Joaquin Cortes

Adjust font size:

Famous for his full-blooded, full-bodied, often bare-chested routines, Joaquin Cortes has taken the passion and traditions of flamenco culture and updated and popularized them for a 21st century audience.

Having toured the world, Cortes has become a Spanish icon, yet his style more truly reflects the Gypsy heritage into which he was born in Cordoba in 1969.

As a boy, Cortes trained in classical ballet, joining the Spanish National Ballet in Madrid at the age of 15 and advancing to become one of the company's most celebrated soloists.

Frustrated by the rigid choreography of ballet, Cortes quit in 1992 to form his own flamenco company.

They achieved acclaim in 1995 with "Pasion Gitana" (Gypsy Passion), touring Europe, South America, the U.S., Asia and Australia and performing to more than one million people. Cortes also recorded a CD of music from the show featuring his own band.

The company toured again in 2000 with "Soul," which drew on influences from Latin America, gospel, and classical music, before Cortes took to the stage on his own in 2001 in "Live," conceived as a journey through the forms of flamenco in which Cortes presented himself alone to the audience like a matador facing a bull.

Following 2004's "De Amor y Odio" he toured the world once again this year with a reworked version of "Live."

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.

---

• Deaths reported in plane crash
• Madrid crash plane a 'workhorse'
• Gorilla refuses to let go of baby
• Hong Kong denies Glitter admission
• Bolt wins 200m in world record

• Irish PM to quit over payments scandal
• NATO chief: Afghan troop increase likely
• Militants hunted as calm retuns to Basra
• Pressure on Bush to skip Olympics
• BA sending misplaced T5 baggage to Milan

• Recruiting suicide bombers (2:50)
• London was lucky (2:36)
• Cars in London rigged as bombs (3:48)
• Second explosives-packed car foun (2:32)
• Soviet culture returns (3:47)