Born in the Cowichan Valley, British Columbia, Canada, Aaron Sean Watkin graduated from the National Ballet School of Canada in 1988 winning the prestigious Erik Bruhn Award, awarded to the most promising student in the school. He has had personal coaching with numerous ballet stars such as Erik Bruhn, Stanely Williams, Fernando Bujones, Gilbert Meyer, Lynn Seymour, Noella Pontois and Irina Kolpakova. Watkin enjoyed a full career in dance beginning with leading classical companies including National Ballet of Canada, English National Ballet and Dutch National Ballet, where he worked his way up from corps de ballet to the ranks of soloist. After 7 years of the classical repertoire, he was invited by world renowned choreographer William Forsythe to become a Principal Dancer with Ballett Frankfurt. In 2000, Watkin joined the National Dance Company of Spain directed by Nacho Duato. In June 2002 Watkin was appointed Associate Artistic Director to Victor Ullate Ballet in Madrid, Spain. Watkin was a personal choreographic assistant to Mr William Forsythe, in charge of setting and rehearsing his ballets on dance companies throughout the world, including Kirov Ballet, Paris Opera, Dutch National Ballet among others. In 2005 he also assisted Mr David Dawson for his creation of Reverence for Kirov Ballet and Mr Johan Inger, for his creation of Negro con Flores for Cullberg Ballet. Watkin was a guest teacher to many of Europe's leading dance companies and Artistic Associate Director of The Loft Dance Studio in Brussels, Belgium. Watkin was also Artistic Associate Director of the annual Dance For Life AIDS Benefit Galas at the Cirque Royal Theatre in Brussels, Belgium. Aaron S. Watkin was appointed Artistic Director of the Semperoper Ballett on August 1st, 2006. In 2007 he choreographed his first full-length ballet production ‘The Sleeping Beauty’, followed by ‘La Bayadère’ in 2008 ‘Swan Lake’ in 2009 and ‘The Nutcracker’ in 2011 together with the Rector of the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden, Prof. Jason Beechey.