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Great Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato to head Mikhailovsky Ballet
The world-famous Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato has agreed to lead the ballet company of St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Theater.
    His contract with Spain’s Compania Nacional de Danza, where he has been artistic director for the past twenty years, expires on July 31. On January 1, 2011, Duato will take up his new post in St. Petersburg. He announced the decision at a Moscow press conference on July 28.

Nacho Duato was born on January 8, 1957, in Valencia. In 1980, Duato signed his first professional contract with the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, and a year later Jirí Kylián brought him to Holland’s Nederlands Dans Theater, where he became a resident choreographer in 1988. His works have been featured in the repertoires of major dance companies across the globe, including the Paris Opera Ballet, the American Ballet Theater, the Deutsche Oper Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Australian Ballet, and the Finnish Opera Ballet.


Photo: Vladimir Vyatkin

Vladimir Kekhman, the Mikhailovsky Theater’s General Director: ‘The invitation of this internationally acclaimed choreographer, whose talent and energy are at their peak now, is incredibly important not just to the Mikhailovsky Theater, but to the Russian ballet community as a whole. Today the number of masters in the world that are capable of thinking in choreographic images and that have created their own unique dance language can be counted on one hand. The opportunity to work under one such master is a privilege as well as a responsibility: our company will adopt the style, the language and choreographic ideas of this great artist, whose creative endeavors are shaping the future of ballet. I hope Duato’s work in Russia also inspires young Russian choreographers. It’s no secret that we don’t really have any big names in Russia today.’

The contract has no expiration date. The choreographer’s plans include a contemporary dance festival in the spring of 2011, to be produced by Sergei Danilyan.