Rafael Bonachela

Rafael Bonachela,
you won the first Place Prize last year – what have you done with the £32,000?
I invested it in my own company, the Bonachela Dance Company. We had our first premiere in June. We have a manager and six dancers, but our work is only project based. I do not have revenue funding from Arts Council England.

You became famous when you choreographed Kylie Minogue’s “Fever Tour” – are you still working for her? Yes, I made “Showgirl” too. Part of it got cancelled because Kylie was ill. Now I am going to Australia to work with her again.

Is it difficult to move on? It is getting a little bit tiring now, the way this is used by journalists. I am very proud of my work. I am not the only contemporary choreographer that does commercial work, I just happened to work with one of the most famous pop stars. Now I wish people would stop talking about Kylie and come and see my performances at the South Bank Centre.

Your piece for the Ballet Boyz at Sadler’s Wells in September didn’t look commercial. In what direction are you developing artistically? Some of the steps that you saw at Sadler’s Wells I had actually used for the concert with Kylie. That was some of the vocabulary I had ...