Eduardo Vilaro joined Ballet Hispanico as artistic director in August 2009, following a ten-year record of achievement as founder and artistic director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. He has been part of the Ballet Hispanico family since 1985. As a dancer in the Ballet Hispanico Company, Mr. Vilaro performed works by Vicente Nebrada, Talley Beatty, Ramon Oller and other audience favorites. As an educator he assisted Ballet Hispanico founder Tina Ramirez in developing a program for children living in temporary housing and was involved with many aspects of the organization's education residencies. Mr. Vilaro is an accomplished choreographer, having created over 20 ballets for his own company in addition to the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Lexington Ballet, and the Civic Ballet of Chicago. He has worked in collaboration with major dance and design artists as well as musicians like Paquito D'Rivera, Susana Baca, Luciana Souza, the Grant Park Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2001 he was a recipient of a Ruth Page Award for choreography, and in 2003 he was honored at Panama's II International Festival of Ballet for his choreographic work. Mr. Vilaro came to New York City at the age of six from his native Cuba. He began his dance training as a teenager on scholarship at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and also studied at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance. He received a B.F.A. in Dance from Adelphi University and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Art from Columbia College Chicago, where he served as artist-in-residence at The Dance Center. He was selected as Chicagoan of the Year in 2007 and Alumni of the Year by Columbia College in 2008.