Rafael Cañals was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2016, Rafael became a member of the local company CoDa21, where he has worked in productions such as Romeo & Julieta (Gina Patterson), Flesh (Ivan Pérez) and Rassemblement (Nacho Duato). He also worked with international professionals like Maša Kolar, Milan Tomášik, Fernando Troya, Gina Patterson among others. In addition, in April 2017 he traveled with the company to Havana, Cuba performing at the Cuban Arts Factory and the Mella Theater. He has attended abroad summer and winter courses where he has trained with Andre Miller, Jenniffer Archidbald, Shannon Gillen Lipinski and Jonas Örknér. In 2018 he moved to New York City to pursue an MFA in Choreography from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Rafael has a BFA in Public Relations and Advertising with a Journalism minor from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus and is currently a member of Boca Tuya under the direction of Omar Román De Jesús.

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Photo by ENTREMEDIO DE EL