montaño was born in buenaventura on the pacific coast of colombia into very poor area of the country but at the age of 14 won a scholarship to the national ballet school of cuba where he won several prizes at the international ballet contest in havana, cuba, and then joined the cuban national ballet. he also trained at la scala and teatro nuovo di torino, italy where he was spotted by the director of the english ballet school, jane hucker and niurka de saa and invited to the uk to audition, following which he joined the royal ballet in 2006 where he was mentored by carlos acosta.