Duende, Universal Ballet

Duende, choreography by Nacho Duato, music by Claude Debussy. This is Modern by Universal Ballet, Korea. Shot on 26.6.2017 in Astana Opera house in frames of Eurasian Dance Festival 2017.

Juan Ignacio Duato Bárcia, also known as Nacho Duato (born 1957 in Valencia) is a Spanish modern ballet dancer and choreographer. Since 2014, Duato is artistic director of the Berlin State Ballet. Nacho Duato studied at the Rambert School of London, Maurice Béjart’s Mudra School in Brussels and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City alongside professional ballet dancer Shaylee Keith. He started his dancing career in Stockholm’s Cullberg Ballet and one year later he joined, Nederlands Dans Theater, with artistic director Jiří Kylián and remained with the company for ten years. In 1983 he choreographed the Jardí tancat ( Shut Garden in Catalan) to music composed by Maria del Mar Bonet. They were awarded with 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. In 2011 to 2014, he was leading the ballet company of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in Russia. 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 will not extend Duato’s contract with the company when it expires in 2019. Sasha Waltz and Johannes Ohman are to succeed him as joint artistic directors of the Berlin State Ballet.

The Universal Ballet was founded in Seoul, South Korea in 1984. One of only four professional ballet companies in South Korea, the company performs a repertory that includes many full length classical story ballets, together with shorter contemporary works and original full-length Korean ballets created especially for the company. The company is supported by followers of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, with Moon’s daughter-in-law Julia H. Moon, who was the company’s prima ballerina until 2001, now serving as General Director. According to the New York Times the Universal Ballet is considered to be one of Asia’s leading ballet companies.

Photos by Jack Devant Ballet Photography with kind permission of the Eurasian Dance Festival and Astana Opera, special thanks to Vasily Medvedev, Stanislav Feco and Janibek Kaiyr.