“A natural director, capable of nurturing a group of dancers into not just a cast, but a company of dancers whose full-out commitment to the choreography, and to one another, took his choreography in breathtaking directions.”
A native of San Antonio, Texas, Graciano has been a member of Ben Munisteri Dance Company, Cortez & Co. Contemporary/Ballet, Pascal Rioult Dance Theater, Broadway Dance Lab, and was a founding member of Dusan Tynek Dance Theater and TAKE Dance Company. In 2001 he danced in the Robert Wilson/Philip Glass opera, White Raven at the New York State Theater. That Fall Robert Wilson personally requested him to be featured in his first production of Aida in Brussels. He danced with Taylor 2 from 2004 – 2006 and the New York Times declared Mr. Graciano a “virtuoso star” when he danced in the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 2006 – 2017. In 2009 he was featured in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” hailed as a dancer with a “freshness that’s all his own.” After his career at Taylor he pursued his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance at Florida State University. His thesis work explored the nature of transformation through the recurring mythological motif of death and resurrection which springs from his upbringing as a Mexican-American who annually celebrated El Dia de Los Muertos.
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Self Portrait, Francisco Graciano
In the summer of 2020, amidst the COVID pandemic, he was chosen to be the inaugural choreographer for Dance Lab New York’s Nexus Lab where he experimented with video conferencing technology to create live digital performance. He founded Graciano Dance Projects, LLC in the Fall of 2020 as a platform to present live and digital theater and is fiscally sponsored by Unique Projects. He has been a commissioned choreographer for Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, Ballet Conservatory of South Texas, and the Drama Desk Award winning Theater in Quarantine’s Closet Works series as well as for numerous BFA dance programs.
Francisco's choreography explores the themes of bodily and psychological transformation, captivating audiences at renowned venues like the Gibney Theater, WestFest Dance Festival, Battery Dance Festival, Provincetown Dance Festival, Austin Dance Festival, and the Nantucket Dance Festival.
His course Introduction to Dance Filmmaking became a part of the curriculum for the 2021 Paul Taylor Summer and Winter Intensives. He also taught the first ever Dancemaking class for The Taylor School in the summer of 2021 in-person. Additionally, that summer he created an original solo for Eran Bugge (principal dancer, Paul Taylor Dance Company) and a separately collaborated with celebrated soprano, Devon Guthrie, to create an original solo for Lorenzo Pagano, principal dancer for the Martha Graham Dance Company.
His work has been presented in New York City and internationally. In 2022 the Paul Taylor Dance Company requested him to teach Taylor technique and choreograph a new work for dance artists in Guanajuato, Mexico. The Bach Dance Project premiered at the 50th Annual Festival Internacional Cervantino at the Teatro Principal. The massive project was an ambitious collaboration engaging live musical artists, dance artists of Guanajuato, the Taylor legacy, and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
He’s proud to share the Taylor legacy with aspiring dancers as a rotating faculty member at the Paul Taylor School in New York City and regionally. His photographic work has been exhibited in major publications like Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit, and Dance Teacher, and galleries in San Francisco and New York. His choreographic work centers around themes of transition and transformation of body and psychology. As a collaborator he's also had the privilege to work intimately with dance artists such as Miriam Barbosa, Jacob Jonas, Bill Wadman, Jordan Matter, and Robert Wilson.
He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Dance at Sam Houston State University and practices as a licensed GYROKINESIS® and GYROTONIC® Trainer. Visit @ciscograciano on social media for more information.
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