboration with her company during the summer season and autumn tours for over 10 years performing each summer in her tablao in Santa Fe (New Mexico) and in tours throughout the United States.
Stand out performances included theaters in New York (Joyce Theatre) where he was recognized by the New York Times as “the Baryshnikov of Spanish Dance”, in addition to performances at the Dallas (Majestic Theater) and in Seattle, Phoenix, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Boston, Springfield, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Montreal, Canada.
He has performed as guest artist of Maria Serrano Company (Sevilla), Esmeralda Enriquez Company (Canada), Susana Di Palma (Minnesota). Granjero has had the honor of performing at the most prestigious Flamenco events in the world, such as the “Bienal of Sevilla” as well as the “Festival of Jerez” accompanying Juan Manuel Cañizares, and also sold out two performances at the Hobby Center Theater in Houston, Festival Flamenco de Santa Bárbara and the Empire Theatre of San Antonio.
In 2008 Antonio presented a new show that was in the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla and was continued by a European tour.
In 2009, Granjero was featured as the guest artist with the Seattle Opera in the production of “La Traviatta” in Seattle, Washington. It was this year he premiered “Flamenco Para 4 Estaciones” , a production that was the debut of Entreflamenco Company in San Antonio, Texas. In the following years leading into the present, Granjero and Entreflamenco continued to present award winning productions including DEL SUR, FLAMENC@S and AIRE. These productions have repeatedly been voted as “Best of San Antonio” by the San Antonio Express. Granjero and Company have presented performances in the National Theatre of Panama, the Rio Grande Theatre in Las Cruces, New Mexico and five seasons of shows at the Entreflamenco Dance Space in San Antonio. He has performed with the Portland Opera in the 2015 production of Carmen where he received rave reviews.
Mr. Granjero now resides in Santa Fe, NM where he directs Entreflamenco annual performance seasons of nearly 200 shows per year. He also oversees the performance venue EL FLAMENCO CABARET. In January, 2020 he was presented as the guest artist to NOCHE FLAMENCA in a run of shows at the Plays and Players Theatre in Philadelphia. In 2023, Granjero was nominated for a Bessie Award in the category of “Outstanding Performance” at the Joyce Theatre NYC. He is the only NM resident and second Spaniard to be nominated for said award in dance history