Antonio Banderas completes Malaga theatre's 'unfinished business' with the Tip Toe dance festival

It was the "unfinished business" of the Caixabank Soho Theatre. Since it opened, we have seen theatre of all kinds on the Malaga city stage, as well as music of all genres. What was missing was dance, which, from this Saturday, has the stage all to itself with the Soho International Dance Festival Tip Toe, which opens with the Malandain Ballet Biarritz company.

Until Sunday 19 April the festival will feature dancers Lucía Lacarra and Julio Bocca, topping a programme with which its promoter, Antonio Banderas, aims to make a lot of noise.

"We are a child that will be born in the next few days and support for the dance festival is a very serious commitment," assured Antonio Banderas, who also spoke of his intention to expand the Soho Caixabank Theatre with a second space for performances.

The Malaga actor, director and producer made it clear that the great star of Tip Toe is the choreographer and dancer Lucía Lacarra, who will not only take to the stage at the Soho, but who has orchestrated the programming of this first and ambitious edition.

"When we started a dialogue, not only did she seem to me to be the ideal person who could make this festival brilliant, but she has been the one who has taken the necessary steps to ensure that companies of great international prestige are here," said Banderas, welcoming the presence of two French ballets and one German ballet in this first festival.

"This festival came to me as an unexpected gift from life," said Lucía Lacarra herself when she took the floor at the press conference this Friday, in which she stated that "dance has not been a job, but my life".

For this reason, she said that she has thrown herself into the Tip Toe festival "body and soul" and that the design of the programme has not only sought "quality dance", but also encounters with dance figures and workshops to open up dance to all audiences.

And so, this Sunday, a massive ballet barre will be set up in the Muelle Uno marina and 600 dancers will take part, from young people from schools to amateurs and professionals.

"We want to make the people of Malaga understand that the festival is theirs," said Lucía Lacarra, who will also participate in this great Sunday barre event that will show in public "the exercises that we learn before becoming professional, so that people will see the work that goes behind it".

From classical to contemporary dance, all styles have a place in Tip Toe, which kicks off this Saturday and Sunday on the stage of the Soho CaixaBank Theatre with the French company Malandain Ballet Biarritz and the show Les Saisons, which brings together 22 dancers in a production based on Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.

In addition, on Tuesday 14 April the German Bavarian Junior Ballet will present an eclectic programme with music by Mozart, Stravinsky, J.J. Cale or Pink Floyd, while the day before, Monday, this same Munich ballet will hold an audition in Sohrlin Andalucía open to dance students, where two students will obtain contracts in the company itself.

On Thursday 16 and Friday 17 it will be the turn of the French company Käfig with Folia, a show that fuses contemporary dance and live music, while the last weekend will feature Lucía Lacarra, who will present two shows: Fordlandia (Saturday 18), together with Matthew Golding, and Lost Letters (Sunday 19), which will close this first edition of Tip Toe.

On Thursday it will also be the turn of the Argentinian star Julio Bocca, who will receive the Lux Ductor Award in recognition of his outstanding international career. "Julio was delighted to come to Málaga and it is an honour to present him with this award," said Antonio Banderas, who will deliver his theatre's unfinished business from this Saturday when he turns the Soho stage into a dance floor.