Juanjo Arques

I was trained as a dancer at the Conservatorio de Danza in my hometown Murcia, before moving to Madrid to join the Victor Ullate Ballet. Having reached soloist level in Spain, I moved to London with the English National Ballet, and finally settling in Amsterdam at the Dutch National Ballet as a second soloist. My extensive career enabled me to work closely with such choreographers as Van Manen, Van Dantzig, Forsythe, Makarova, Pastor, Wheeldon, Morris, Deane, Hampson, Corder, Ratmansky, and Dawson; as well as appearing in the works of Balanchine, MacMillan, Cranko, Ashton and Nureyev.

Alongside my dancing career, I discover how much I enjoyed choreographing on other dancers . Passing on the knowledge that I have acquired over the years was a great feeling. Whenever an opportunity came for me to choreograph on a project I saw that I had a feeling for this sort of work. Ted Brandsen, artistic director of Dutch National Ballet, has been instrumental in allowing me to develop as a choreographer. His company have performed many of my works highlighting Minos (2010) and Consequence (2012), with a third commission confirmed for 2014. Elsewhere my work has been acquired by the Slovenia National Ballet > Miniatures (2011), and the Compañía Nacional de Danza > Unsound (2012).

In continuing my education as a dance-maker I had entered choreographic competitions in both Hannover and Copenhagen (2012), enabling me to keep up with current practices and future developments within the dance genre.