PATRICK ARMAND
Photo: Patrick Baldwin
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SAN FRANCISCO BALLET SCHOOL
was born in Marseille, France, Armand studied with Rudy Bryans, his mother Colette Armand, and at the Ecole de Danse de Marseille. He won The Prix de Lausanne in 1980 and continued his studies at the School of American Ballet and at The Centre de Danse International in Cannes. He joined the Ballet Theatre Français in 1981 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1983. Armand was nominated the same year for a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance of Béjart's Song of a Wayfarer with Rudolf Nureyev. In 1984 he was invited by Peter Schaufuss to join the London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), and in 1990 he joined the Boston Ballet under the direction of Bruce Marks. Armand's repertoire includes many leading roles in works by Ashton, Balanchine, Cranko, MacMillan, Petit, Tetley, and van Manen. In addition, he has had work created on him by Bruce, Tharp, and Wheeldon, among others. As a guest artist, Armand performed with the Australian Ballet, the Bayerische Staatsballet, the Deutsche Oper Ballet (Berlin), the Kirov Ballet, and the Kobayashi Ballet. Since 2002, he has been the director of the Studio Ballet Colette Armand in Marseille. He has also been a frequent guest teacher for schools and companies in Florence, London, Naples, and Tokyo. In 2003, Armand co-produced Act 3 of Raymonda for the Kobayashi Ballet at Tokyo's New National Theater. His most recent project was a production of Don Quixote for the National Theater in Zagreb, which premiered in June 2010. Armand served as a jury member of the Prix de Lausanne, both in 1998 and 2009, and returned as a teacher and coach for the 2010 competition. In 2006, he was appointed teacher and ballet master of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.