NACHO DUATO TRAINEE PROGRAM

Nacho Duato trained as a dancer at the Rambert School in London, the Mudra School of Maurice Béjart in Brussels and at the American Dance Center of Alvin Ailey in New York.

His professional career as a dancer began in 1980 with the prestigious Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, but it was not until a year later, after joining the Nederlands Dans Theater and under the guidance of its director Jirí Kylián, when Duato acquired true relevance in the world of dance. It was in NDT where he created his first choreography, Jardí tancat, (1983, music by Maria del Mar Bonet), with which he won the First Prize at the International Competition of Köln (Internationaler Choreographischer Wettbewerb, Köln). In 1988 he was appointed permanent choreographer of the NDT together with Hans van Manen and Kylián himself.

In 1995 he received the title of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an award given annually by the French Embassy in Spain.After being recognized internationally, Nacho Duato became Artistic Director of the National Dance Company of Spain. He was invited in 1990 to take up the position of artistic director by the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
The Spanish Government awarded him with the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 1998.

In following years, Nacho Duato won the Benois de la Danse, one of the most prestigious international awards for choreography, presented by the International Dance Association, for his creation Multiplicity. Forms of silence and emptiness in April 2000. In 2003 he won the Spanish National Dance Award in the category of Creation.

In 2010 he was awarded the Chilean Arts Critics Circle Award, and his choreography, Na Floresta, was nominated for the Golden Mask, the highest award given by the Russian circle of critics.

In 2010 after he celebrated his twentieth anniversary with the National Dance Company, he left the position of director in July of that same year. Nacho Duato has accomplished something nobody could before-CND, The National Company of Spain, was held during his period as one of the most prestigious and talented companies with an incredible international reputation. His work has become a part of cultural heritage.
From 2011-2014, Nacho Duato was holding the position of the Artistic Director at the Mikhailovsky Ballet Theater in Saint Petersburg. Throughout these years, he created several ballets for the company, such as Nunc Dimittis and Prelude, as well as full-length ballet productions of Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Nutcracker, Bayadere, Swanlake. He also revived his works from the CND era such as Without Words, Duende, Multiplicity: Forms of Silence and Emptiness, and White Darkness.
In 2014 Nacho Duato became the Artistic Director of the Staatsballett Berlin while remaining the Resident Choreographer at the Mikhailovsky Theater.

In 2019, Nacho Duato returns to the Mikhailovsky Theater as the Artistic Director of the Company.

His ballets and choreographies are part of the repertoire of the most prestigious international companies, such as the aforementioned Cullberg Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater, but also of the American Ballet Theatre, Les Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, Staatsoper Berlin, the Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Stuttgart Ballet, Scala di Milano, Hamburg Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, the Finnish Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet or English Royal Ballet.