Dry Your Eyes, See Angel Dance

There were tears shed last week when American Ballet Theatre announced that the upcoming Met season would be Angel Corella’s last with the company. The superstar, in a statement sent to The New York Times, said, “It was not an easy decision but I want to dedicate myself 100 percent to [my company] Barcelona Ballet, and I feel now is the time.” Well, we can get behind that, and there’s no time like the present.

 

Barcelona Ballet opens at New York City Center next Tuesday, April 17. (We’re giving away a pair of the tickets to the performance here.) On the program is Clark Tippet’s Bruch Violin Concerto and Christopher Wheeldon’s For 4, plus the world premiere (in which Corella will dance) of Pálpito, a commission from Ángel Rojas and Carlos Rodriguez. (It’s the Madrid connection: Corella shares a hometown with Rojas and Rodriguez’s Nuevo Ballet Español.) The program also features Clark Tippet’s Bruch Violin Concerto and Christopher Wheeldon’s For 4—Corella explains why he chose the pieces, and more about the company’s name change, below.

 

 

 

Then the following week, Barcelona Ballet gives three performances of Swan Lake—its first run of a full-length ballet in the States—at the Detroit Opera House. Corella is scheduled to dance Siegfried (which will also be his final role with ABT) on April 28 and sister Carmen performs Odette/Odile on April 29.

 

In his 1995 Dance Magazine cover story, Natalia Makarova described Corella as “exceptionally incredible.…He is an angel who has been sent to us.” It’s as true today as it was 17 years ago.

—Kina Poon