Two years into architecture school in his native Monterrey, Mexico, Luis Martinez transferred to the Superior School of Music and Dance of Monterrey to pursue his true love, ballet. He studied with Roberto Machado and Rosario Murillo. At the Cordoba Dance Festival, Luis studied under Vladimir Malakhov, Adria Velasquez, Tadeusz Matacz, and Claudio Muñoz. He also completed the Character Dances Intensive with Rafael Ibatullin and Horton Technique Intensive with Victor Talledos.
Upon graduating in 2010, Luis joined Ballet de Monterrey (BdM) under the direction of Luis Serrano. His repertoire as a dancer includes Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, La Bayadere, and Graduation Ball. He also performed in major productions such as Luis Serrano’s Celebration, Sinergia, Cantus, Jorge Amarante’s Uma Batida Diferente, Zendas, and Clark Tippet’s Brunch Violin Concerto. In 2014, Jorge Amarante became the director of BdM, and Luis performed in Raymonda, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Jorge Amarante’s Mexico en el Ombligo de la Luna, Carmen and Cinderella, where he played one of the stepsisters in pointe shoes. He was also chosen by Patrick Delcroix as the first cast in Mexico of Jirí Kylián’s Sechs Tanze. In 2016, under BdM’s new director Jose Manuel Carreño, Luis played Dr. Coppelius and Franz’s friends in Coppelia. In 2017, he danced in Alberto Mendez’s The Phantom of the Opera and also Luis Serrano’s Huapango. Luis was coached by renowned Ballet Masters and Mistresses Ileana Lopez, Phillip Balmain Beamish, Galina Alvarez, Analia Sosa Guerrero, Lazaro Carreño, and many more.
Drawing inspiration from his own teachers, Luis enjoyed working as a ballet instructor while he was a member of BdM, and after eight seasons with BdM, Luis chose to pursue a teaching career in earnest. In 2017, Luis and Serafin Castro founded and directed SL-Dancenter in Mexico. In 2019, Luis moved to the Phoenix Metro area, where Luis has become a sought-after instructor and choreographer. In 2020, he choreographed and danced a duet with Serafin Castro in the Downtown Chamber Series. In 2021, he won the Outstanding Teacher Award at YAGP. As a coach and choreographer, Luis was delighted that three of his students made the final round at the YAGP Finals in Tampa Florida. In 2022, Luis performed in Lauren Flower’s Fragments, a dance film commissioned by the Phoenix Art Museum.
Luis taught Ballet Arizona students in the 2022 Summer Intensive and has now joined the faculty. He seeks to instill in his students the importance of both technique and expressiveness to convey the feelings and emotions of dance.
