Assis Carreiro became Artistic Director of Royal Ballet of Flanders in September, 2012 and in her first season commissioned new ballets from choreographers Jacopo Godani, Ashley Page, Cameron McMillan and Edward Clug and a new production of Romeo and Juliet from Slava Samodurov.
Assis was born in the Azores, Portugal and raised in Canada. Assis holds a BA (Honours) from Canada’s York University and and an MA (Distinction) from Surrey University in England.
Assis Carreiro was Artistic Director & Chief Executive of England’s DanceEast from 2000-2012 and led the organisation through a period of redevelopment and expansion. She createdRural Retreats, a series of international think tanks supporting the developing of dance leadership for existing and future artistic directors, Snape Dances an international dance series at Snape Maltings,and the National Centre for Choreography. She commissioned choreographers Rafael Bonachela, Georges Cespedes and Mats Ek to create and stage works for Cuba’s Danca Contemporanea through an extensive cultural exchange programme with Cuba. She led DanceEast’s capital project which in 2009 saw the opening of the £9 million Jerwood DanceHouse on the Ipswich waterfront.
During 1998/99 Assis was dance programmer at DasTAT in Germany for William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt. From 1994-96, she was founding director of DanceXchange in Birmingham and went on to work for Wayne McGregor|Random Dance. Prior to moving to the UK in 1994, Assis was Director of Education, Community Outreach and Publications for the National Ballet of Canada where she worked with Reid Anderson, Glen Tetley, John Neumeier, William Forsythe and many other directors and choreographers.
Assis has served on the jury of the 6th Copenhagen International Choreography Competition in 2013; Jerwood Awards for Dance and the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. She has been an advisor and assessor to Arts Council England, Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council, Scottish Executive and served on Sir Brian McMaster’s Sounding Board Review for Supporting Excellence in the Arts: From Measurement to Judgement.
In 2003, the International Theatre Council nominated Assis for the International Dance Award. She holds an Honorary Doctorate in Civil Law from the University of East Anglia and was made a Visiting Senior Fellow in Dance in the School of Arts and Humanities of University Campus Suffolk in 2011. In January 2014 Assis was awarded an MBE for her services to dance in Great Britain in the Queen’s New Years Honours list.
