José Carlos Martinez
(choreographer)
EDUCATION AND WORK
José Carlos Martinez is the Artustic Director of Ballet of the Opéra de Paris since autumn 2022, former Director of the National Dance Company of Spain (2011–2019), former Principal Dancer of Paris Opera Ballet (1988–2011) and a freelance teacher and choreographer. José began his ballet studies in Cartagena with Pilar Molina. Between 1984 and 1987 he studied at the Center de Danse international Rosella Hightower. In that last year he won the Prix de Lausanne and entered the Paris Opera Ballet School. In 1988, he was personally chosen by Rudolf Nureyev to be part of the Corps de Ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet. In 1990 he was promoted as Soloist and First Dancer two years later. In 1997 he was named “Danseur Etoile” of the Paris Opera Ballet, the highest category in the hierarchy of the Ballet.
José has also danced in other companies as a guest artist such as the National Ballet of China, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the English National Ballet, the Scala Ballet in Milan, the Florence Ballet, the Opera de Roma, the Het National Ballet, the Berlin Staatsoper, the Nice Opera Ballet, the Tokyo Ballet, the Bordeaux Ballet, the Cuban National Ballet, Mariinsky Theatre among others.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In 1992 he won the Gold Medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition, being the first and only Spaniard to achieve this distinction.
Throughout his career he received important awards:
• 1991 Prix de l‘AROP (Audience Award)
• 1992 Prix Carpeaux (Young promise of the year)
• 1992 Italian Critics Award (Dance & Dance) for Best Couple of the Year, together with Agnés Letestu
• 1992 Prix Léonide Massine-Positano, for his interpretation of the “Three-Cornered Hat”
• 1999 National Dance Award of Spain
• 2000 Gold Medal of the city of Cartagena
• 2005 Elegance et Talent France/China Award and Performing Arts Award for the best dancer (Valencia)
• 2009 Prix Benois de la Danse Award for “Les Enfants du Paradis”
• 2011 Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters awarded by the French Ministry of Culture
• 2011 The Japanese magazine “Shinshokan Dance Magazine” recognises him as one of the best dancers in the world
REPERTOIRE
Prince Siegfried (Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”)
Prince Désiré (Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty”)
Prince (Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”)
Albrecht (Adam’s “Giselle”)
Basilio (Minkus’ “Don Quixote”)
Solor (Minkus’ “La Bayadère”)
Jeanne de Brienne (Glazunov’s “Raymonda”)
James (Bournonville’s “La Sylphide”)
Romeo (Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet”)
Roles in neoclassical and modern ballets:
Ashton’s “Rhapsody”, “Scenes de Ballet”
Balanchine’s “Le Palais de cristal”, “Sylvia”, “Theme and Variations”, “The Four Temperaments”, “Agon”, “Diamonds”, “Capriccio”, “Tchaïkovski – pas de deux”
MacMillan’s “The Story of Manon”, “The Song of the Earth”
Graham’s “Temptations of the Moon”
Grigorovich’s “Ivan the Terrible”
Tudor’s “Jardin aux lilas”
Lifar’s “Suite en Blanc”
Lander’s “Etudes”
Taylor’s “Aureole”
Béjart’s “Bolero”, “XI Sinfonia”, “Webern Opus 5”, “Le Concours”
Neumeier’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Vaslav”, “Magnificat”, “The Lady of the Camellias”
Ek’s “Giselle”, “Appartement”, “A sort of…”
Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated”, “Woundwork 1”
Kylian’s “Stepping Stones”
Bauch’s “Orfeo and Euridice”
Cranko’s “Onegin”
Petit’s “Carmen”, “Our Lady of Paris”
Ballets created on him:
“Passacaille” by Roland Petit (1994)
“Coppélia” by Patrice Bart (1996)
“Sylvia” by John Neumeier (1997)
“Pas/Parts” by William Forsythe (1999)
“Le Rire de la Lyre” by José Montalvo (1999)
“Appartement” by Mats Ek (2000)
“Nosferatu” by Jean Claude Gallotta (2001)
“Shéhérazade” by Blanca Li (2001)
Choreography:
“My Favorite” (2002)
“Delibes-Suite” (2003)
“Scaramouche” (for the students of the Paris Opera school) and “Paréntesis 1” (2005)
“Soli-Ter“ and “My Favourite” (2006)
“El olor de la Ausencia“ (2007)
“Les Enfants du Paradis“ (full length ballet for the Paris Opera Ballet, 2008)
“Ouverture en deux mouvements” (2009)
“Marco Polo, the Last Mission” for the Shanghai Ballet (2010)
“Sonatas” for the National Dance Company of Spain (2012)
“Résonance” for the Boston Ballet (2014)
“Don Quixote” for the Compañia nacional de Danza (2015) and “Nutcracker” (2018)
“Le Corsaire” for the Rome Opera Ballet (2020)
Two dance pieces for the Viennese New Year’s Concert (2020, 2021)