Mosey on over to the March issue of Vanity Fair to see Laura Jacob's Spotlight on Angel Corella and his company, Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon. Angel talks about how he did not want to leave Spain when he was a young dancer but needed the opportunity to show the world what he could do.
Haglund remembers being in David Howard's morning class in April of 1995 when Angel had just arrived at ABT as a soloist. During the break between barre and center, Wes Chapman, then an ABT principal with world class pirouetting abilities, munched on his breakfast muffin, as he usually did between barre and center, while deflecting questions about Angel. "I haven't seen him yet," he said. Someone probed, " I heard he can do nine pirouettes!" There were aahs and whistles. "I haven't seen him yet," said Chapman munching a big enough bite so that he could not talk.
We all soon learned that oh, Angel was so much more than nine pirouettes. A generous performer, eager to please, eager to surpass your expectations, Angel has always been the dancer who dares you not to fall head-over-heels in love with whatever he is dancing. He has maintained that infectious spirit during his 15-year career with ABT and now seems to be happily passing on that spirit to his young dancers in his own young company.
It looks like we're only going to get to see Angel dance twice with ABT during the Met season. However, he will be performing with his own company when it takes up residence at City Center on March 17th. He'll also be presenting his first choreographic effort. The green beer will wait, people. Let's have a massive and vocal turnout for opening night.
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