Spanish flamenco legend Gades dies in Madrid

Legendary flamenco dancer and choreographer Antonio Gades, a key figure in igniting international interest in the fiery southern Spanish art form, died from cancer yesterday, a Madrid hospital spokesman said.

Gades carried flamenco across borders with his danced versions of some of the stories most evocative of Spain, from poet Federico Garcia Lorca's "Blood Wedding" to Frenchman Prosper Merimee's "Carmen", the tale of a gypsy's doomed love.

Born in easterly Alicante region in 1936, Gades was the son of a labourer and said in interviews that he flirted with cycling and bullfighting before taking up flamenco.

"I began to dance from hunger, and my vocation came later... I don't know who I am... what I know is that I am a worker, a hard worker," Gades once told state radio.

His dancing and choreography were acclaimed in prestigious theatres around the world, from Milan's La Scala to the Metropolitan in New York, and made into a series of "flamenco films" by director Carlos Saura.

They also won him the friendship of other great artists of his age, including painters Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro.

He formed his own company in 1964 and became founding director of the Spanish National Ballet in 1978.