Nilas Martins

Nilas Martins was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and received his early dance training at the Royal Danish Ballet School. As a student, he performed with the Royal Danish Ballet in such works as John Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet, August Bournonville’s Konservatoriet, A Folk Tale, Napoli, and Glen Tetley’s Firebird. In 1984, he moved to New York and enrolled at the School of American Ballet. In September 1986, he joined the New York City Ballet. In 1991, he was promoted to the rank of soloist and in 1993 to Principal dancer. He retired from dancing in 2013. Mr. Martins’ media credits include: Live from Lincoln Center a 1989 broadcast of Ray Charles in Concert; George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker released in 1993 by Warner Brothers, PBS Dance in America, the 1993 telecast of Dinner with Balanchine when he danced the role of Apollo with Paris Opera Etoile Isabelle Guérin; and Lincoln Center Celebrates Balanchine 100 in 2004, when he danced The Man I Love from Who Cares? featuring Wynton Marsalis. Nilas Martins has performed an extensive range of Balanchine ballets, and since 1996, he has staged ballets as a Repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust in the US and internationally. Those ballets include Apollo, Allegro Brillante, Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet, Concerto Barocco, The Four Temperaments, Haieff Divertimento, Liebeslieder Walzer, Orpheus, Rubies, Stars and Stripes, Symphonie Concertante, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Valse Fantaisie, Western Symphony, and Who Cares?.