Position: Artistic Director

Affiliation with organization: 2006 – Present

Years active at YAGP: 2006 – Present

Contact: Facebook

Born in the Cowichan Valley, British Columbia, Canada, Aaron Watkin graduated from the National Ballet School of Canada in 1988 winning the prestigious Erik Bruhn Award, awarded to the most promising student in the school. Watkin is experienced in a variety of different styles of dance including Vaganova, Bournonville, Balanchine and the French and English styles. He has had personal coaching with numerous ballet stars such as Erik Bruhn, Stanely Williams, Fernando Bujones, Gilbert Meyer, Lynn Seymour, Noella Pontois and Irina Kolpakova. Watkin enjoyed a full career in dance beginning with leading classical companies including National Ballet of Canada, English National Ballet and Dutch National Ballet, where he worked his way up from corps de ballet to the ranks of soloist. After 7 years of the classical repertoire, he was invited by choreographer William Forsythe to become a Principal Dancer with Ballett Frankfurt. In 2000, Watkin joined the National Dance Company of Spain. In June 2002 Watkin was appointed Associate Artistic Director to Victor Ullate Ballet in Madrid, Spain where he gained experience in many different areas of directing a company and worked as personal choreographic assistant to Mr William Forsythe. Aaron Watkin was appointed Artistic Director of the Semperoper Ballett in 2006.