Pastora Galván

There is a magic moment in some artists’ careers in which promise is spectacularly realized in an evening. This was the case with Pastora Galván in La Francesa, which features Galváninterpreting five Andalusian women from French literature, performed by the dancer as a profusion of vitality, fantasy, imagination, versatility, irony and grace.

Galván (Seville, 1980) was born into a family for whom dancing is a way of life. Her father, Jose Galván, owns a dance school and her mother, Eugenia de los Reyes, gave Pastora her first lessons. Her older brother Israel Galván is also a celebrated flamenco dancer and choreographer. At age ten, Pastora enrolled at Seville’s music conservatory, where she received a diploma in Spanish dance in 1998.

She began to dance professionally, taking part in shows that were milestones in the recent history of flamenco such as Maria Pages's La Tirana (1998), iMira! (1998), Metamorfosis (2000) and her brother's Galvánicas (2002). In 2001 she achieved her first personal triumph: the Matilde CoralPrize for tangosat the National Flamenco Art Contest in Cordoba.

In 2004, she began to take on riskier choreographies. With Israel she gave a classical touch to Dos hermanos, and under the direction of Jose Luis Ortiz Nuevo, she filled the stage with sensuality at the Maestranza Theatre, interpreting Bizet's habanerafrom Carmen. Since then, her name has been included on the marquees of some of the most prestigious flamenco engagements around the world- the Monterrey festival, Mont-de-Marsan, the Flamencoin the Sun festival in Miami, and the Jerez Festival. Galván first danced La Francesa in 2006, as part of Seville’s Flamenco Biennial.