Flamenco Star Who Slept Wrapped in Cardboard

Antonio Canales was born in Seville in 1961 into a family of artists. He began his professional dance career with the Ballet Nacional, moved on to Paris, where he gained international recognition, and won numerous awards in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1992 he founded his own company, and he later received Spain's National Dance Prize and the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts. Among his best-known works are Torero, Gitano, La Cenicienta and Ojos verdes.

Before that, as a young man, he moved to Madrid to study dance, against the wishes of his father. His mother helped him with a sum of savings. When that money ran out he had nowhere to stay and slept outside. In summer he slept in El Retiro park, and later he was advised to use the metro stations at Preciados or Atocha, where he wrapped himself in cardboard, which he said was the best protection against the damp.

He described that period in 2021 on the Mediaset programme Volverte a ver, as reported by FormulaTV. He queued at a convent on Calle Huertas, and every morning at nine o'clock he went to the ballet school with his suitcase, changed into his leotard and worked at the barre. He said he did this day after day until he got what he wanted.

He kept his situation from his mother so that she would not worry. On the programme, his mother, Pastora, said that mothers often do not see such things and tend to believe what their children tell them.

The article does not give ages or years for this period or explain a single turning point. What it shows is persistence: a student without a bed who still attended class each morning and went on to become one of the leading figures of Spanish flamenco dance.