You can't love beauty and cruelty at the same time. The love of dance, the art of the body that liberates and elevates itself, cannot coexist with the sordidness of contracts and lawsuits. In the city of Las Palmas, that city that looks in the mirror and believes itself bigger than it is, the Canary Islands International Contemporary Dance Festival (Masdanza) has been thrown into the abyss. Not for lack of talent, but because of the rottenness of power. The governing body left southern Gran Canaria in 2021 because Tirajana's PSOE allowed it, and the PSOE of Las Palmas ended up being culturally evicted.
Businesswoman Natalia Medina, creator of the festival and the driving force behind dance in the city, has been singled out by the Las Palmas Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. The echo of the complaint, filed by the Popular Party (PP), the same party associated with AV in southern Gran Canaria, resonates in the offices and hallways of the Las Palmas Promotion Society. The accusation is serious: alleged misappropriation of public funds and malfeasance, a tango apparently danced by Medina and the municipal entity of which she herself was a director between 2020 and 2024.
History is a labyrinth of dates and names. On June 14, 2024, the PP's first complaint, admitted for processing, targeted Mayor Carolina Darias, the president of the Las Palmas Promotion Office, Inmaculada Medina, and former councilor Encarna Galván. Barely a month later, on July 30, a second complaint added Natalia Medina to the list of suspects, accusing her of an alleged network of companies that, through contract fragmentation, would have benefited from contracts awarded. Medina's company, 'Qué tal Estás', would have pocketed €1.600.000 between 2022 and 2024, while she held a councilor position.
The outcome of this corruption scandal was swift. The City Council, until now the festival's main sponsor, has withdrawn its financial support, the 440.000 euros allocated to it. Municipal sources have emphasized that the decision does not imply a complete abandonment, as they continue to consider Masdanza "one of the city's important cultural events." The council proposed to the organizers "a change in relationship," moving from sponsor to collaborator. "This collaboration entailed a financial commitment. We regret that the proposal was not accepted," the same sources stated.
The festival, which will now have to cancel its Official International Section, with 60 programmers and 40 artists adrift, survives thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Canary Islands Government, and the Island Council. Dance, at its core, is an act of resistance. But today, in this city, dance has been dealt a blow, a blow that has not come from a stage, but from the shadows of power, where men and women do business in the hope of beauty.
