César Morales’s career has evolved through passion, hard work and luck. He started dancing at the age of 11, at the ballet school of the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, in Chile. Then, as a teenager, he was discovered by one of the most influential ballet directors at the time, and had to decide whether to move to the United States. Morales’s dance school in Santiago had an excellent reputation but was geographically distant from other major ballet centres. So he took a chance and moved 8,000km to Texas. Now, 30 years later, after dancing with companies in the United States and Europe, Morales is artistic director of Ballet de Santiago, and his production of Swan Lake is coming to Dublin in August.“I was just 15 years old when Ben Stevenson offered me a scholarship to go to Houston Ballet Academy,” Morales says. “He really opened his heart to the Chilean people. And then that was a big deal, because I had to stop my normal schooling. “My ballet teacher had to talk with my parents and tell them that it meant a big future for me. They understood and they let me go. That was the first time I went abroad alone, at 15 years old. “It was a massive trip. I’ll never forget when I got to Miami airport and I was, like, ‘Oh my God.’ I could not speak English. I went to the school in Houston, and after two weeks I was chosen to dance with the company. “Everything started there. I started learning English, and it opened my eyes to realise that the level of ballet in Chile is pretty good.“Being so far away, it was hard to compare sometimes. Now it’s a lot easier, because you have all these things online and you can see what is going on. But at that time it was not.”Since Morales took over Ballet de Santiago, in 2024, the company has become even more connected to the wider ballet world. Many of its 60 dancers are Chilean (although Morales has also hired dancers from Japan, Venezuela, Colombia and Spain).Regardless of where they trained, the dancers possess a Chilean flair that is hard to replicate. This particularly comes through in roles such as Swan Lake’s black swan, whose dazzling sequence of turns becomes even more compelling in Ballet de Santiago’s interpretation.“I think the core of a Chilean dancer has a lot to do with how we have to endure life here,” says the choreographer Paola Georgudis, who also spent a large part of her career dancing in Houston.“Chile is remote and everything is so difficult to access. It’s probably more accessible now, though in my time and my generation, we had to have the passion for discovering what’s out there. If I wanted to go to Europe or the States or Argentina, it had to be more of an adventure, because we didn’t have video or internet. Everything was on the phone. “If someone went to New York and saw a Broadway show and brought back some ideas, that’s the way we had to endure. “Thank God for the internet and for social media. With this shift, people now are more connected to the world than before. I think we have this urgency to communicate, and in the arts there are a lot of people who are very passionate about doing that.”Chilean ballet dancers have for decades been trained by figures deeply connected to the form’s history, adding a strong pedigree to their talent. The Hungarian dancer Ivan Nagy, who directed Ballet de Santiago in the 1980s, brought an international dynamic to the company after his illustrious (if tumultuous) career with American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet.The renowned ballerina Marcia Haydée, originally from Brazil, directed Ballet de Santiago in the early 2000s. Many years earlier, in the 1960s, she had helped to establish Stuttgart Ballet with the choreographer John Cranko.Despite being separated from the rest of the ballet world by distance, not to mention the imposing Andes Mountains, Ballet de Santiago’s lineage of dancers and directors rivals that of companies anywhere in the world. Morales takes pride in continuing that reputation.“I know Marcia Haydée from before, when I was dancing her Swan Lake,” Morales says. “She really has taught me a lot of things. We have talked here in my office, as she explained to me her experience as the director here for 17 years. She actually said in front of the company what a good job I was doing. So that was really nice to hear.”A look at Ballet de Santiago’s repertoire shows how dedicated Morales is to keeping the company in step with the rest of the world. The company was previously known for its story ballets, such as Cinderella, Don Quixote and Swan Lake. This season’s line-up at its home at the Municipal Theatre of Santiago includes a new production of Pride and Prejudice by Kenneth Tinall, of England’s Northern Ballet, as well as Bodies of Division, created by the English choreographers James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight set to Recomposed, Max Richter’s reimagining of The Four Seasons, by Vivaldi. Morales curates a balance of classical and contemporary ballet.“I’m very happy, because my wish, first of all, was to help the dancers grow technically, so they can take on a lot of big repertoire, and that is starting to happen,” Morales says. This year for the first time the company is dancing a ballet by the choreographer William Forsythe, whose work is sought after by directors around the world. “That is a big, big jump. I just want the company to grow, to get very good, technically strong for any kind of dance. “I also want to show Europe our work, because I know people from there will not travel to Chile to see us. So this really is a good opportunity to showcase what we can do. It’s one of my dreams that we can go abroad and the dance world can actually talk about Chile as an important country, not only in Latin America.”Morales benefited from a career dancing with English National Ballet, Vienna State Opera and Birmingham Royal Ballet. He wants to offer Chilean dancers the kind of platform he experienced as a dancer. Recently he has helped develop a relationship between the ballet school in Santiago and the school of the Paris Opera Ballet. Originally started by a teacher in the Santiago school, the exchange discovers and nurtures talent. While the French school is world-renowned for its refined technique, the Chilean dancers bring their own spirit to ballet’s movements.“Music here, like reggaeton, hip hop or trap, has been so important for people because it’s so popular,” Georgudis says. “It’s on the radio, and kids just dance in the streets.“I have many friends or coworkers that began dancing in the streets. And then they had the opportunity to come to the school of the Santiago Ballet, and take a ballet class or have longer periods of education in ballet. [ ‘It was hard, but I was stubborn’: Irish ballet star Melissa Hamilton on fighting for her dreamOpens in new window ]“And some of them became pretty good dancers at Santiago Ballet and also with the other contemporary company, Ballet Nacional Chileno.”She says Morales has brought fresh energy to Ballet de Santiago. “The technique is very clean. The dancers are more fit, there are more high lifts and things like that. And the ballets are refreshed and new.”The Swan Lake coming to Dublin will feature the traditional story with the usual white tutus and feathered headdresses, all being remade for this international tour. The dancers will be accompanied by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.“In Europe you could take a train to see a show in another city with a very good company,” Morales says, “but here for a classical company, it’s just this one.“I just want audiences to know how excited the dancers are to be performing in Dublin, because, honestly, they’re so happy. And I’m really happy as well that we’re going to dance with a live orchestra, because I think that makes the show a lot more special and complete. [ Timothée Chalamet take note: Ballet Ireland says students ‘are hammering down the doors’Opens in new window ]“People will love it, I’m sure. I just want them to know that we are from all over the world, but we represent Chile. I invite everyone to have an amazing time.”Ballet de Santiago perform Swan Lake with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, from Tuesday, August 18th, until Sunday, August 23rd