Deep, guttural vocalizations. Loud, thunderous screams. Lamentable sounds in the purest Cro-Magnon style. Facial expressions of extreme torment. A whole testosterone-fueled menagerie that the free weight rooms and machine rooms shelter day in and day out. It's also true that this type of user isn't the only one found in gyms. The diverse range of people who share these spaces fosters a biodiversity that, at the very least, is healthy.

The Mercat de les Flors is hosting one of the most important events of its season from this Friday until Sunday. The Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, South Korea's leading dance company and Asia's only national dance company, is coming to Barcelona for the first time. And it's doing so with the show JungleA piece directed by Kim Sungyong, featuring twelve dancers on stage who give shape and movement to an abstract and impressionistic tableau inspired by contemporary jungles.

According to the dictionary, the cugula is a plant of the grass family, similar to oats, that frequently appears at the edges of cultivated fields. It is generally considered a weed. And, surely because of this, the rural world often used the term "cugula" to refer to what a pregnant woman carried in her womb: a girl.

For four years, Catalan dance companies felt adrift, lacking a space to capture the attention of international programmers. In 2021, the Sismógrafo Festival in Olot lost its status as a strategic dance market—a designation awarded by the Catalan government to revitalize the discipline, boost bookings, and cultivate new audiences—and creators had nowhere to showcase their work and give it a platform beyond the national circuit. Now, this void has been filled: the Department of Culture has launched Catalandance, a platform that, for four days, from Wednesday to Saturday, invites more than 200 programmers from around the world to Terrassa, where it will present Catalan dance productions with the aim of attracting their attention. "During the 80s and 90s, Catalonia was a pioneer in exporting dance. Now we are trying to regain that visibility," explains the platform's artistic director, Pau Estrem.

The first edition of the Autumn Flash, the festival promoted by Temporada Alta The festival, which brings international performing arts to Barcelona, ​​will conclude this week with a double bill of top-tier dance. American choreographer William Forsythe and Swiss choreographer Thomas Hauert will present their work at the Mercat de les Flors. Double Bill, in collaboration with the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, one of the most prestigious dance companies on the current scene. Forsythe has choreographed Undertainmenta piece based on scenic freedom, while Hauert has created Playing with Sergei, Martha and the others from the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Rachmaninoff. Both works, built from improvisation and featuring fourteen dancers on stage, will be performed consecutively this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Barcelona.

This dance, better known in Catalonia as the "dance of death" (in English and German, the same: dance of death, Totentanz; in French, danse macabreThe 14th-century dance, or "Dance of the Dead," is a dance that originated in the 14th century, most likely due to the enormous mortality caused by the Black Death and the devastating Hundred Years' War. It was widespread throughout the continent and is rarely seen as a stage performance today; but historically it has been very present in the graphic and pictorial arts. The best examples are found, or were found—and drawings of which have been preserved—in Basel, Dresden, and the cloister of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Holbein made a whole series of engravings of enormous quality, and they are still being published. Apart from this, Florence Whitney is the author of a frankly intractable work, from around 1910, called The Danse of Death in Spain and Cataloniaof particular interest to us.

It is one of the most fascinating and elegant spectacles we can observe in nature: two swans moving their bodies in sync in a mating ritual popularly known as the "dance of love." Some species, like chimpanzees, are even capable of shaking to the rhythm of music. But, unlike humans, Animals cannot internalize the pulses, These are the basic unit of time in musical compositions. To put it simply, that thump-thump-thump that beats inside us, like our heart, and that makes us clap, tap our feet on the floor, or move our heads spontaneously when we hear a melody. Even newborn babies possess this ability, as several experiments have shown.

"Since I was very young, I've listened to music at home, because my parents always loved it. It was also a constant presence on car trips. When I was about 15, they started dancing at the San Martín community center, my lifelong neighborhood in Barcelona. Ballroom dancing brought them together and they made a very friendly group of friends. Looking back now as an adult, I think dancing changed their lives. And one day they asked me if I wanted to go dancing with them," recalls Àlex Morales, who as a teenager couldn't imagine that invitation would end up shaping his life as well. A professional dance career wasn't in his plans back then, because he had wanted to be a soccer player since he was a kid. However, when the time came to choose university studies, he opted for the world of education, his other vocation. Restless by nature, one career wasn't enough. "I'd always loved teaching. When I was 16, I earned my leisure instructor qualification and worked in cafeterias and summer centers. I also worked as a soccer coach. When I decided to study, I chose teaching, but I also looked into social education, and I was very interested. That's why I decided to pursue both qualifications, despite the difficulties," the dancer explains.

Next season, the Mercat de les Flors will celebrate twenty years as a fully dedicated dance venue, and will do so with a program packed with large-scale performances. It will also be the last season with Àngels Margarit at the helm of the venue's management. after almost ten years in office"I'm leaving wanting to show a lot of diversity. I've tried to give space to all creations, especially those from the local scene, and to do my own production," Margarit said this Monday at the presentation of the new season. Her latest program includes "things I hadn't done yet and had to do," says the facility's director.