Dancer, choreographer and photographer, Miguel Altunaga made his Birmingham Royal Ballet debut with City of a Thousand Trades, a Ballet Now commission, and part of the 2021 Curated by Carlos season.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Miguel trained at the National School of Art in Havana. After six years with the Cuban National Contemporary Dance Company where he performed as a Principal dancer, Altunaga moved to the UK and joined Rambert (2007 to 2021).

As a choreographer, Miguel has created work for the National School of Ballet, Cuba, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba and for the bands Simply Red and The Zutons. He created Memoria for Carlos Acosta at the London Coliseum and was commissioned to create Derrumbe for Acosta’s Cubania evening at The Royal Opera House. He was commissioned by Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, to create Dark Eye for the Deloitte Ignite Festival 2014 (The Royal Opera House). In 2016 he was commissioned by the Tate Modern to create a work which was shown alongside the retrospective exhibition of Cuban artist, Wifredo Lam, and throughout 2016/2017 Miguel collaborated on a trilogy of choreographic works with German visual artist Michaela Zimmer. He has also created five works for Rambert’s Evening of New Choreography and one of these pieces, Don’t Think About It, joined Rambert’s repertoire. In 2018 he was commissioned by Danza Contemporanea de Cuba to create a piece for the company titled Mas alla del Polvo (Beyond Dust).

Miguel is also a self-taught photographer specialising in dance, theatre and portrait photography, and videography.