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 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 l and Manhattan Youth Ballet. Nationally Mr. Catanach has been invited to create work and conduct master classes for the Kansas City Ballet, Ballet Lubbock, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Dallas Repertoire Ballet, Delaware Dance Company, 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, Costa Rica and for the MovEvent international. 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 Kansas City Ballet, the Armitage Ballet, the Garden State Ballet, Connecticut Ballet Theatre, Santa Fe Dance Ensemble, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, 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. Mr. Catanach currently serves on the faculty of Steps on Broadway, Male Dancer Conference, Creative Dance Lab and is the director of DanielCatanachOnline where he continues to create work and teach for dance organizations both nationally and internationally live and virtually.