Choreographer | Ricardo Graziano

Ricardo Graziano

Ricardo Graziano started dancing when he was eight years old in his hometown of Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil. At the age of 16, he won a scholarship to study at the Academie des Tanzes in Mannheim, Germany, and in 2005 joined Tulsa Ballet.

In 2010, Graziano joined The Sarasota Ballet as a Soloist and in the following year was promoted to Principal. At the start of the 2011 – 2012 Season, Graziano was given the opportunity by Director Iain Webb to choreograph his first ballet, Shostakovich Suite, which The Sarasota Ballet premiered in October 2011. Following this ballet, Graziano choreographed four new ballets before being appointed The Sarasota Ballet’s Resident Choreographer by Webb in 2014 after a performance of Graziano’s Symphony of Sorrows. During his 10 years as Resident Choreographer, he choreographed an additional seven one-act ballets, including In a State of Weightlessness, which premiered August 12, 2015, as a part of The Sarasota Ballet’s first week-long residency at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

His other choreographic works for The Sarasota Ballet include: Pomp and Circumstances, Valsinhas, Before Night Falls, En las Calles de Murcia, Sonata in Four Movements, The Jolly Overture, Somewhere, Amorosa, Sonatina, The Pilgrimage, Schubert Variations, and A Study for One.

In 2023, Graziano choreographed his first work outside of The Sarasota Ballet. Fledglings’ Playground was created for the Connexus Dance Collective in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In the Spring of 2024, he was invited to create One Step Closer, his first ballet for Richmond Ballet, Virginia.