Carmen Roche

Named the “teacher of all teachers”, Carmen Roche has dedicated her entire professional life to dance. 

She began her studies at the age of 9 in her native Zaragoza under the guidance of the teacher María de Ávila. At the age of 13, she began her professional career as a member of the Ballet de Antonio, in which she performed various roles.

In 1966 she joined the Ballet Gulbenkian in Portugal where she performed principal roles of the classical heritage. In 1968, Carmen joined, Maurice Béjart, where she developed an important artistic work and performed as a soloist in Bach’s “Cantata 51”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Le Renard” or “The Rite of Spring” by Stravinsky, Beethoven’s “IX Symphony”, “The Blue Bird”, “Petruska”, etc.

In 1974 she began her pedagogical work as a teacher at the Brussels Conservatory. Shortly after, Maurice Béjart asked Carmen to become a teacher at Le Ballet du XXe siècle and after which she was named the Director of the newly opened Mudra School by Béjart.

After a long international career, she returned to Spain in 1979 to begin a new artistic and pedagogical period as the Assistant Director of the National Classical Ballet and Director of the National School of Classical Ballet.

In 1984 she opened the International Dance Center of Madrid, where she forms the first dancers of some of the most important ballet companies as well as many dance teachers. In 1995 she became the Director of the Pedagogical Method of the Conservatory of Dance in la Coruña.

After giving advanced courses, master classes and conferences in institutions such as the Cullberg Ballet of Sweden, the Lausanne Ballet of Bejart, the Geneva Ballet, the Sydney Opera Ballet, the Grand Prix de Lausanne, the National School of Peking, in 1998 she created the Carmen Roche Foundation.

In 2002 she founded Scaena Artes Escénicas, SCHOOL OF THE PERFORMING ARTS, an institution that she currently directs.

Her unstoppable career has earned her numerous awards and recognitions such as the Silver Medal for Merit in Fine Arts from the Ministry of Culture (1995), the Medal of Artistic Excellence awarded by the Government of Nicaragua (2009), the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts (2012), the Actúa Award (2021) in the category of dance, awarded by the AISGE Foundation and already honorary membership of the Academy of Performing Arts (2022).