Elisa Carrillo Cabrera was born in Texcoco, Mexico. She studied at INBA’s Escuela Nacional de Danza Clasica y Contemporanea, and in The English National Ballet School, and was awarded a Master of Ballet degree from the Ministry of Culture in Germany and the John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart. She joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1999 and joined Staatsballett Berlin in 2007, where she was promoted to principal dancer in 2011. Her repertoire has included major works of the classical and contemporary repertoire by choreographers including: Boris Eifman, Nacho Duato, Angelin Preljocaj, John Cranko, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, Marco Goecke, John Cranko, Kenneth Macmillan, Mauro Bigonzetti, Mats Ek, Vasily Medvedev, Vladimir Malakov, Alexei Ratmansky, Christian Spuck, Uwe Scholz and many others.

She is the only Mexican woman, and the first Latin American dancer to win all three international dance prices: the Benois de la Danse, Russia´s Soul of Dance, and St. Petersburg´s Festival Dance Open. Beyond her own dancing career, she currently serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Compañia Nacional de Danza (CND), Mexico. She also acts as an ambassador for Mexican culture, and is a member of UNESCO´s international dance committee and the Mexican Cultural Diplomacy committee. She is founder of the Elisa Carrillo Cabrera Foundation A.C., and serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Sir Anton Dolin Foundation.

She has organized festivals in Mexico and abroad, including the gala “Elisa & Friends” which has brought international star dancers and companies to Mexico since 2012, as well as the International Dance Festival DANZATLAN since 2018. She continues to promote international excellence in dance and culture within Mexico and abroad, working with both students and professional dancers to enrich the training, coaching, and performance opportunities available to them.