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

Career

Nacho Duato studied at the Rambert School of London, Maurice Béjart's Rudra School in Brussels and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. He started his dancing career in Stockholm's Cullberg Ballet and later joined Nederlands Dans Theater, 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. 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. Duato returned to his previous post in Saint Petersburg as artistic director of the Mikhailovsky ballet company.

Prizes and awards