Artistic Director Daniel Catanach
Daniel Catanach was born into a large Hispanic family and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He served as the Artistic Director for the Urban Ballet Theater for 10 years creating over thirty original ballets including the critically acclaimed "Nutcracker in the Lower" which celebrated a ten-year run-in New York's Lower East Side. Early on in his career he was appointed to be the Rehearsal Director for the Kansas City Ballet where his duties included assisting Alvin Ailey on "The River." Mr. Catanach was also the Ballet Master for the Armitage Ballet touring North America, South America, and Europe for three years.
He has been a guest choreographer and master teacher at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Dance Theatre of Harlem, STEPS on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center, the Dance Teacher Summit, New York City Dance Alliance, Male Dancer Conference and Manhattan Youth Ballet. Nationally Mr. Catanach has been invited to create work and conduct masterclasses for the Kansas City Ballet, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Armitage Gone Dance, National Dance Institute, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute and NORD/NOBA Center for Dance in New Orleans. Internationally Mr. Catanach has taught in France, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica. While in Paris he was commissioned by CBS Records France to work with Marc Cerrone and create the touring show based on the movie “Dancing Machine,” which starred Patrick Dupond.
He was first introduced to dance at New Mexico State University. He went on to study at California State University Chico where he studied with Harold Lang and was awarded scholarships to the Lichine Ballet Academy in Beverly Hills, School of American Ballet, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City. He was a principal dancer with the KansasCity Ballet, and the Armitage Ballet, among others. He also appeared in Music Video and productions working with Madonna, the Carpenters, the Divinyls and Sheila E.as well as projects with Annie Liebovitz for Vogue and Vanity Fair.
Most recently Mr. Catanach appeared on Sesame Street as Mr. Daniel in The Not Too Late Show with Elmo. Mr. Catanach is currently working on a Documentary entitled “Further Forward Before Time,” which he serves as the executive producer. He is also the writer, director and staring in the upcoming television series, “And Then There’s the Truth.”