Gustavo Ramirez Sansano. Photo by Cheryl Mann.
Luna Negra Dance Theater has announced the long-awaited appointment of founder Eduardo Vilaro’s successor. Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, whom Vilaro invited to create on the company beginning in 2001, is a Spanish-born dancer and choreographer whose international career began at Nederlands Dans Theater II under Gerald Tibbs and Jiří Kylián and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago under Jim Vincent. His choreographic career has been prolific and acclaimed, garnering him top awards at Barcelona’s Ricardo Moragas Barcelona Competition, Hamburg’s Dom Perignon Choreographic Competition and Las Artes Escénicas de la Comunidad Valenciana 2. Companies on which he’s created include Compañía Nacional de Danza, Hamburg Ballett, BalletMet, Budapest Dance Theatre, NDT II and Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, among many others in the U.S. and Europe. For the last four years he has served as the Artistic Director of his own company in Valencia, TITOYAYA Dance Project.
It’s a solid and exciting choice for the company, and very good news for Chicago and Luna Negra’s rapidly-expanding list of tour venues. His repertoire and new work are a great fit for LNDT’s unique roster of talented dancers; he’ll take up the post formally in June. Sansano says, “I’m eager to begin.”
