Born in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Vitor Luiz trained with Victor Navarro and Dalal Achcar, Pedro Kraszczuck, and The Royal Ballet School. He began his professional career with Birmingham Royal Ballet and performed as a principal dancer with Ballet do Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro prior to joining San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer in 2009.
Among Luiz’ major roles are Albrecht in Tomasson’s Giselle, Nutcracker Prince and King of the Snow in Tomasson’s Nutcracker, Mercutio in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet, Prince Siegfried in Tomasson’s Swan Lake, Basilio in Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote, Franz in Balanchine’s Coppélia, and Onegin in Cranko’s Onegin. He created roles in Tomasson’s Trio, Caniparoli’s Tears, Liang’s Symphonic Dances, Possokhov’s Talk to Her, Wheeldon’s Number Nine, and Zanella’s Underskin.
His repertory also includes Ashton’s Symphonic Variations; Balanchine’s Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (2nd movement), Divertimento No. 15, Serenade, Symphony in C, and Theme and Variations; Caniparoli’s Ibsen’s House; Lifar’s Suite en Blanc; MacMillan’s Winter Dreams; Makarova’s (after Petipa) Kingdom of the Shades, Act II from La Bayadère (Solor); Nureyev’s Raymonda—Act III; Possokhov’s Classical Symphony, RAkU, and The Rite of Spring; Ratmansky’s From Foreign Lands, Russian Seasons, and Shostakovich Trilogy (Piano Concerto #1); Scarlett’s Hummingbird; Tomasson’s 7 for Eight, Caprice, Concerto Grosso, Criss-Cross, The Fifth Season, “Haffner” Symphony, Prism, and the pas de deux from Tuning Game; and Wheeldon’s Ghosts and Within the Golden Hour.
As a guest artist, Luiz performed with Lorena Feijoo at World Gala of Dance in the Dominican Republic and Gala Evening of Stars in Aspen, Colorado, in 2009; at the TITAS Command Performance of International Ballet in Dallas and the XIII International Ballet Fest of Miami in 2008; and at the Razzle Dazzle Gala in Stamford, Connecticut, and the Gala of International Ballet Stars in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2007.
Luiz was nominated for the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Best Ensemble Performance in Possokhov’s Classical Symphony during the 2010 Repertory Season.