Fernando Montaño
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Fernando Rodriguez Montaño (born 6 March 1985) is a Colombian ballet dancer, who is a soloist with the Royal Ballet, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. On November 19th 2015 he made his debut in a principal role when he performed 'the lover' in The Two Pigeons.
He is the first Colombian to dance with the company and joined them in 2006. He has performed in many different countries including Mexico, Russia, Japan, China, Spain, Italy and US, works regularly with the British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, has begun producing and choreographing his own shows and was described by BBC TV in 2013 as 'the Colombian Billy Elliot'.[1]
Contents
Early Life
Montaño was born in Buenaventura on the Pacific coast of Colombia into very poor area of the country but at the age of 14 won a scholarship to the National Ballet School of Cuba where he won several prizes at the International Ballet Contest in Havana, Cuba, and then joined the Cuban National Ballet. He also trained at La Scala and Teatro Nuovo di Torino, Italy where he was spotted by the Director of the English Ballet School, Jane Hucker and Niurka de Saa and invited to the UK to audition, following which he joined the Royal Ballet in 2006 where he was mentored by Carlos Acosta.
Career
In 2010 Montaño was promoted to First Artist and has been featured in increasingly higher profile roles. His repertory includes Colas (La Fille mal gardée), Jester (Cinderella), Bluebird (The Sleeping Beauty), Caterpillar (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), Benvolio and the balcony pas de deux (Romeo and Juliet), pas de six (Giselle), pas de trois (Fool’s Paradise) and roles in La Vivandière, Raymonda Act III and Chroma.
In the summer of 2014 he was promoted to Soloist and toured Russia, China and Taiwan with the Royal Ballet. In July he led a group of nine dancers from the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet to Colombia where they performed three shows with him at the Teatro Colon after he officially re-opened the National Opera House in Bogota in the company of President Santos.
During the 2015-16 season he appeared in Romeo and Juliet, Carmen, The Two Pigeons and The Nutcracker.
Narcissus
On February 9, 2014 Montaño produced the world premiere of Narcissus, at the Hippodrome. An evening of live ballet, opera, poetry and classical music concluded with the screening of the new short dance film by Italian director and choreographer Giorgio Madia and starring Montaño. It was filmed at Hotel Therme Vals in Switzerland and set to the music of Claude Debussy’s 1894 composition ‘Prelude to the afternoon of a Faun’.
Dame Vivienne Westwood designed the costumes and was guest of honour at the premiere. Composer Carl Davis was also in attendance to see Montaño premiere his newly choreographed dance to Davis's The Lady of the Camellias which he performed with his colleague from the Royal Ballet, Yasmine Naghdi.
Charity
Fernando is the Patron of 'Children Change Colombia', formally known as 'Children of the Andes'.
In May 2013 he produced and starred in a gala event in the Matcham Room Theatre at the Hippodrome in London which raised £28,000 for the charity Children of the Andes. He repeated the event in June 2014 and more than £15,000 was raised for the charity. As well as hosting a wide range of Latin America performers he performed two specially created rock-ballet duets with Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera
In November 2013 He Intared In Just Dance, In Paris ,France
On October 21, 2014 he produced 'Fernando Montano's Classical Cabaret' at the Hippodrome Theatre in London where he brought together rising stars from the worlds of dance, opera and classical music including mezzo soprano Justina Gringyte.
On October 29, 2014, at the invitation of President Juan Santos, he made a brief visit to Colombia where he performed 'The Dying Swan' at the Presidential Palace for the President, HRH Prince Charles and HRH Duchess of Cornwall during their State Dinner.
In September 2015 he directed and choreographed 'Fernando Montano and Friends' at the Britten Theatre in London, to raise funds for 'Children Change Colombia' and 'Playing For Change Foundation'. Performers included Elena Gurjidze and Dorothea Herbert and costumes were provided by Dame Vivienne Westwood, Edward Lidster and Elizabeth Emanuel.
In 2015 he became an ambassador of The SATUC Cup, a new charitable global football competition for U16 orphans, refugees and disadvantaged children.
Fernando is an ambassador for Colin Jackson's prostate cancer charity, Go Dad Run.
Awards
In 2009 he received a Citation of Honor (New York) in recognition of his outstanding work in the arts
In both 2013 and 2014 he was voted Personality of the Year at the prestigious LUKAS Awards.
In 2014 he was named one of the top 100 most notable Colombians and was invited by the country's President Santos to Bogota to receive the award.
In October 2015 the Colombian/Puerto Rican feature film 'Fragmentos de Amor' will be released. Directed by Fernando Vallejo it sees the screen debut of Fernando Montaño in a small role as a Salsa Dancer.
On November 19 2015 he made his debut in a Principal role with the Royal Ballet during their performance of Frederick Ashton's 'The Two Pigeons'
In December 2015 he read the BBC Radio 4 Charity Appeal on behalf of Children Change Colombia.
Between January and March 2016 he will be a judge on RCN's new series of 'Dancing with the Stars' whilst on a sabbatical from the Royal Ballet in order to spend time with his family in Colombia.
Filmography
- 2014 Narcissus
- 2015 Fragmentos de Amor
