Biography

The works of Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros have been performed throughout North America, South America and Europe, and include near three dozen set on the dancers of Miami City Ballet. In 14 years as Resident Choreographer and Ballet Master of Miami City Ballet, he created a signature style for that company, beginning with its opening performances in 1986.

Mr. Gamonet's work in ballet's neoclassical style –- both abstract and narrative – has been noted and rewarded at a national and international level. He has received three separate Choreography Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, including the prestigious three-year Fellowship in 1990, awarded to artists whose “work on a level of national excellence over time extends the aesthetic boundaries of the discipline”. His other NEA awards include a one-year fellowship in 1989 and a two-year Fellowship in 1994. The State of Florida also recognized his accomplishments with Choreography Fellowships in 1993 and 1995.

In 1997, Mr. Gamonet developed a course curriculum for an innovative Choreographers Workshop. His mission: to build a training program with a final goal of educating, nurturing and encouraging aspiring choreographers to continue serious work in the field of classical dance. With funding through the Catherine Filene Shouse Foundation, the Choreographers Workshop was initiated as a three-year pilot program at Miami City Ballet with Mr. Gamonet as the Workshop Director.  In 1992 and again in 1993, Mr. Gamonet was appointed to the NEA Dance Advisory Panel. Also in 1992, he served on the faculty of the Southeast Regional Ballet Festival. In 1999 and again in 2001, he was invited to judge the International Ballet Competition in Trujillo, Peru.

In recognition of his contributions to the art form, Mr. Gamonet was one of eight choreographers chosen in 1992 for the National Repertory Program. (The NRP is supported by the NEA, the Philip Morris Companies, and the Lila Wallace Reader Digest Fund to subsidize choreographic acquisitions for American professional repertory companies.) Under the NRP grant, the Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico commissioned Mr. Gamonet to set a version of Carmen on its dancers, which received its New York City premiere at the Joyce Theater. The collaboration between the choreographer and the company has continued: in May 2000, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico commissioned Pico Rico Mandorico, a new work based on a novel by acclaimed Puerto Rican writer Rosario Ferré. The ballet, made possible in part through a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts premiered in Puerto Rico as part of an all-Gamonet program in March 2001.

Other recognitions for his creatives efforts include, the 2000 Bill Hindman Award; given by the South Florida Critics Circle and the Theatre League of South Florida, for career artistic achievment and significant contributions to the artstic development of the performing arts. The Hispanic Heritage Council Award; in recognition for his significant efforts between the people of the Spanish speaking countries and the U.S.A..

Mr. Gamonet began his stage career at the age of one with Francisco Gamonet Productions, the theatrical company directed by his father. He toured as an actor through the age of 13, when he began his dance studies. While in his teens, he performed on Panamericana Television and in musicals under the direction of Peruvian choreographers Armando Barrientos and Eugenia Endo; he also choreographed several TV commercials in those years. At 22, he choreographed and staged plays for Lima's Broadway series (Mary Poppins, among others).