Yvan Dubreuil, a native of Paris, lists Max Bozzoni, Raymond Franchetti and Jacques Lecoque among his teachers. In 1985, he enrolled in the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique, where he also studied under Serge Golovine, Cyril Atanassof and Mickael Denard. In 1989, he joined Nederlands Dans Theater 2, and later became a dancer with NDT1 in 1991, remaining there until 2009. During this period, he got the chance to work with such choreographers as Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, Nacho Duato, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot, Saburo Teshigawara and Crystal Pite. He has participated in numerous premieres as a co-choreographer, a dramaturg, a set designer, and as a teacher and ballet master. He has also staged numerous works by Jiří Kylián, Johan Inger and others. He earned his degree in dance pedagogy from the Centre National de la Danse in Paris.