Malaga TipToe dance festival cancels two shows after main star injury

Zoom

Following doctors' advice, Lucía Lacarra will not dance for a few weeks, which has forced the cancellation of Fordlandia and Lost Letters on 18 and 19 April

Alberto Gómez

Thursday, 16 April 2026, 12:07

An injury ballet dancer Lucía Lacarra sustained during rehearsals on Tuesday has forced the cancellation of two of the events in the programme of Antonio Banderas's TipToe dance festival in Malaga.

Lacarra will not be able to dance for the next few weeks, which is why Fordlandia and Lost Letters on 18 and 19 April will be rescheduled as soon as she recovers and the schedule of Teatro del Soho CaixaBank allows.

The artist from the Basque Country region is one of the most renowned Spanish ballet dancers and main star of the TipToe festival. The two cancelled performances were also the highlight of the programme.

Despite this cancellation, the festival organisers have reported that the rest of the programme will proceed as planned. Banderas himself is presenting the Lux Ductor award to renowned dancer Julio Bocca on the stage of the Soho theatre on Thursday. The festival also features a performance of Folia by the Käfig dance company.

Lacarra was the first Spanish ballerina invited to participate in the New Year's concert in Vienna. The Kremlin named her Dancer of the Decade in 2011. She has received awards such as the Nijinsky, the Benois de la Danse, the Max and the Premio Nacional de Danza. She has been a principal dancer with leading companies in Marseille, San Francisco, Munich and Dortmund.

Despite her success, Lacarra is no stranger to adversity. Born in 1975 in a small town in Gipuzkoa and orphaned at a young age, in a recent interview with SUR she says that, to reach the world's great stages, one must be "very hungry". That little girl who watched, fascinated, a figure spinning to the rhythm of Swan Lake in her mother's jewellery box is today an undisputed icon of international dance.

The dancer recalls some of the most serious injuries of her career, such as the torn cruciate ligaments she suffered on stage during a performance of The Tempest. "When I landed from a jump, my knee cracked and I found myself kissing the floor. Nobody thought I would ever dance again, but six months later I was back on stage," Lacarra says in the interview.

She once performed for months with a broken toe - a testament to the physical and mental resilience and discipline ballet demands.

Lacarra is currently in Malaga as the artistic director of the Teatro del Soho CaixaBank dance festival. The initiative aims to solidify the city's position as a national and international leader in this discipline.

Last Sunday, Lacarra directed a large-scale dance performance at Malaga's Muelle Uno promenade, in which hundreds of students, teachers and professionals participated.

The festival organisers thank the public for their understanding, confirming that those who have purchased tickets for the cancelled performances will receive an automatic refund.