Nacho Duato

Nacho Duato
Born	(1957-01-08) 8 January 1957 (age 67) Valencia, Spain
Known for	Choreographer
Relatives	Ana Duato (cousin) Miguel Bernardeau (cousin)

Juan Ignacio Duato Barcia, also known as Nacho Duato (born 8 January 1957) is a Spanish modern ballet dancer and choreographer.^[1] Since 2014, Duato has been artistic director of the Berlin State Ballet.^[2] He is openly gay.^[3]

Career

Nacho Duato studied at the Rambert School of London,^[4] Maurice Béjart's Rudra School in Brussels and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

He started his dancing career in Stockholm's Cullberg Ballet^[5] and later joined Nederlands Dans Theater,^[6] under artistic director Jiří Kylián; he remained with the company for ten years. In 1983, he choreographed Jardí tancat (Catalan: 'Shut garden') to music composed by Maria del Mar Bonet. The company was awarded the first prize in the Internationaler Choreographischer Wettbewerb, Köln. In 1988, Duato was appointed NDT resident choreographer together with Hans van Manen and Jiří Kylián.

From 1990 to 2011, Nacho Duato was the artistic director at Compania Nacional de Danza. Between 2011 and 2014, he led the ballet company of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in Russia.^[7] In 2014, Nacho Duato became general and artistic director at the Berlin State Ballet. In 2016, Michael Mueller, Mayor of Berlin, announced that the city would not extend Duato's contract with the company when it expired in 2019. Sasha Waltz and Johannes Ohman succeeded him as joint artistic directors of the Berlin State Ballet.^[8] Duato returned to his previous post in Saint Petersburg as artistic director of the Mikhailovsky ballet company.^[9]

Prizes and awards

• 1983: Internationaler Choreographischer Wettbewerb, Köln, First prize for Jardí tancat.
• 1987: VSCD Gouden Dansprijs for his dancing skilfulness
• 1995: The grade of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres which is awarded annually by the French Embassy in Spain.
• 1998: Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts awarded by the Spanish Council.
• 2000: Prix Benois de la Danse awarded by 'the 'International Dance Association at the Stuttgart Opera, for his choreography Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness (Multiplicidad, formas de silencio y vacío).^[10]
• 2003: Spanish National Dance Award (Premio Nacional de Danza) for choreography^[11]

References

1. Kumin, Laura (1998). "Duato, Nacho". In Cohen, Selma Jeanne (ed.). International Encyclopedia of Dance. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195173697.
2. "Nacho Duato". staatsballett-berlin.de. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
3. Nacho Duato y la sorprendente pregunta de su madre al confesarle que era homosexual (in Spanish)
4. "Rada News". Archived from the original on 10 November 2006.
5. Cullberg Archived 17 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine
6. "Nederlands Dans Theater".
7. "Nacho Duato – Mikhailovsky Theatre St Petersburg". mikhailovsky.ru. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
8. Sulcas, Roslyn (9 September 2016). "2 New Faces for Staatsballett Berlin, When Nacho Duato Leaves in 2019". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
9. "Nacho Duato returns to Mikhailovsky Theatre" (in Russian). Московский комсомолец. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
10. "Nacho Duato. Elenco". Compañia Nacional de Danza. Archived from the original on 23 May 2006. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
11. "Nacho Duato obtiene el Premio Nacional de Danza por su gran proyección internacional". Compañia Nacional de Danza (in Spanish). Madrid. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 8 December 2004. Retrieved 17 January 2007.

External links

• Página personal de Nacho Duato Archived 18 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
• Archive film of Nacho Duato's Gnawa performed in 2010 at Jacob's Pillow
• Archive film of Nacho Duato's Arenal performed in 2004 at Jacob's Pillow
• Archive film of David Hallberg performing in Nacho Duato's Kaburias in 2012 at Jacob’s Pillow
• Nacho Duato's page at Staatsballett Berlin in German(archived version from 2014)