Anderson de Santana
Born in Brazil, Anderson Santana began his studies at the National School of Rio de Janeiro, School Maria Olenewa of the Municipal Theater by Edmundo Carijo and at the School of Tatiana Leskova & Aldo Lotuf.
In 1985, the emerging dancer began his professional career with the Ballet Municipal de Campinas in Brazil, and danced as corps de ballet, demi soloist and soloist in Don Quichotte, Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo & Juliette.
His meeting with Maurice Béjart, gave a decisive turn to his career. The famous choreographer, impressed by Anderson’s talent and passion, invited him to Belgium to join the 20th Century Ballet.
Soon after, Anderson travelled to Europe to pursue his professional career. He started to work with the Scala Theatre in Switzerland, then joined the European tour of “West Side Story” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” with the “Broadway Musical Company from New York.
Later he joined the Brussels Ratlas Dance Company in Belgium and in the following years he worked with The Royal Ballet of Flanders, the Ballet du Nord, and the Royal Ballet of Wallonia to name a few.
THE CHOREOGRAPHER
In 1998, Anderson choreographed “Dark evenings” in Belgium. Later that year he travelled to the US, to work as a classical ballet teacher in Boston and to study the “Maria Fay’s method” in New York.
From 1999 until 2005, he made various solos creations for professional National and International dancers, In 2003, he made a new ballet “La rage du peuples, and in 2005 he created the choreographies for Praga Khan’s “The Next Dimension”.
FOUNDING BRUSSELS INTERNATIONAL BALLET SCHOOL
In 2005, driven by his enthusiasm, energy, and desire to convey his passion for dance, Anderson Santana founded the Brussels International Ballet School (BIB) in Brussels, where his artistic history began.
He invests all his energy so that the young dancers who integrate into the ballet school can reach a high level and demonstrate the artistic talent of Belgium. Since 2009, many students have won first place prizes as well as scholarships and internships.
THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Always keeping the transmission of passion for dance to young students, Anderson continued his primary mission: to train future talents who will join international companies.
In 2013, he decided to establish a Professional Section within BIB to give Belgian and international students the opportunity to develop their potential and then be able to join the most prestigious ballet companies in the world.
He is passionate, he is respected in the dance world, and he has an overall vision that continuously aims to improve the discipline of dance.
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
There is a strong classical base that enables the dancers to always reach excellence. This hard work has paid off by excellent results at international competitions (1st prizes and distinction: Chausson d’or Paris, YAGP, Varna, Bulgarie, Helsinki), Prix de Lausanne, Prix Arabesque, and many others!
Brussels International Ballet has certainly one of the most important palmares in Belgium of 1st prizes and International Scholarships and those results demonstrate that the level of competencies of BIB’s students is excellent.
Anderson Santana’s vision, creativity, involvement, humanity, and dedication to the art of classical dance were brought to light when Anderson was selected by the organisation of YAGP (Youth America Grand Prix) in 2013 and by VKIBC (Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition) in 2015 to coordinate the semi-finals of the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competitions in Brussels.
Dancers from the professional training intensive program for last years and so far have received contracts from: Mariinsky theatre, Ballet National de Sofia, English National ballet, Finnish National Ballet, State Ballet of Georgia, K-Ballet Tokyo, State Ballet of Kosice, Theatre National de Belgrade, Theatre du Ballet Sibiu, Ballet of Ireland, Columbia Classical Ballet, etc, etc,
BIBS studios welcomed and hosted all guest teachers and students from all around the world. Dancers from the PTP of BIB finished the competition in the top 12.
Since then, Anderson Santana is regularly invited to different International Competitions in Europe, in the United States and in Asia as a member of international juries, such as: VKIBC, Korea National Competition, Romenia National competition, Global dance open, Bratislava festival International dance, and others.
since 2015 full ballet performances: Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Giselle, Stars of the night, with guest dancers: Joy Womack Bolshoi, Istvan Simon Dresden, Ivan Mikhalev Bolshoi, Mikhail Martiniuk Kremlin Ballet, Clement Guillaume Columbia classical Ballet, Rasmus Ahlgren Boston ballet, Angel Maidana English National Ballet, Olga Skrypchenko Kiev National Ballet, Salomé Figueiredo & Rafael Fernández Ramos Hungary National ballet and many others.