Born in Holland and raised in Madrid (Spain), Manuel Barriga studied ballet with Victor Ullate Ballet Academy and Carmina Ocaña School of Ballet. He started his professional career with Ballet San Jose (San Jose, California) then moved to New York City to dance with New York Theatre Ballet while occasionally performing with Barcelona Ballet (known formerly as Corella Ballet) in Natalya Makarova’s La Bayadere and the Paris Opera Ballet in Maurice Bejart’s Bolero for the Lincoln Center Festival. In the meantime Mr. Barriga started teaching ballet to students of all ages in several schools. In August 2012 Mr. Barriga joined Carolina Ballet for their 15th season and continued to perform with them for five more seasons. In May 2017, Mr. Barriga retired from the stage to continue teaching ballet and became a Certified Gyrotonic® Apprentice trainer and joined Wake Tech Community College to study Therapeutic Massage as a full time student. Mr. Barriga has been involved with Destiny Dance Institute since 2013 both as a ballet teacher and as a principal guest artist performing in The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Giselle and The Firebird.