Igor Yebra
Encyclopedia
Early life
Igor Yebra was born in Bilbao, Spain, and was encouraged to start dancing by his parents, two music and dance enthusiasts who named him Igor in honour of the title character in Borodin'sAlexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
opera
Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
.
Surrounded by ballet and music during his childhood, primarily due to his parents' dance school, Igor never considered becoming a professional dancer and, just like other Spanish children, he dreamed of being a football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
player. It was only after his parents took him to see Aram Khachaturyan's ballet Spartacus
Spartacus (ballet)
Spartacus, or Spartak, is a ballet by Aram Khachaturian . The work follows the exploits of Spartacus, the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans known as the Third Servile War, although the ballet's storyline takes considerable liberties with the historical record. Khachaturian composed...
, starring the Bolshoi's principal Vladimir Vasiliev
Vladimir Vasiliev (ballet dancer)
Vladimir Viktorovich Vasiliev , a Russian ballet dancer, was principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet, and was best known for his role of Spartacus and his powerful leaps and turns.-Biography:Born in Moscow in 1940, the son of a truck driver, Vasiliev graduated from the Moscow Ballet School in 1958...
, that he became aware of the masculinity that ballet could have, and started attending classes locally. He then moved to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
where he entered Victor Ullate
Víctor Ullate
Víctor Ullate is a dancer, choreographer and ballet director.Ullate trained with María de Avila and Rosella Hightower. He started his professional dancing life wihth Antonio Ruiz Soler's company in 1962 before joining Maurice Béjart's Ballet as a principal three years later...
's dance school and started formal training at the considerably late age of 13.
Career
Igor has trained with a multitude of Spanish teachers including Karemia Moreno, Lázaro Carreño, Pino Alosa and Ángela Santos. He started dancing professionally with Ullate's company, Ballet de la Comunidad de Madrid while still a student in Madrid. He graduated with honours from the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza.Igor remained with the company for six years, eventually becoming a principal. During this time he danced various contemporary and neo-classical ballets, including pieces from choreographers Van Manen
Hans van Manen
Hans van Manen is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer.He is a son of a German housemaid. He studied under Sonia Gaskell, Françoise Adret and Nora Kiss. Van Manen wrote many ballets. He worked for the Dutch National Ballet from 1973 to 1985. He was awarded the Erasmus Prize in...
, Rudi van Dantzing, Jan Linkens, Nils Christie
Nils Christie
Nils Christie is a Norwegian sociologist and criminologist. He is a professor of criminology at the University of Oslo since 1966. Among his books is Pinens begrensning from 1981, which has been translated into eleven languages. He has received an honorary degree at the University of Copenhagen...
, Amodio
Amedeo Amodio
-Early career:Born in Milan in 1940, Amodio trained at the ballet school of the Teatro alla Scala, whose ranks he joined immediately. While there, he performed in productions by Léonide Massine , George Balanchine , and Petit -Early career:Born in Milan in 1940, Amodio trained at the ballet school...
, Balanchine, Micha Van Hoecke y and Ullate
Víctor Ullate
Víctor Ullate is a dancer, choreographer and ballet director.Ullate trained with María de Avila and Rosella Hightower. He started his professional dancing life wihth Antonio Ruiz Soler's company in 1962 before joining Maurice Béjart's Ballet as a principal three years later...
himself.
Yebra started his career as a freelance dancer at the end of 1996 and joined Australian Ballet as a guest, despite receiving offers from recognized companies like the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
, Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón, Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the four leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet...
and American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
.
He is mostly recognized as a danseur noble
Danseur noble
A danseur noble traditionally was a male ballet dancer who projected great nobility of character. Over the last century the term has been used to define a male principal dancer who performs at the highest theatrical level combing grace with ability...
and it is from the time he left Ullate's
Víctor Ullate
Víctor Ullate is a dancer, choreographer and ballet director.Ullate trained with María de Avila and Rosella Hightower. He started his professional dancing life wihth Antonio Ruiz Soler's company in 1962 before joining Maurice Béjart's Ballet as a principal three years later...
company that he managed to expand his classical and romantic repertoire to include various choreographed versions of Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
, Don Quixote
Don Quixote (ballet)
Don Quixote is a ballet originally staged in four acts and eight scenes, based on an episode taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and was first presented by the Ballet of the...
, La Sylphide
La Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, Coppélia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
, Les Sylphides
Les Sylphides
Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op. 46...
, The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, The Sleeping Beauty and variations from Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of...
and La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
. His contemporary repertoire is an array of neoclassical-type ballets, including George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
's Theme and Variations
Theme and Variations (ballet)
Theme and Variations is a ballet by George Balanchine to the final movement of Tschaikovsky's Suite No. 3 for Orchestra in G major, Op. 55 . The premiere took place November 26, 1947, with Ballet Theatre at City Center of Music and Drama. Theme and Variations was conceived specially for Alicia...
, Concerto Barroco, Allegro Brillante and Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
The Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to an excerpt from Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act III, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky...
.
He has appeared as a guest artist with Aterballetto, Ballet à l'opera de Nice, Ballet Nacional de Cuba
Ballet Nacional de Cuba
The Cuban National Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Great Theatre of Havana in Havana, Cuba. Founded by the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Alonso in 1948, it has become recognised as one of the world's leading ballet companies...
, Ballet Nacional de Venezuela, Kremlin Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
, the Kirov
Mariinsky Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies...
, Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the four leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet...
, Rome Opera Ballet
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
, Australian Ballet, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre
Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre
200px|thumb|Theatre buildingLithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre is an opera house and ballet theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was built in 1974.-Opera:...
and the Arena di Verona Ballet and is a guest principal with the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux
Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux
Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, is a Theatre in Bordeaux, France, first inaugurated on 17 April 1780. It was in this theatre that the ballet La Fille Mal Gardée premiered in 1789, and where a young Marius Petipa staged some of his first ballets....
.
As from 2001 he is a permanent guest and principal dancer with the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux
Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux
Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, is a Theatre in Bordeaux, France, first inaugurated on 17 April 1780. It was in this theatre that the ballet La Fille Mal Gardée premiered in 1789, and where a young Marius Petipa staged some of his first ballets....
and the Rome Opera Theatre
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
Ballet.
January 2004 marked his debut at the Kremlin Theatre
State Kremlin Palace
The State Kremlin Palace , formerly and unofficially still better known as the Kremlin Palace of Congresses , is a large modern building inside the Moscow Kremlin....
dancing the title role in Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's ballet Ivan the Terrible
Ivan the Terrible (Prokofiev)
Ivan the Terrible is music by Sergei Prokofiev originally composed for the Sergei Eisenstein film about the sixteenth-century ruler. Prokofiev composed music to Part 1 in 1942-44, and to Part 2 in 1945; the score is cataloged as Op. 116...
, and making him the first non-Russian to dance such role.
He has created roles in various pieces including Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, La Traviatta, Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, The Dying Swan
The Dying Swan
The Dying Swan is a ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine in 1905 to Camille Saint-Saëns's cello solo Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des Animaux as a pièce d'occasion for the ballerina Anna Pavlova. The short ballet follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St....
and Don José.
Personal life
He married BasqueBasque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
television presenter Anne Igartiburu
Anne Igartiburu
Anne Igartiburu Verdes is a Spanish Basque television presenter and actress.She studied marketing and started working in the local television of Mondragón. She worked later in Euskal Telebista, Telecinco and TVE. She was married to the ballet dancer Igor Yebra, and she has a daughter.- External...
in September 2004, from who he separated soon after, in December 2005.
Igor realised one of his biggest dreams in 2006 when he opened a dance school in his hometown of Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
.
He's still a big football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
fan and supporter of his local team "Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Club, also known as Athletic Bilbao, is an association football club from Bilbao in Biscay, Spain. The club has played in the Primera División of La Liga since its start in 1928. They have won La Liga on eight occasions...
".
Awards
- The Jury's Special Contemporary Prize at the Eurovision Grand Prix for Young Dancers, Paris, 1989Eurovision Young Dancers Competition 1989The third Eurovision Young Dancers Competition was held in Paris, France on June 28, 1989.-Winners and Remaining Finalists:...
.
- Best Dancer of the Year Award by "DANZA & DANZA Magazine", Italy, 1996.
- Second Male Prize at The II International "Maya PlisetskayaMaya PlisetskayaMaya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya , born is a Russian ballet dancer, frequently cited as one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Maya danced during the Soviet era at the same time as the great Galina Ulanova, and took over from her as prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi in 1960...
" Ballet Competition, 1996.
- Leonidas Massine Award, Italy, 2003.