© Sergio de Luz

Director of the Compañía Nacional de Danza

He began his ballet studies at Víctor Ullate’s school. In 1992 he joined the Ullate company where he stayed for three years and in 1995 he was invited by Fernando Bujones to dance with the Mediterranean Ballet.

In September 1996, the Pennsylvania Ballet offered him to join the company as a soloist. With this company he played leading roles in the classics Diana et Actaeon, Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty, as well as pieces by Lynne Taylor-Corbette, Hans van Manen, Matthew Neenan and George Balanchine.

In December 1997, he joined the corps de ballet of the American Ballet Theater in New York, being named soloist a year later. In his seven years at the ABT he played important leading roles such as The Bronze Idol and Solor in La Bayadère (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa), First Sailor in Fancy Free (Jerome Robbins), Birbanto in Le Corsaire (A. M. Holmes), Turning boy in Études (H. Lander), Benno in Swan Lake (Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov), Clear (Stanton Welch), Black Tuesday (Paul Taylor), Symphonieta, Stepping Stones (J. Kylián) Known by heart (Twayla Tharp), or Symphony in C, Theme and Variations (George Balanchine).

In 2003 he joined the New York City Ballet as a solo dancer and was appointed principal dancer two years later in 2005. With the NYCB he danced at the Lincoln Center in New York and in the most important theaters in the world. He also performed great roles from the classical and neoclassical repertoire, and especially works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins. In addition, Luz has also performed works by current choreographers such as Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor, Alexei Ratmansky and Justin Peck.

Joaquín De Luz has participated as an invited artist in several international companies such as the National Dance Company, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Stanivslaski Theater in Moscow, Ballet del Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires and the National Ballet of Cuba, among others.