Johan Inger is a renowned Swedish choreographer whose works have been performed by dance companies around the world. From 2003 to 2008 Inger served as artistic director of Sweden’s Cullberg Ballet, and from 2009 to 2015 he was associate choreographer with the Nederlands Dans Theater. From 1985 to 1990, Inger had a successful dancing career with the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm, the last year performing as a soloist. Fascinated by the works of Jiří Kylián, in 1990 he joined Nederlands Dans Theater, where Kylián was artistic director; he remained a high-profile dancer there until 2002. He received his dance training at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and the National Ballet School in Canada. Inger made his breakthrough as a choreographer in 1995 with the Nederlands Dans Theater’s Mellantid at the Holland Dance Festival. Mellantid earned him the Philip Morris Finest Selection Award 1996 in the Contemporary Dance category and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award in the Best New Dance Production category in 2001. Inger’s subsequent works for Nederlands Dans Theater include Dissolve in This, Tone Bone Kone, I New Then, Sunset Logic, B.R.I.S.A and One on One. For his ballets Dream Play and Walking Mad at Nederlands Dans Theater, he received the Lucas Hoving Production Award in October 2001. Walking Mad was later performed by the Cullberg Ballet and in 2005 received Italy’s Danza & Danza prize for best Italian production of the year. He won the 2013 Carina Ari medal in Stockholm for his worldwide promotion of Swedish art and dance; was awarded the 2016 Benois de la Danse and 2018 Venice TV Award for Carmen; and received the 2016 Danza & Danza prize for best Italian production of the year for Bliss. As an independent choreographer, Inger has created versions of more narrative ballets including Rite of Spring, Carmen, Peer Gynt and Petrushka. His most recent works include Petrushka for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Under A Day for the Lyon Opera Ballet, Birdland for Aterballetto, and Peer Gynt for Ballett Theater Basel. Among the companies where his works have been performed are Nederlands Dans Theater, Cullberg Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Royal Swedish Ballet, Compañía Nacional de Danza de España, Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.  

Alessandro Riga, lead principal dancer at the Compañía Nacional de Danza, has shared his passion for music with us since 2013. He has worked in different European companies, suchas as Germany’s Semperoper or the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in Italia, his homeland. His talent has thrust him onto some of the most prestigious theatre stages of Italy, where he has danced a wide repertoire, from the most widely known classical pieces to the most relevant contemporary choreographers. In 2013, he joined the CND as principal dancer and later rose to lead principal. Since then, we have witnessed his versatility and capacity to thrill us on stage.

Born in Tokyo, Japan. She studied from 1993 to 2000 at the Washington Contemporary Ballet under Kay Englert's directorship and took summer courses in the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet School. In 2000 she entered the San Francisco Ballet School and in 2002 transferred to the Tulsa Ballet Theatre, directed by Marcello Angelini. Two years later, in September, 2004, she joined the Compañía Nacional de Danza under the artistic direction of Nacho Duato. In 2012 she was promoted as CND Principal Dancer under the artistic direction of José Carlos Martínez. Since joining CND she has danced principal roles in the Jardín Infinito, Cobalto, Gnawa and Alone for a second, de Nacho Duato, Carmen (the role of Carmen), by Johan Inger, Romeo y Juliet (Juliet role), by Goyo Montero, Herman Schmerman, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated and Artifact II, by William Forsythe, Sleepless, by Jirí Kylián. She as also danced in other ballets by prestigious choreogaphers such as Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin or Tony Fabre among others. In November 2020 she is promoted to Lead Principal Dance under the direction of Joaquín De Luz.

He began his ballet studies at the school of Victor Ullate. In 1992 he joined Ullate’s company where he remained for three years. During his stay there, he performed choreographies by Ullate, Eduardo Lao, Nils Christie, Hans van Manen, Maurice Bejart, Rudy van Dancing, Misha van Hoeke and George Balanchine. In 1995 he was invited by Fernando Bujones to dance with the Ballet Mediterráneo. In September 1996, the Pennsylvania Ballet offered him to join the company as a soloist dancer. With this company he performed leading roles in the classics Diana and Actaeon, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, as well as pieces by Lynne Taylor-Corbette, Hans van Manen, Matthew Neenan and George Balanchine, Nutcraker, Tarantella and Who Cares, by the latter. In December 1997, he joined the corps de ballet of the American Ballet Theater in New York, being named soloist dancer a year later. In his seven years at the ABT he performed important leading roles such as The Bronze Idol and Solor in La Bayadère (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa), Red Cowboy in Bil and The Kid, Champion Roper in Rodeo (A. Demille), Blue boy in Le Patineurs (Ashton), First Sailor in Fancy Free (Jerome Robbins), Birbanto in Le Corsaire (A. M. Holmes), Turning boy in Etudes (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 (T. Tharp), Smile with my heart (Lar Lubobitch), Gong (Mark Morris), Sin and Tonic (James Kudelka), Spring and Fall (John Neumier) Gaite Parisienne (L. Massine) Yellow couple in Diversions of Angels (M. Graham), La Fille mal Gardee and Midsummernight’s Dream (Ashton), Variations for four (A. Dolin), Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 (Clark Tippet) and Symphony in C, Theme and Variations (George Balanchine).