Clyde Nantais, executive director of the Boston Dance Company, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Boston Conservatory and a Master of Education from Temple University. From 1971 to 1974 Nantais performed chorus and leading roles in Equity summer stock and dinner theatre productions of such Broadway musicals as West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and Guys and Dolls. He then danced with Boston Ballet for seven years and taught in its school for seventeen years. From 1980 to 1988 he was on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory and Ballet Master of the Boston Conservatory Dance Theatre. Between 1980 and 1990 Nantais worked as a guest artist, choreographer, ballet master, and/or master teacher with numerous companies including Ballet Santo Domingo, Berkshire Ballet, Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, Pioneer Valley Ballet, Ithaca Ballet, and Arkansas Ballet. From 1990 to 1992 he was principal ballet teacher for the National Institute of the Arts in Taipei, Taiwan.
Upon his return to Boston in 1992, Nantais founded the Boston Dance Company with James Reardon. Since then the Boston Dance Company has been performing his production of Nutcracker throughout New England in such venues as Salem State College, Lynn Memorial Auditorium, the Strand Theatre in Dorchester, Rochester Opera House in New Hampshire, Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, and various high school auditoriums throughout New England. Boston Dance Company has also produced major performances at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston. Since 1992, Clyde has been teaching at the Boston Dance Company, the Charlotte Klein Dance Centers in Worcester and Westboro, the New Art Center in Newton, and at the Franklin School of the Performing Arts where he has choreographed 23 Broadway shows. He was also on the faculty of Dean College from 2000 to 2004. He returned to the faculty of Boston Ballet in 2003. Nantais is also an accomplished costume and set designer. Nantais has staged or choreographed more than 50 ballets for more than 30 colleges, schools, or companies internationally.
