Gonzalo Garcia is a Spanish American ballet dancer. He joined the

San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Franc ...

in 1998, and was promoted to principal in 2002, at age 22. In 2007, he left the company and joined the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

. He retired from performing in 2022 and remains in the company as a repertory director.

Early life

Garcia was born in

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, and trained at Maria de Avila's school. In 1995, he attended a summer intensive at the San Francisco Ballet School, where de Avila's daughter Lola taught. Later that year, he won the

Prix de Lausanne The Prix de Lausanne is an international dance competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland. The competition is for young dancers seeking to pursue a professional career in classical ballet, and many former prize winners of the competition a ...

at the age of 15, making him the youngest dancer to receive the award. After that, he returned to the San Francisco Ballet School as a full time student. At age 17, he was offered a contract to join the

by the artistic director, Helgi Tómasson, though Garcia decided to study for one more year.

Career

Garcia joined the San Francisco Ballet's corps de ballet in 1998, at age 18. In 2000, he became a soloist, and won the

Princess Grace Award The Princess Grace Foundation – USA is a charity organization named after Princess Grace of Monaco, which supports emerging performers in theater, dance, and film in the form of awards, grants, scholarships, and fellowships. The Foundation hol ...

. In 2002, he was promoted to principal dancer at age 22, one of the youngest dancers in the company to reach this rank. He danced leading roles such as Albrecht in ''

Giselle ''Giselle'' (; ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (, ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet (" ballet-pantomime") in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, ...

'' and Romeo in ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

'', and originated the role of Nutcracker Prince in Tómasson's version of ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaiko ...

''. In 2004, he made a guest appearance at the

and danced ''

Ballo della Regina ''Ballo della Regina'' is a one-act neoclassical ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to music by Giuseppe Verdi. It is a set of variations set to ballet music (titled ''La Peregrina'') that Verdi cut from Act 3 of the original 1867 version o ...

'', as a part of

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

's centennial. In May 2007, Garcia left the San Francisco Ballet after a performance of ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

''. Garcia joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer in October 2007. His repertoire there includes works by Balanchine and

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

, and originated roles in works by choreographers such as

Justin Peck Justin Peck (born September 8, 1987) is an American choreographer, director, and dancer associated with New York City Ballet, of which he was appointed Resident Choreographer in July 2014, being the second person in the history of the instituti ...

and

Alexei Ratmansky Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky (russian: Алексей Осипович Ратманский, born August 27, 1968) is a Russian-American choreographer and former ballet dancer. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of the Bolshoi Ballet. He left R ...

. He was coached by

Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; lv, Mihails Barišņikovs; born January 28, 1948) is a Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Latvian-born R ...

for Robbins' ''

Opus 19/The Dreamer ''Opus 19/The Dreamer'' is a ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1. The ballet premiered on June 14, 1979 at the New York State Theater, danced by the New York City Ballet. Production ''Opus 19/Th ...

''. He had performed with

Christopher Wheeldon Christopher Peter Wheeldon OBE (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet. Life and career Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dan ...

's company,

Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company Morphoses is a ballet company, co-founded in 2007 by Christopher Wheeldon and Lourdes Lopez. Morphoses is a guest resident company at the New York City Center and at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. It was known as Morphoses/The Wheeldon Compa ...

, and appeared in video advertisements of Tiffany & Co. and iPhone. Garcia retired from performing in February 2022. He remains in the New York City Ballet as a repertory director.

Personal life

Garcia is a naturalized American citizen. In August 2020, Garcia married Ezra Hurwitz, a dancer-turned filmmaker. They live in

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

, Manhattan

Selected repertoire

Garcia's repertoire with the San Francisco Ballet and New York City Ballet includes:

Awards and honors

*1995:

- gold medal *2000:

References

External links

New York City Ballet profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Gonzalo Spanish male ballet dancers New York City Ballet principal dancers San Francisco Ballet principal dancers Morphoses dancers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Zaragoza Prix de Lausanne winners Princess Grace Awards winners 21st-century ballet dancers 21st-century Spanish dancers Spanish LGBT dancers Spanish emigrants to the United States People with acquired American citizenship