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About
Quinones-Villanueva has been dancing since the age of 14, starting with talent shows in Puerto Rico when the government held auditions for a young teenagers’ company. His folklore teacher took him to the audition, but at the time he actually didn’t know what it was for. He passed the audition, and from that point started training and performing.
The turning point for him in becoming a professional dancer came when he was flown to New York for a show for the company, and saw his first musical there. “It was ‘Cats.’ That changed my life,” he remembers clearly. “How can people do this and live?”
Since then, the dancer, who’s skilled in numerous genres of dance, including contemporary, jazz, and hip-hop, has performed professionally with Ballet Concierto, Ballet San Juan, Ballet Hispanico of New York, Ballet Teatro Nacional de Puerto Rico and the Metropolitan Opera of New York.
A cum laude graduate of the University of Puerto Rico with a bachelor’s degree in Education, Quinones-Villanueva has also appeared in a production of “Man of La Mancha” at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and on the television show “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” and has performed with international recording artists Marc Anthony, Olga Tañón, La India, and the late Celia Cruz.
After “West Side Story” wraps, Quinones-Villanueva is on to his next gig, heading to Florida in November to play the older Billy in the play “Billy Elliott.”
As for the best piece of advice he’s received about entering his profession, his response is simply, “Enjoy what you do.”