Sponsored by Betsy and Mike Keeley
Adult Program Faculty, Company, Faculty, Lower Division Faculty, Upper Division Faculty
Rafael Bejarano Vidal, from Guadalajara, Mexico, began his dance training at age 11 at the Royal Dance Academy of Mexico with Ana Torquemada. He has studied intensively around the world at Miami Arts Ballet Theater and in Denmark, Germany and New York in programs affiliated with the Royal Academy of Dance. At the age of 13 he received an honorable mention in the National Dance Competition of Mexico and performed at the International Dance Festival of Córdoba, Veracruz.
At the YAGP semi-finals in Mexico, where he hosted the three best male dancers of his age in all of Mexico, he received a scholarship to the TWSB Summer Intensive in 2014 which he attended and subsequently received a full three-year scholarship to the Program. of Professional Training of the school. (PTP) and intensive summer program. While at TWSB, he played the role of Prince in Septime Webre’s The Nutcracker. In 2016, he received First Place at the YAGP semi-final in Pittsburgh for Best Male Dancer. He also received the Louis Vuitton Scholarship and the Rory Schwartz Scholarship. Bejarano has danced in TWB’s production of Giselle and has performed with PTP in excerpts from Raymonda, Paquita, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Tchaikovsky’s Pas de Deux, Harlequinade, Kermess in Bruges and Burnonville.
He was the only Mexican to achieve this position within the company in the capital of the United States. Upon joining The Washington Ballet second company he performed ballet such as Swan Lake by Julie Kent and Victor Barbee, The Nutcracker by Septime Weber, The Concert (or The Perils of Everybody) by Jerome Robbins, Serenade by George Balanchine, Prodigal Son by George Balanchine, Romeo & Juliet by John Cranko, Les Sylphides by Michel Fokine, Duets by Merce Cunningham, Company B by Paul Taylor, The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle by Julie Kent and Victor Barbee after Marius Petipa, Reverence by Jessica Lang, Chronos by Xiomara Reyes, Shadow Lands by Dana Genshaft, Peter & The Wolf byBrian Reede, Beethoven Serenade by Jessica Lang, Where Do We Go Now by Mthuthuzeli November, B1 by Andile Ndlovu, Werner Sonata by Silas Farley, Reverence by Jessica Lang, Theme and Variations by George Balanchine, All the Little Boxes by Dana Genshaft, Dowland Dances by Silas Farley, re:member by Andile Ndlovu. eventually promoted to the main company and have been featured as principal and soloist in many of these ballets.
In addition to exercising his role within the company in the capital of the United States, he is also a teacher at its school, teaching classes and rehearsals throughout the various levels of the school.
Headshot credit: Dr. Ceylon Mitchell, M3 Mitchell Media & Marketing
