Baila España 2026

Maja & Bastarda
Laila Tafur

Maja y Bastarda is an appropriation of dances that have been regarded as unserious, impure, inappropriate, primitive, or unsuitable. Laila Tafur counters this notion: for her, dances have always been hybrid and bastard forms, nourished by different influences. The distinction between tradition and the contemporary dissolves in dances that are danced and therefore lived. They move between the dance hall and the theatre, ritual and cabaret, art and folk dance, sobriety and celebration.

Inspired by these ideas and by the Zambras (flamenco dances of the Roma), Laila Tafur weaves together and invents new movements in a collage-like process, drawing on memory, the present, and fiction. She says: “You steal, take over, embody and live through a memory from another time. You allow other dances to speak through you and your present. Distant dances, remote geographies and blurred figures create an identity that unfolds from style to style, from story to story, until it lands freely in this space, in this body.”

Laila Tafur is an Andalusian dancer and choreographer who trained at Listaháskóli in Reykjavík, the Politécnica in Lisbon, and the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona. Between 2017 and 2021, she completed both the MPECV at the Reina Sofía and the PEI at MACBA—places where her interest in song, in an amateur approach to the production of knowledge, and in embodying critical thinking through humour first emerged. Her work has received numerous awards. She currently combines her work as a lecturer at the Conservatorio Superior de Málaga with her own artistic practice.

Direction and dance: Laila Tafur | Outside eye: Amalia Fernández and Ana Buitrago | Musical and archival consultancy: Charo Martín | Flamenco dance consultancy: Alba Fajardo | Costume: Jorge Dutor, Carmen Corsano and Laila Tafur | Soundscape and music production: Isabel do Diego and Laila Tafur | Mastering: Enrique del Castillo | Lighting: Xesca Salvà | Production: Jorge Gallardo