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Professor of Dance at University of Iowa
Educator, Choreographer, and Screen Dance Filmmaker
Founder and Director of the International ScreenDance Festival
Director of the Iowa Dance Festival
Founder and Director of E-DANZA, a Non-Profit organization.
Eloy Barragán is a globally recognized ballet instructor, choreographer, and filmmaker from México City. His expertise spans ballet technique at all levels, choreography, partnering, ballet pedagogy, pointe work, and screen dance. His innovative approach blends traditional ballet techniques with contemporary concepts, earning him numerous awards, including a Choreographer Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, awards from the Boise Arts Council, a Lifetime Career Fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and two Artist Project Grants from the Iowa Arts Council.
Barragán has had an extensive and distinguished career as a dancer and choreographer. He began dancing with Joffrey II and the Washington Ballet before becoming a soloist with Compañía Nacional de Danza in Mexico City. His career then led him to Europe, where he was a soloist with the Ballet Royal de Wallonie and Mainz Staatstheater. He returned to México to perform with Ballet de Monterrey and Compañía Nacional de Danza. He later became a soloist dancer, ballet master, and regisseur for Eugene Ballet and Ballet Idaho.
As a choreographer, Barragán’s works have been showcased at prestigious venues such as the Bolshoi Theatre, the Finnish National Opera, the Conservatoire de Paris, the American Dance Guild Festival, and the International Dance Festival in New York City. He was the only Mexican choreographer outside of México invited to participate in the Bicentennial of Méxican Independence and the Centennial of the Mexican Revolution. He has been commissioned to create works for renowned companies, including the National Ballet of México, Richmond Ballet, Beijing Dance Academy, National Ballet of Puerto Rico, Utah Ballet, Ballet Real de Costa Rica, Dance Theater of Oregon, Ballet Theater of Spokane, and the American Dance Repertory Company.
Barragán is a dedicated educator who has taught Master Classes at prestigious institutions including the Beijing Dance Academy, the National Conservatory of Dance and Music in Paris, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, the José Limón Dance Company, the National Ballets of México, Panama, and Puerto Rico, the National School for Classical and Modern Dance in Mexico City, Southern Methodist University, and the University of California, Irvine. Additionally, he served as a guest ballet professor at the University of Utah’s Ballet and Modern Dance Departments, where he was a guest choreographer for Utah Ballet and earned a Screendance Certification from the university’s Graduate Screendance Program.
Expanding his artistic vision into film, Barragán has established himself as the founder and director of the International ScreenDance Festival, as well as the director of the Iowa Dance Festival. His films have been showcased at numerous prestigious international festivals throughout the United States, Stockholm, Cuba, and Mexico, further reinforcing his reputation as a global artist. As a board member and screen dance committee member of the American College Dance Association, he continues to champion innovation and collaboration within the dance community.
Barragán’s entrepreneurship led him to create the E-DANZA non-profit organization with a mission to foster inclusivity and expand access to opportunities for talented individuals across various artistic disciplines.
Through his work, Barragán remains deeply dedicated to passing on knowledge in dance, inspiring future generations of dancers and choreographers, and pushing the limits of movement across both stage and screen.
Contact:
Office: 319-335-2183
eloy-barragan@uiowa.edu