Armando Luna
Choreographer / Ballet Teacher / Dancer
Armando Luna began his training in Houston, Texas with Margo Marshall then with Soili Arvola and Leo Ahonen. His professional dance career spans 35 years. He danced professionally with Ballet Austin, BalletMet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Atlanta Ballet. He toured with Ballet Spectacular, performing with Rudolf Nureyev and Alexander Godunov and performed as a guest artist with Irish National Ballet and Ballet Arizona. He has partnered notable Ballerinas Cynthia Gregory and Marianna Tcherkassky. Since his retirement as a dancer from the Atlanta Ballet in 1998, he has continued to perform character roles in John McFall’s The Nutcracker, Michael Pink’s Dracula and Romeo and Juliet, Christian Holder’s Transcendence, Yuri Possokhov’s Don Quixote and Bruce Well’s Beauty and the Beast. Armando has been the principal teacher of the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education since 1998. Many of his students have moved on to dance professionally with Atlanta Ballet, New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet, Alabama Ballet, and Texas Ballet Theatre. As an award winning choreographer, he has worked in the US and Europe and has created over 50 works for the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education, ranging from Classical, Neoclassical, and Contemporary Ballets to story ballets such as Babar the Elephant, which was performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. His ballets have been featured at Chautauqua Dance Salon, CPYB’s Choreoplan, Regional Dance America’s Festival Gala and JCM’s ArtCAN, to name a few. In addition, he has created works for many college dance programs which include Emory University, Texas Christian University, Goucher College, and Agnes Scott College. Armando received his BA in Dance from KSU in 2015 and is currently working with the classic rock band Kansas, choreographing a pas de deux danced to their famous song Dust In The Wind as the band plays live. This work premiered in Atlanta in 2018 to begin the Point of Know Return tour, then was performed in Nashville, and most recently in 2019 on the west coast. Armando is also in the planning stages of a collaborative project for Earth Day 2020, with his son, Dante Luna, who is a musician and composer in Los Angeles.
Choreography | Video
Jack the Ripper | One act ballet
My newest work for the Savannah Ballet Theatre.
I was invited to choreograph this one-act ballet which is about the women known as the canonical five and the hard times they faced in the 1880s. The people of the era had very little options and the women had less. This ballet looks into their lives and what they endured.
DUST IN THE WIND - KANSAS
Invited by Phil Ehart, founding member and drummer for Kansas, I created a pas de deux danced to their famous song Dust In The Wind as the band plays live. This work premiered in Atlanta in 2018 to begin the Point of Know Return tour, then was performed in Nashville, and most recently in 2019 on the west coast
SPERANZA
Speranza is a collaborative work that was created
as a centerpiece for the JCM Foundation's ArtCAN, to raise funds for Johns Hopkins and Emory to find an early detection and cure for Pancreatic Cancer. Working with Juan Ramírez, violinist with the ASO, to ignite a partnership between the Atlanta Ballet, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and The Atlanta Opera was truly inspiring. We brought together professional Atlanta Ballet dancers, Christian Clark, Rachel Van Buskirk and Jacob Bush to dance my original choreography to Mr. Ramírez’s musical elegy, which was played live by Ramírez on violin, his son, cellist, David Ramírez and concert pianist, Shirley Irek, as well as Megan Mashburn of the Atlanta Opera, singing the Italian operatic libretto, by Soprano Isabella Baer de Cortes. It was a memorable evening that contributed greatly to the success of ArtCAN’s charitable donation to the fight against Pancreatic Cancer
DANCE CONCERTO
Dance Concerto is a neoclassical ballet which has three movements and is comprised of a variety of solos, duets, trios, and quartets. The ballet is fun, quick, and demonstrates a technical display of how ballet dancers use traditional ballet technique in an innovative presentation.
WITHIN REACH
Within Reach was created as a choreographic excercise while I attended Kennesaw State University.
AIR
"Air" is a pas de trois, which is a movement from the ballet "Four Elements." This footage is from the Atlanta Ballet summer intensive. My son, Dante Luna is the composer of the music. At that time he composed the music for Earth Day 2010. In this movement, the female dancer could be considered the wind and the men, the air currents around her. The dancers are Christian Clark, Pharan Evans, and Victor Gallupo.
Choreography | Photography
Dust in the Wind Pas de Deux Performed with Kansas
Point of Know Return Tour 2018/2019
Dancers, Julia Crosby and Bret Coppa, photo: Rick Diamond
Jack the Ripper
Savannah Ballet Theatre
One-Act Ballet
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Photo by Abby McCuen
Sam Chester with Caitlin Godwin and Katja Rochat
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Photo by Abby McCuen
Sam Chester with Rebecca Kendall