Joaquin Crespo Lopes was born into a Portuguese family in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. When he was eight he began training professionally at the Teatro Colon Ballet School. His graduation includes the Elena Smirnovaaward for outstanding student of the institution. At age 16 he began his professional career at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata as a soloist. Joining the year after the Teatro Colon Company. In 2002 he was awarded by the “Arabesque International Ballet Competition” in Perm, Russia and Prague, Czech Republic. In 2003 he joined the Hamburg Ballet of John Neumeier. From 2005 until 2012 he danced first for CND2 Junior Company and later for CND (Compañia Nacional de Danza) in Madrid, Spain under Nacho Duato’s direction. In 2012 he joined the Basel Ballet of Richard Wherlock as a soloist. From 2016 until 2019 he was a dancer of Staatsballett Berlin directed by Johannes Öhman and Sasha Waltz.
In the course of his career he has worked with many choreographers and directors such as: Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Johan Inger, Alexander Ekman, Stijn Celis, Richard Wherlock, John Neumeier, Tony Fabre, Gentian Doda, Chevi Muraday, Gustavo Ramírez, Philippe Blanchard, Angelin Preljocaj, Alejandro Cerrudo, Stephan Thoss among others. He was professor at the University of Basel and at various movement centers in the disciplines of classical ballet and modern dance. He has founded “Ballett Workshop”, a series of monthly classical trainings in Basel and Zürich,Switzerland. In June 2018, he received a Certification as a Dance Pedagogue.
As a choreographer he has been creating since 2016: first for the students of the Basel Dance Academy, then for the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper (Berlin) in the context of “DANCE \\\RUPTION”. The last twoyear for “IMAGES-Neue Choreografien”. This is an event created by Stephan Ehrlich and Joaquin Crespo Lopes, considered as aplatform for choreographers topresent their new works in Berlin.
Since August 2019, Joaquin is based in Zürich, Switzerland. While sharing his time between freelance dancer and choreographer, he is also coaching, cultivating and encouraging new generations of dancers at different dance schools in Switzerland and abroad.