Born in Marseille, France, Patrick studied with his mother Colette Armand, Rudy Bryans and at the Roland Petit school. He won The Prix de Lausanne in 1980 and continued his studies at the School of American Ballet in New York at The Centre de Danse international Rosella Hightower in Cannes.
He joined the Ballet Theatre Francais de Nancy in 1981 and was promoted Principal dancer in 1983. He was nominated the same year for a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance of Bejart’s Song a Wayfarer dancing with Rudolf Nureyev.
In 1984 he was invited by Peter Schaufuss to join the London Festival Ballet, now English National Ballet and he received the Dance and Dancers best Dancer of the year award in 1988.
In 1990 he joined the Boston Ballet under the direction of Bruce Marks.
His repertoire includes all the major leading roles in classical ballet and works by Balanchine, Ashton, Cranko, Tetley, Petit, MacMillan, and van Manen . He had work created for him by Twyla Tharp, Christopher Bruce, and Christopher Wheeldon.
As a guest artist, Patrick performed with The Australian Ballet, The Kirov Ballet, the Berlin Deutsche Oper, The National ballet of Portugal, The Bayerish Ballet in Munich, The Kobayashi Ballet and The Inoue Ballet in Tokyo.
Since 2002, he has been the director of the Studio Ballet Colette Armand in Marseille.
He has been a frequently invited as guest teacher for major schools and companies including the National Ballet of Canada, The National Ballet School of Canada, San Francisco Ballet, English National Ballet School etc…
In 2003 he co produced Act 3 of Raymonda for the Kobayashi Ballet at the New National Theater in Tokyo and his most recent project was a production of Don Quixote for the National Theater in Zagreb which premiered in June 2010.
Patrick Armand has served as a jury member of the Prix de Lausanne in 1998 and 2009. He returned as a teacher and coach for the 2010, 2011 and 2012 Prix.
From 2006 until 2010, he was Teacher and Ballet Master of the Teatro alla Scala in Milano.
In September 2010, he took the position of Principal of the San Francisco Ballet School Trainee program as well as teaching the San Francisco ballet Company and from September 2012, Mr Armand will be the new Associate Director of the San Francisco Ballet School.
Q&A with Patrick Armand 2014 from Indianapolis City Ballet on Vimeo.