Golden Prague → 2009 → Highlights → Tribute to Nacho Duato

Monday, June 15, 2009 at 17:00, in the Small Hall at Žofín

Juan Ignacio Duato Bárcia, also known as Nacho Duato, who was born in Valencia on January 8, 1957 is a Spanish classical ballet dancer and choreographer. After a long and successful career, he was selected by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Education as the artistic director of the National Spanish Dance Company (Compañía Nacional de Danza de España) in June 1990.

He studied at the Rambert School of London, Marice Béjart's Mudra School in Brussels and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City.

He started his dancing career in Stockholm's Cullberg Ballet and a year later joined the Netherlands Dance Theater under artistic director Jiří Kylián, where he performed for ten years. During this period he established himself as one of the most important ballet dancers and composed his choreographic work Jardí tancat (Shut Garden in Catalan) in 1983. Maria del Mar Bonet composed the music and they were jointly awarded first prize in the Internationaler Choreographischer Wettbewerb, Köln. In 1988, he was appointed company choreographer together with Hans van Manen and Jiří Kilián at the Netherlands Dance Theater.

His choreography has been included in the most prestigious international companies such as the Cullberg Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater, the American Ballet Theater, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Stuttgart Ballet, Ballet Gulbenkian, the San Francsco Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.

Nacho Duato's choreographic works include Ucelli (Respighi), Synaphai (Xenakis/Vangelis), Boler (Ravel), and Raptus (Wagner Wesendock Lieder). He staged in Compañia Nacional de Danza performances of the Concierto Madrigal by Rodrigo, the Opus Piat by Beethoven, Empty, Coming Together and Mediterrania.

In 2003 he was awarded the Spanish National Dance Award (Premior Nacional de Danza) for choreography.

The Tribute to Nacho Duato takes place on Monday, June 15^th at 17:00, in the Small Hall at Žofín.