About this Artist

HECTOR ZARASPE, a native of Argentina, is internationally known as a dance choreographer, ballet master, and artistic director. After eleven years of dancing and teaching in Spain, Zaraspe first toured the USA in 1964 with Antonio Ballet de Madrid; in 1965, he was introduced to Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn and become the couple's private teacher.

He was the coach and ballet master for Nureyev, Fonteyn, and Carla Fracci in the movie I am a Dancer. He also choreographed pieces for John Paul Jones (starring Bette Davis and Robert Stack), Spartacus (with Kirk Douglas), and 55 Days in Peking (starring Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner).

An invited teacher by such companies as Les Grandes Ballets Canadiens, National Ballet of Holland, Congreso Internacional de Ballet in Cologne, Germany and Cape Town, South Africa, and the New York Metropolitan Opera, Zaraspe has also instructed at Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Hamburg Opera House, Ballet Internacional de Caracas, Ballet Theater Français, and Ballet Grand Theater (Geneva).

He has received numerous honors and grants, including three awards from the Fulbright Commission, a grant from UNESCO where he and Fonteyn founded the first ballet company in Colombia, and the Konex prize from Argentina.

He presided over many competitions such as "Danza-NiZo" for UNICEF, and directed and conducted dance seminars and judged competitions in Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela, among other countries.

He is the choreographer and director of Tango Passion, which toured in Europe and North America during the last ten years. He created Fundación Zaraspe in 1993 and it has found success in sharing his vision of a world unified in generosity and love.

He has served as a faculty member of the Juilliard School since 1970; for the last five years the Zaraspe Prize has been awarded to the school's best choreographer.