Ray Barra

Ray Barra (born 3 January 1930) is an American former ballet dancer, a ballet master and ballet director. He was the third director of the Spanish National Dance Company.

He was born Raymond Martin Barallobre in San Francisco on 3 January 1930[1] and studied at ballet at the School of Ballet in San Francisco and at the American Ballet Theatre School. In 1949 he became a member of the San Francisco Opera Ballet. From 1953 to 1959 he danced with American Ballet Theatre. He was a principal dancer of the Stuttgart Ballet from 1959. He created roles in ballets by John Cranko, the title role in Romeo and Juliet with Marcia Haydée as Julia (1962), the Prince in both Swan Lake (1963) and Firebird (1964), and the title role in Onegin (1965). He created major roles in ballets by Kenneth MacMillan, Pepe in Las Hermanas.[2] (1963) and Song of the Earth (1965).[1]

In 1966 Barra retired from the stage due to an injury. He worked as ballet master, from 1966 with the Berlin Opera Ballet, from 1970 with the ballet of the Frankfurt Opera, and from 1973 with the Hamburg Ballet. In the late 1980s he was associate director and guest choreographer of the Ballet Nacional de España Clásico in Madrid. He was ballet director in Berlin from 1994 to 1996. Barra has directed classical ballets for the Bavarian State Ballet.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Ray Barra". ODD. OUP. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  2. Brown, Mark (16 November 2012). "Stage set for Las Hermanas' Covent Garden debut". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 October 2014.

External links