Ellas Crean 2026 will celebrate its 22nd edition from March 5 to 15, with a new venue in Tetuán and a program that turns some of the city’s most important museums into stages for free dance performances. The event, the oldest of its kind dedicated to culture created by women in Spain, brings together established and emerging artists in disciplines such as music, dance, theater, and poetry for ten days, coinciding with the week of March 8 and with free admission to all activities until capacity is reached.
The big news this year is the central role played by the Eduardo Úrculo Cultural Center, in the Tetuán neighborhood, which becomes the epicenter of the festival. Some of the main concerts and performances are scheduled in its auditorium, such as the dance show Ábrego, by the Corpo Liminal company, with dancer Dácil González (2019 National Dance Award), or music and poetry performances that complete a very concentrated ten-day program. Ellas Crean thus strengthens its ties with a district that was already committed to contemporary dance through its annual competition and puts it on the cultural map in March alongside the major state institutions.
Free dance in the great museums
The other major focus of the festival is Dance in Museums, a series that transforms several state museums into stages for small choreographic pieces, with free admission. Between March 5 and 15, the Costume Museum, the Museum of America, the National Museum of Decorative Arts, and the National Archaeological Museum will host solos and duets by contemporary creators in rooms normally reserved for display cases and paintings.
The program includes, among other proposals:
- Flor del desierto(Desert Flower) by Cristiane Boullosa, on March 5 at the Museo del Traje.
- La peor de todas(The Worst of All), by Inés Narváez Arróspide, inspired by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, on March 7 at the Museum of America.
- After the drop, by Lucía Montes and Mado Dallery, on March 8 at the Museo del Traje.
- An excerpt from Carne de perro, by Helena Martín’s company, on March 11 at the National Museum of Decorative Arts.
- Halo (The Voices of the Wind), by Melania Olcina, winner of the 2023 National Dance Award, on March 15 in the lobby of the National Archaeological Museum.
The pieces are designed for an intimate format, lasting around 20-30 minutes, and admission is free until full capacity is reached, in accordance with the rules of each museum, allowing the public to encounter dance almost “around the corner” between display cases, sculptures, and permanent collections.
A map of female creators throughout the city
Beyond dance, Ellas Crean maintains its multidisciplinary vocation with concerts, readings, and theater spread across different cultural spaces in the city. The festival program includes, for example, concerts by Leonor Watling & Leo Sidran and Lucía Espín, as well as a staged reading of La llama ebria(The Drunken Flame), an anthology of women poets of surrealism, along with other music, film, and spoken word cycles that complete the map of current female creation.
Promoted by the Institute for Women and Equal Opportunities, and with the main support of the Tetuán Municipal Council and the Subdirectorate General of State Museums, Ellas Crean 2026 transforms Madrid’s cultural agenda for ten days, filling it with works created and performed by women, with free admission and in some of the city’s most emblematic venues, from national museums to this new epicenter in the north of the capital.