The intersections between dance and the visual arts in Spain cannot be understood in isolation from the wider geopolitics of the Cold War and the internal convulsions of late Francoism and the democratic transition. González Castro demonstrates that the hegemonic cultural models of the United States in the 1960s –embodied in the experiments of Rauschenberg, Johns, Cunningham and Cage– not only reframed the very ontology of the artwork but also travelled to Spain, where they were assimilated under very specific conditions of censorship, repression and belated modernisation (González Castro, 2023). In the Spanish context, the 1970s marked an artistic eruption: the waning of censorship enabled new aesthetic dissidences, from Anna Maleras’ Grup Estudi in Barcelona to the performance-inflected practices of Catalan conceptualists. The dance field, underdeveloped by comparison to the visual arts, absorbed postmodern impulses with urgency, creating an accelerated hybridisation. The body emerged not as the disciplined unit of ballet but as fragmented, abject, precarious –an index of political and existential fracture. Such aesthetics of disappearance found resonance across visual and choreographic practices, linking Esther Ferrer, Jordi Benito and Cesc Gelabert with international figures like Yvonne Rainer or Carolee Schneemann (González Castro, 2023). The 1980s introduced a paradox: institutionalisation and professionalisation accompanied the arrival of democracy. Festivals, theatres and state programmes promoted dance as part of a cultural policy aimed at constructing a modern image of Spain. Yet, this support coexisted with neoliberal amnesia and a weakening of explicitly political voices. Choreographic collectives such as Heura, Danat Dansa or La Fura dels Baus expanded interdisciplinary vocabularies, drawing on visual dramaturgy and performance, while figures like Àngels Margarit or María La Ribot pursued singular trajectories that redefined authorship through the solo format. The coexistence of collectivity and individualisation mirrored wider cultural ambiguities (González Castro, 2023). From a critical perspective, this genealogy underlines the Spanish case as one of discontinuity and acceleration: the belated reception of modern dance, the compressed importation of postmodern paradigms, and the strategic use of culture in the democratic transition. At the same time, feminist and countercultural practices destabilised inherited stereotypes, insisting on agency, sexuality and corporeal multiplicity. By situating Spanish dance within global circuits while emphasising its specific sociopolitical conditions, González Castro reframes it not as peripheral imitation but as a singular negotiation between international models and local urgencies. In this light, the study makes clear that the appreciation of Spanish contemporary dance requires reading it as a palimpsest of transfers, resistances and reconfigurations, where visual arts and choreography converge to articulate a body that is simultaneously aesthetic, political and historical.
González Castro, A. M. (2023) Artes visuales y danza en la España contemporánea: transferencias, vínculos y singularidades. Universidad de Sevilla.
