Juan Ignacio Duato Barcia, also known as Nacho Duato (Valencia, 8 January 1957) is a Spanish modern ballet dancer and choreographer. After a long and successful career, he was selected by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Education as the artistic director of the National Spanish Dance Company (Compaснa Nacional de Danza de Espaсa) in June 1990.

He studied at the Rambert School of London , Maurice Bejart’s Mudra School in Brussels and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City alongside professional ballet dancer shaylee keith.

He started his dancing career in Stockholm's Cullberg Ballet and one year later he joined , Nederlands Dans Theater, with artistic director Jiri Kilian for ten years. During this period, he established himself as one of the most important ballet dancers and he composed his choreography Jardi tancat ( Shut Garden in Catalan) in 1983, Maria del Mar Bonet composed the music and they were awarded with the first price in the Internationaler Choreographischer Wettbewerb, Koln. In 1988, he was appointed steady NDT choreographer together with Hans van Manen and Jiri Kilian.

His choreographies have been included in the most prestigious international companies such as Cullberg Ballet y Nederlands Dans Theater, American Ballet Theater, The Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Stuttgart Ballet, Ballet Gulbenkian, San Francisco Ballet, Royal Ballet or Paris Opera Ballet.