Evergreen Ballet has welcomed a new artistic director, Gillmer Duran.

Originally from Venezuela, Duran is joining ECB after serving as a classical ballet and contemporary faculty member at CityDance School & Conservatory in Maryland. Before teaching in Maryland, Duran was the Artistic Director at AlaskaDance Theater from 2010-2013.

As a choreographer, he participated in the National Choreographers Initiative 2007), was included in the 2008 4X4Ballet Project with Oregon Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, and has created pieces for the Drop Dance Collective and The Woman Space Foundation (engaging in several creative collaborations with Toni Pimble).

Duran was selected by The National Dance Project and the New England Foundation for the Arts for the Regional DanceDevelopment Initiative, among nine other dance artists from the Pacific Northwest region.