Remarkable for her ability to bring together two qualities of gesture considered to be antagonistic, Ana Yepes’s dance has been characterised for many years as much by its qualities of suspense in slowness as by its vigour in speed. She interprets two solos, one from the Spanish Golden Age with castanets, the other more freely inspired from the French dances of the Baroque era. The first work places emphasis on moments of improvisation anchored in an in-depth focus on the corporeality of the Spanish dances of that time, with castanets – a piece inspired by the Jácara and the Folías. The second work deploys a highly personal dance, drawing its inspiration both from the gestures and movements of the slow parts of French Belle Dance and from moments freely entered into, focused on suspension and a continuous fluidity of the gestural line. 

(source: programme of the CND)

Born in Spain, Ana Yepes now lives in Paris. A graduate from the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, she took analysis and harmony classes with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and at the Conservatoire de Fontainebleau. She then specialised in early music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She was awarded the "Early Dance Teacher" diploma from the London Guildhall School of Music, and a DEUG diploma in dance from the Sorbonne in Francine Lancelot’s class. She also takes interpretation courses with Shirley Wynne, Francine Lancelot, Barbara Sparti and Andrea Francalanci.

Her own creations include: Eclats Baroques (2007), Fiesta (2005) - South-American baroque dances, Donaïres (2004) – a show on Spanish baroque dance, Les Danses du Roi (2003) – a show on French baroque dances from the Court of Louis 14th, Fantaisie pour trois danseurs et une table (2002) – a contemporary dance piece, Dialogues avec mon père (1999) - a contemporary dance piece paying tribute to Narciso Yepes, and Zarandanzas (1992) - a ballet on Spanish and French baroque dance, including a contemporary part that proposes and lays out the links and contrasts between these two styles.

As a choreographer, she also participates in operas, creations, comedies and plays, and collaborates with a variety of stage directors such as Alfredo Arias: Les Indes Galantes (Rameau); Fous des Folies and Carmen (Bizet) - Francisco Negrín: Alceste (Gluck); Una Cosa Rara (Martin y Soler); King Arthur (Purcell) - Beatrix Cenci (Ginastera); Procès Kafka (Poul Ruders); Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare and Orlando (Handel) - Jean-Marie Villegier: Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau) - Mireille Laroche: Sémiramide (Cesti) and Comédies Madrigalesques - Gilbert Deflo : Manon (Massenet) - Renée Auphan: Sampiero Corso (Tomasi) - Miguel Narros: El Gran Mercado del Mundo - Juan Sanz: La Paz Universal (Calderón de la Barca - Peyró).

With William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, she has created the spatial installation and the choreography for a number of shows: Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes and Hippolyte et Aricie, Purcells’s King Arthur, Molière and Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles and Orphée aux Enfers, Monteverdi’s The Madrigals, and Gluck’s The Pilgrims to Mecca.

Ana Yepes has collaborated as an interpreter and a choreographer within a variety of groups, such as: Hemiole, The Narciso Yepes trio, Ris & Danceries, Les Arts Florissants, Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico de Madrid, Andanzas (A company that she created in Spain), Les Folies Bergères, the Opéra National de Paris, the Opéra de Montpellier, the Opéra de Genève, the New York City Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, Covent Garden, to name but a few.

She is a permanent member of the Narciso Yepes Trio, specialising in Spanish early music and dance. She teaches Baroque and Renaissance dance in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, the USA, Canada and Japan. She is a historical dance teacher at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental of Evreux, in Haute Normandie, and gives regular baroque danse classes in Paris.

She is the artistic director of the Ensemble Donaïres.

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Mise à jour : mai 2015