Antonio Esteve Ródenas was born in Elda (Alicante) in 1936. He took his first dancing steps with La Palitos, but soon he caught the attention of Pilar López, who gave him the name Antonio Gades when he entered her dance company in 1952. However before this Antonio had to work in photography, be an apprentice bullfighter, messenger boy and paper boy for the ABC newspaper. He soon turned into the first dancer of Pilar López´s company, something which was vital to Gades´ formation. In the seventies he did his first big piece, Alredo Mañas´ Don Juan, in collaboration with the maestro José Granero. It was at this point that he started to work in his own companies, performing two mythical pieces of work which Carlos Saura later taken to the big screen: Crónica del suceso de bodas de sangre and El amor brujo. His work has been awarded many times with such Awards as the National Dance Award in 1988, for «his work as a bridge between flamenco tradition and modern airs in which Spanish dance lives ».