Osiel Gouneo

Dancer in Schmetterling (Sol León and Paul Lightfoot)
Principal

Born in Matanzas (Cuba) in 1990, Osiel Gouneo began his training at the Escuela Nacional de Ballet in Havana in 2005. In 2008, he joined the Cuban National Ballet and was appointed first soloist just three years later. In 2013, he moved to the Norwegian National Ballet and has been Principal Soloist of the Bavarian State Ballet since the 2016/2017 season. In 2008, he won the Cuban Dance Grand Prix, the gold medal at the international ballet competition in Beijing and the silver medal at the international ballet competition in Varna. In 2013, he was honoured as ‘Best Newcomer on the international dance scene’ at the Positano Awards. Over the course of his career, he has performed at major theatres around the world, including the Coliseum in London, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Lincoln Center in New York, the Paris Opera and the New National Theatre in Tokyo. His repertoire includes roles such as the Princes in The Nutcracker, Swan Lake (Alicia Alonso, Derek Dean) and Cinderella, Basilio in Don Quixote, Franz in Coppélia, Des Grieux and Lescaut in Manon as well as Escamillo in Carmen (Liam Scarlett). In June 2021, Gouneo danced the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet by Rudolf Nureyev at the Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris. In 2024, together with Thilo Komma-Pöllath, he published the book Black Romeo.

(Information as of December 2024)

Roles in the 2024/25 season (updated periodically)
Romeo in Romeo und Julia (John Cranko)
Dancer in White Darkness (Nacho Duato), as part of the Duato / Skeels / Eyal Triple Bill
Dancer in Silent Screen (Sol León and Paul Lightfoot), as part of the Schmetterling Double Bill
Dancer in Schmetterling (Sol León and Paul Lightfoot), as part of the Schmetterling Double Bill
Albrecht in Giselle (Peter Wright after Coralli/Perrot/Petipa)

Selected roles from previous seasons
Solor in La Bayadère (Patrice Bart after Marius Petipa)
Title Role in Spartacus (Yuri Grigorovich)
Philostrat/Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream (John Neumeier)
Abderakhman in Raymonda (Ray Barra after Marius Petipa)
Title Role in Onegin (John Cranko)
Petrucchio in The Taming of the Shrew (John Cranko)

Dancer in Bilder einer Ausstellung (Alexei Ratmansky) as part of the Passagen Triple Bill
Dancer in Tschaikowski-Ouvertüren (Alexei Ratmansky)
Dancer in Schmetterling (Sol León and Paul Lightfoot)