Q&A
When did you start dancing?
I started age 15.
Why did you start dancing?
When I joined the Centro de Dança Rio it felt right, and I felt like I had found something that I had been looking for until then.. and I thought that to keep going would take me somewhere.
Which dancer inspired you most as a child?
My first idol in dance was Fernando Bujones.
What’s your favourite role?
John Cranko’s Onegin.
What role have you never played but would like to?
Armand in Asthon’s Marguerite and Armand.
Who is your favourite choreographer?
If there was a way to go back in time I would love to work with two people: Kenneth MacMillan and John Cranko.
Who is your favourite writer?
Khaled Hosseini.
Who is your favourite director?
Fernando Meirelles.
Who is your favourite actor?
That’s a difficult one… some actors I really like: Javier Bardem, Jeremy Irons, Alfred Molina, Marília Pêra, Al Pacino, Isabelle Huppert, Fernanda Montenegro…
Who is your favourite singer?
Juan Diego Florez.
What is your favourite book?
The Kite Runner.
What is your favourite film?
The Artist.
Which is your favourite city?
London/Rio.
What was your proudest moment?
Being able to have a nice house with my wife, and help my family and give back a bit of what they did for me back in Rio.
When and where were you happiest?
Oh… ok… summer, London, Núñez, Rio, dancing, eating, beach, amigos, films, carnival, Milan…
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Having fulfilled most of my dreams in life.
Thiago Soares — a biography
Thiago Soares trained at the Centro de Dança in Rio de Janeiro before joining the Theatro Municipal in Rio in 1998. His repertoire there included the Prince in Nutcracker, Siegfried in Makarova’s Swan Lake, Solor in Makarova’s La Bayadère, Romeo in Vasiliev’s Romeo and Juliet, and Basilio in Don Quixote.
Over the years he has trained with Yelê Bittencourt, Debora Bastos, Angelica Fiorani, Manoel Francisco and Dalal Achcar in Brazil, Slawa Muchamedov in Russia, Johnathan Cope in the UK, and Liopa Araujo and Dino Carrera in Cuba. In 2002 he briefly trained with the Mariinsky Ballet and danced Siegfried and Basilio with the Russian State Ballet.
Soares joined the Royal Ballet in 2002 as a First Artist and was promoted to Soloist in 2003, First Soloist in 2004, and Principal in September 2006. Since joining the company, he has danced the title role in John Cranko’s production of Eugene Onegin, Siegfriend in Anthony Dowell’s Swan Lake, the Prince in Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker, the First Movement of Balanchine’s Four Temperaments, the Second Movement of Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Diamonds in Jewels and Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de deux.
His Kenneth MacMillan repertoire includes Tybalt and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Rasputin in Anastasia, Lescaut in Manon, Élite Syncopations, Farewell Pas de deux from Winter Dreams and Rudolf in Mayerling, while his Frederick Ashton repertoire includes the Thaïs Medatition Pas de deux, Orion in Sylvia, Colas in La Fille mal gardée, Birthday Offering Pas de deux and Awakening Pas de deux.
He has also danced Carabosse and Prince Desire in Makarova’s Sleeping Beauty, Solor in Makarova’s La Bayadére, the lead Pas de deux in William Forsyeth’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated Franz in Ninette de Valois’ Coppélia, Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries, Mark Morris’ Gong, Ivan Tsarevich in Fokine’s The Firebird, Prince Florimund in the Monica Mason and Christopher Newton production of The Sleeping Beauty and the Queen of Fire’s Consort in Christopher Wheeldon’s Fire variation in Homage to the Queen.
Soares has also created roles in David Bintley’s Les Saisons and Will Tucket’s The Seven Deadly Sins.
He has performed with Svetlana Zaharova, Marianela Nuñez, Sylvie Guillem, Darcey Bussell, Tamara Rojo, Alina Cojucaru, Roberta Marquez, Cecilia Kerche, among others.
Soares is married to fellow dancer and frequent partner Marianela Núñez who he proposed to on stage after a curtain call for a performance of The Sleeping Beauty in front of the whole company. They married in Buenos Aires in July 2011.
