# Ray Barra

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{{Short description|American ballet dancer (1930–2025)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Ray Barra
| image              = Ray Barra (1a).jpg
| alt                = Sepia publicity headshot of a smiling, clean-shaven, lean man with black curly hair and strong features
| caption            = Barra, {{circa|1970}}
| birth_name         = Raymond Martin Barallobre Ramirez
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1930|01|03}}
| birth_place        = [San Francisco](/source/San_Francisco), California, U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|2025|03|26|1930|01|03}}
| death_place        = [Marbella](/source/Marbella), Spain
| occupation         = {{plainlist|
* Ballet dancer
* Ballet master
* Choreographer
* Ballet director
}}
| organizations      = {{plainlist|
* [American Ballet Theatre](/source/American_Ballet_Theatre)
* [Stuttgart Ballet](/source/Stuttgart_Ballet)
* [Berlin State Ballet](/source/Berlin_State_Ballet)
* [Hamburg Ballet](/source/Hamburg_Ballet)
* [Bavarian State Ballet](/source/Bavarian_State_Ballet)
* {{nowrap|[Spanish National Dance Company](/source/Spanish_National_Dance_Company)}}
}}
}}

'''Raymond Martin Barallobre Ramirez''' (January 3, 1930 – March 26, 2025), known professionally as '''Ray Barra''', was an American [ballet dancer](/source/ballet_dancer), [ballet master](/source/ballet_master), [choreographer](/source/Choreography) and ballet director who worked mostly in Europe. He was a soloist with the [American Ballet Theatre](/source/American_Ballet_Theatre) and from 1959 a principal dancer of the [Stuttgart Ballet](/source/Stuttgart_Ballet), where he danced parts in creations by [John Cranko](/source/John_Cranko) including Romeo in ''[Romeo and Juliet](/source/Romeo_and_Juliet_(Cranko))'' with [Marcia Haydée](/source/Marcia_Hayd%C3%A9e) as Julia, and the title role in ''[Onegin](/source/Onegin_(Cranko))''. He created major roles in ballets by [Kenneth MacMillan](/source/Kenneth_MacMillan), ''[Las Hermanas](/source/Las_Hermanas_(ballet))'' and ''[Song of the Earth](/source/Song_of_the_Earth_(ballet))''. After retiring from the stage due to an injury, he worked as a ballet master first with the [Berlin State Ballet](/source/Berlin_State_Ballet), then with [John Neumeier](/source/John_Neumeier) at the ballet of the [Oper Frankfurt](/source/Oper_Frankfurt) and the [Hamburg Ballet](/source/Hamburg_Ballet). He was associate director of the [Spanish National Dance Company](/source/Spanish_National_Dance_Company), and created several choreographies internationally.

== Early life and career ==
Born Raymond Martin Barallobre Ramirez<ref name="Bopp" /><ref name="Brug" /><ref name="Tanznetz" /> in San Francisco on January 3, 1930,<ref name="Tanznetz" /><ref name="OUP" /> he grew up in a Spanish family. The boy was attracted to dance when he watched films of [Fred Astaire](/source/Fred_Astaire), [Gene Kelly](/source/Gene_Kelly), [Eleanor Powell](/source/Eleanor_Powell) and Ginger Rogers at age eleven. He studied ballet at the School of Ballet in San Francisco with the Christensen brothers, influential in early American ballet.<ref name="Salas" /> He studied further at the [American Ballet Theatre School](/source/American_Ballet_Theatre_School) in New York City.<ref name="Brug" /> In 1949 he became a member of the [San Francisco Opera Ballet](/source/San_Francisco_Opera_Ballet). He had to serve in the military for two years during the [Korea War](/source/Korean_War), stationed in Japan.<ref name="Bopp" /> From 1953 to 1959 he danced with [American Ballet Theatre](/source/American_Ballet_Theatre) (ABT), already as a soloist.<ref name="Brug" /><ref name="Bavarian" /> He starred in ''Paean'', by [Herbert Ross](/source/Herbert_Ross) to music by [Ernest Chausson](/source/Ernest_Chausson) in May 1957, alongside [Nora Kaye](/source/Nora_Kaye), [John Kriza](/source/John_Kriza) and [Lupe Serrano](/source/Lupe_Serrano).<ref name="Salas" /> During this time, he also danced on [Broadway](/source/Broadway_theatre) and in [can-can](/source/can-can) to make money. When the ABT troupe toured in France in 1959 and a fire caused the production to be closed for a year, Barra remained in Europe.<ref name="Brown" />

He was a principal dancer of the [Stuttgart Ballet](/source/Stuttgart_Ballet), then directed by Nicholas Beriosov,<ref name="Salas" /> from 1959.<ref name="Brug" /> When [John Cranko](/source/John_Cranko) came to Stuttgart in 1961, Barra was one of few dancers remaining in the company.<ref name="Hüster" /> He created roles in his productions, such as the title role in ''[Romeo and Juliet](/source/Romeo_and_Juliet_(Cranko))'' with [Marcia Haydée](/source/Marcia_Hayd%C3%A9e) as Julia (1962) and the title role in ''[Onegin](/source/Onegin_(Cranko))'' (1965), both regarded as among the most important male characters in 20th-century ballet.<ref name="Brug" /><ref name="Tanznetz" /> He also appeared as the Prince in ''[Swan Lake](/source/Swan_Lake)''.<ref name="Salas" /> and the Prince in ''[Firebird](/source/Firebird_(ballet))'' (1964)<ref name="Tanznetz" /> He created major roles in ballets by [Kenneth MacMillan](/source/Kenneth_MacMillan), Pepe in ''[Las Hermanas](/source/Las_Hermanas_(ballet))'' based on Lorca's play ''[The House of Bernarda Alba](/source/The_House_of_Bernarda_Alba)'', again alongside Haydee (1963),<ref name="Brown" /> and ''[Song of the Earth](/source/Song_of_the_Earth_(ballet))'' (1965).<ref name="Bopp" />

In 1966, Barra had to retire from the stage due to an injury during rehearsal<ref name="Tanznetz" /> on his 36th birthday.<ref name="Bopp" /> He worked as ballet master, first from 1966 with the ballet of the [Deutsche Oper Berlin](/source/Deutsche_Oper_Berlin)<ref name="Bavarian" /> following MacMillan.<ref name="Bopp" /> From 1970 he worked with [John Neumeier](/source/John_Neumeier), first at the ballet of the [Oper Frankfurt](/source/Oper_Frankfurt) and from 1973 with his [Hamburg Ballet](/source/Hamburg_Ballet). He worked on Neumeier's ballets ''Romeo und Julia'' and ''[The Nutcracker](/source/The_Nutcracker)'' (1971), ''[Daphnis et Chloé](/source/Daphnis_et_Chlo%C3%A9)'' (1972), ''Dritte Sinfonie von Gustav Mahler'' (1975) and ''Illusionen – wie Schwanensee'' (1976). He also assisted Neumeyer in freelance productions such as ''[Josephs Legende](/source/Josephslegende)'' (Vienna, 1977), ''The Lady of the Camellias'' (Stuttgart, 1978), and ''[A Streetcar Named Desire](/source/A_Streetcar_Named_Desire_(ballet))'' (Stuttgart, 1983),<ref name="Bopp" />

Barra came to the [Spanish National Dance Company](/source/Spanish_National_Dance_Company) (Ballet Nacional de Espana/Clásico, later called Ballet del Teatro Lirico Nacional) in Madrid in 1985 and became a member of the directors' team until 1990.<ref name="Bopp" /><ref name="Salas" /> He choreographed there ''Poema divino'' to music by [Scriabin](/source/Alexander_Scriabin) (1985), commissioned by {{ill|María de Ávila (ballet master)|es|María de Ávila|lt=María de Ávila}}, the [pas de deux](/source/pas_de_deux) ''Nocturne'' to [music by Dvořák](/source/Nocturne_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k)) (1986),<ref name="Salas" /> his version of ''The Nutcracker'',<ref name="Bopp" /> ''La espera'', also known as ''Antes del albor'', on [Miguel Ángel Roig-Francolí](/source/Miguel_%C3%81ngel_Roig-Francol%C3%AD)'s ''Cinco piezas para orquesta'' and first performed on September 13, 1987, at the [Teatro de la Zarzuela](/source/Teatro_de_la_Zarzuela) in Madrid.<ref name="Madrid" /> ''Álbum'' to music by [Mendelssohn (1988](/source/Felix_Mendelssohn)), a [neo-romantic](/source/Neoromanticism_(music)) piece in homage of his mentors, and ''Caín y Abel'' to music by Rafael Reina (1990).<ref name="Salas" /> He choreographed for the [Washington Ballet](/source/Washington_Ballet) ''Dumky Variations'', on Dvorak's [Piano Trio in E minor](/source/Piano_Trio_No._4_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k)), Op. 90, played live.<ref name="Anderson" /> It was first performed on February 13, 1991.<ref name="Washington" />

In the 1990s, Barra helped improve the State School of Dance in Athens. He was called to Berlin again in 1994 by [Götz Friedrich](/source/G%C3%B6tz_Friedrich); his two years of directing the ballet there were regarded as a time of artistic success.<ref name="Bopp" /> He directed classical ballets for the [Bavarian State Ballet](/source/Bavarian_State_Ballet): ''[Don Quijote](/source/Don_Quijote_(ballet))'' (1991), ''Swan Lake'' (1995) and ''[Raymonda](/source/Raymonda)'' (2001),<ref name="Bopp" /><ref name="Bavarian" /> all still in the repertoire as of 2025.<ref name="Bopp" /> Barra choreographed ''Leyla and Majnun'' for a company in Istanbul in 1996, ''Canto General'' to [settings by](/source/Canto_General_(Theodorakis)) [Mikis Theodorakis](/source/Mikis_Theodorakis) of poems by [Pablo Neruda](/source/Pablo_Neruda) for the Greek National Ballet in 2005 and his version of ''[Carmen](/source/Carmen_(ballet))'' in 2007 for the ballet of the [Staatstheater Karlsruhe](/source/Badisches_Staatstheater_Karlsruhe) directed by [Birgit Keil](/source/Birgit_Keil).<ref name="Bopp" /><ref name="Hüster" /> He trained the ballet of the [Royal Opera House](/source/Royal_Opera_House) in London in 2012 in a production of ''Las Hermanas'' in memory of MacMillan's 20th anniversary of death.<ref name="Brown" />

== Personal life and death ==
Barra was openly gay. He was the partner of [Erik Bruhn](/source/Erik_Bruhn), and then for 54 years of Maximo Barra, with whom he lived on [Menorca](/source/Menorca) from the 1980s and later in [Marbella](/source/Marbella). His partner died of cancer in 2018.<ref name="Bopp" />

Barra died in Marbella on March 26, 2025, at the age of 95.<ref name="Tanznetz" /><ref name="Brug" /><ref name="Salas" /> [Horst Koegler](/source/Horst_Koegler) wrote in a 1964 book ''Ballett in Stuttgart'' that Cranko made the hero the center of the dramatic action which was possible due to Barra's ability to create characters: upright and masculine with a strong human vitality and the gift to be an adaptible partner. A biography of Barra, ''Life in Ballet'', by Victor Hughes who had collaborated with Neumeier as dancer and ballet master, was published in 2020.<ref name="Bopp" />

== References ==
{{reflist | 30em
| refs =

<ref name="Anderson">{{cite news
| last = Anderson
| first = Jack
| title = Review/Dance; The Birds and Elders Wild, the Youth Melancholy
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/23/arts/review-dance-the-birds-and-elders-wild-the-youth-melancholy.html
| newspaper = [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)
| date = November 23, 1992
| access-date = May 8, 2015
}}</ref>

<ref name="Bopp">{{cite web
| last = Bopp
| first = Annette
| translator-last = Hughes
| translator-first = Victor
| title = A great artist and Mensch.
| website = tanznetz.de
| date = January 3, 2020
| url = https://www.tanznetz.de/de/article/2020/great-artist-and-mensch
| access-date = March 28, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Brown">{{cite news
| last = Brown
| first = Mark
| title = Stage set for Las Hermanas' Covent Garden debut
| url = https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/nov/16/stage-las-hermanas-covent-garden
| newspaper = [The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)
| date = November 16, 2012
| access-date = October 20, 2014
}}</ref>

<ref name="Brug">{{cite news
| last = Brug
| first = Manuel
| url = https://www.welt.de/kultur/article255811272/Tanzstar-Ray-Barra-Dieser-Mann-definierte-das-Mannsein-im-Ballett-neu.html
| title = Tanzstar Ray Barra : Dieser Mann definierte das Mannsein im Ballett neu
| newspaper = [Die Welt](/source/Die_Welt)
| date = March 28, 2025
| language = de
| access-date = March 28, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Hüster">{{cite news
| last = Hüster
| first = Wiebke
| url = https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/musik-und-buehne/tanz/ballettmeister-ray-barra-gestorben-seinen-partnerinnen-gab-er-sicherheit-110389279.html
| title = Seinen Partnerinnen gab er Sicherheit
| newspaper = [FAZ](/source/Frankfurter_Allgemeine_Zeitung)
| date = March 30, 2025
| language = de
| access-date = March 31, 2025
}}</ref>
Nicholas Beriozoff 

<ref name="Bavarian">{{cite web
| title = Ray Barra
| url = https://www.staatsoper.de/biographien/barra-ray
| publisher = [Bavarian State Ballet](/source/Bavarian_State_Ballet)
| language = de
| access-date = May 2, 2015
}}</ref>

<ref name="Madrid">{{cite web
| title = Ray Barra
| url = http://musicadanza.es/cnd/titulos/titulo/?id=45
| website = musicadanza.es
| publisher = Centro de Documentation de Musica y Danza
| language = es
| access-date = May 8, 2015
}}</ref>

<ref name="OUP">{{cite web
| title = Ray Barra
| url = https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095448455?p=emailAmuf9KcSNyS2Q&d=/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095448455
| publisher = OUP
| access-date = October 20, 2014
}}</ref>

<ref name="Salas">{{cite web
| last=Salas
| first=Roger
| title=Muere Ray Barra, bailarín, coreógrafo y director de ballet
| website=Scherzo | date=March 28, 2025
| url=https://scherzo.es/muere-ray-barra-bailarin-coreografo-y-director-de-ballet/
| language=es
| access-date=March 28, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Tanznetz">{{cite web
| url = https://www.tanznetz.de/de/article/2025/ray-barra-im-alter-von-95-jahren-verstorben
| title = Ray Barra im Alter von 95 Jahren verstorben
| website = tanznetz.de
| date = March 27, 2025
| language = de
| access-date = March 28, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Washington">{{cite web
| title=Wayback Machine
| website=washingtonballet.org
| date=24 April 2015
| url=http://washingtonballet.org/_pdf/Copy%20of%20TWB%20Rep%20List-%20Updated%202013.pdf
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321192354/http://washingtonballet.org/_pdf/Copy%20of%20TWB%20Rep%20List-%20Updated%202013.pdf
| archive-date=21 March 2015
| url-status=dead
| access-date=20 April 2025
}}</ref>

}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | last=Hughes | first=Victor | title=Ray Barra: A Life in Ballet | publisher=The Book Guild Ltd | publication-place=Kibworth, Leicestershire | date=December 19, 2019 | isbn=978-1-913208-07-3}}

===Obituaries===
* {{cite web | title=Bayerisches Staatsballett | website=ballett-journal | date=March 28, 2025 | url=https://ballett-journal.de/bayerisches-staatsballett-stuttgarter-ballett-berlin-ray-barra-nachruf/ | language=de | access-date=March 28, 2025}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.inka-magazin.de/buehne-klassik/urauffuehrung-des-balletts-carmen-von-ray-barra.html Uraufführung des Balletts „Carmen“ von Ray Barra] November 16, 2007
* [https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/company/history/the-cranko-era/ History / The Cranko Era] Stuttgart Ballet
* {{cite web | title=Ray Barra | website=filmportal.de | url=https://www.filmportal.de/person/ray-barra_7c45ac3a300d4525b01224f47099be35 | language=de | access-date=March 28, 2025}}
* {{IMDb name}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barra, Ray}}
Category:1930 births
Category:2025 deaths
Category:American male ballet dancers
Category:Principal dancers
Category:Ballet masters
Category:Artists from San Francisco
Category:Dancers from California
Category:Entertainers from San Francisco
Category:American people of Spanish descent

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ray Barra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Barra) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Barra?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.