What better way to say goodbye to an artist than in his own temple: the stage. This Sunday, October 16, family and friends of the dancer Arnau Galindo Alises, who died a year ago in a dramatic traffic accident in Saudi Arabia, will have the opportunity to say goodbye at the Teatre Altrium in Viladecans.
The performance, in which the Gavà City Council, the Leonor Vives Dance Academy, Amics de la Dansa de Gavà or the Málaga Dance Center Academy participate, will begin at 6:00 p.m. and will be free for those who decide to go to a nostalgic show , moving and with lots of light. Fifty dancers from various parts of Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, all of whom are Arnau’s former partners, take part in the show. One of his companions will dance a duet through an audiovisual projection that shows him in action.
Arnau was 27 years old when his life was cut short along with that of Antonio Caggianelli, Nicolás Esposto, Giampiero Giarri, the other three companions who perished with him. Diego di Giovanni was the only survivor, although he was paraplegic. The day of the tragedy was the day of rest for these dancers, so they decided to tour the desert of Raid, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Two other tourists were traveling in the van, plus the driver of the vehicle and the guide, who came out alive.
It was the decision of the driver, who was sent to prison, although he was released after a few months, to change course and take them through dangerous terrain at a speed higher than the established speed, until they reached Jebel Fihrayn, that is, the cliffs of the Tuwaiq cliff known as “The end of the world”. At this point in the desert, the driver of the vehicle shouted in his language “Alqafz alqafz, alqafz!” (Jump!), so only Arabic-speaking travelers were able to understand him. Arnau and his four companions fell into the void over the 90-meter-high cliff.
Arnau’s family still remembers feeling “abandoned” by the Spanish embassy in Saudi Arabia, which at the time did not detail the accident or facilitate the repatriation of the body, which took a month to complete. “I felt helpless and very angry when I saw that the Spanish embassy did not react, while the Italian one took all the trouble,” says Arnau’s mother, Rocío Alises. She gave the feeling that she ignored us and she didn’t care. And on top of that, my lawyer advised me not to go there because she was not going to get anything for being a woman”. In the same way, family and friends considered that in Spain the accident had not had the necessary repercussion in the media, as they reflected on social networks.
This Sunday is an opportunity to say goodbye to a free and innocent soul, as those who knew him say Arnau was. Artists from ballet, contemporary dance, hip-hop or jazz will bid him farewell on stage with dances like the one prepared by Estefanía del Pino, his best friend. “It is a piece that he comes out dancing in the background through a video and I come out dancing the same as him, I follow his steps, I imitate him until we merge and dance together,” said the young woman. The last dance will be a joint dance, with choreography by Leonor Vives, his teacher, who evokes the essence and unique style of Arnau.
For the family, this act will be much more than a tribute, it will be a way to vindicate the talent that Arnau had and that only a few knew. Arnau Galindo Alises did not have an easy life. In his artistic career he dealt with the fact that he was 1.60 meters tall, which a priori prevented him from becoming the Prince of Swan Lake. Despite his obstacles, he fought for his dreams and showed that his behavior was equal to or better than that of his taller companions.
She was nine years old when seeing the movie Barbie in the Nutcracker she felt the passion for ballet. It was his aunt Montse Alises who took him to the Leonor Vives de Gavà dance academy, where he was the only boy in the class and stood out for “being very authentic and special,” says Leonor. Arnau made the leap to London by entering the Royal Academy of Arts and the London Studio Centre, where he achieved distinction and came in third place at the Ballet World Cup held in Scotland in 2013.
Arnau wants to be an emotional show that highlights the values ??of perseverance, effort and trust, and reminds us of the importance of fighting for dreams. “He would be delighted,” says his soulmate. “Whenever I dance, he will be with me.”
