Angel Corella

In a 2005 performance as Aminta, from Frederick Ashton's ballet Sylvia

Ángel Corella (born November 8, 1975) is a Spanish dancer, currently the Artistic Director and principal dancer of Corella Ballet Castilla Y León as well as principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. He has been honored with the prestigious Prix Benois de la Danse award for his performance of Jerome Robbins' Other Dances with ballerina Julie Kent and has also been bestowed the National Award of Spain.

Early career

Born and raised in Madrid, Corella trained with Karemia Moreno and Víctor Ullate and began winning dance awards at a young age, including the First Prize in the National Ballet Competition of Spain in 1991 and three years later, the Grand Prix and Gold Medal at the Concours International de Danse de Paris.

When the world-renowned, Russian ballerina Natalia Makarova, saw the young Corella in competition, she contacted the artistic director of American Ballet Theatre and recommended that he be auditioned for the company. He was accepted into ABT as a soloist in April 1995 and was promoted the following year (August 1996) to the rank of principal dancer.

Professional work

Ángel Corella has performed as a guest artist with such companies as The Royal Ballet in London, the La Scala Ballet in Milan, the New York City Ballet, the Australian Ballet, the Ballet of Tokyo, the Asami Maki Ballet, Ballet Contemporaneo de Caracas, and the National Ballet of Chile. In March 2008, Corella made his debut with the Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, dancing the role of Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake.

Corella has also performed in numerous festivals, galas, and special performances around the world, including The Kings of the Dance which premiered, in February 2006, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, CA, immediately followed by an East Coast premiere at City Center. He performed alongside dancers Gudrun Bojesen of The Royal Danish Ballet; Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg of the Royal Ballet, London; Ethan Stiefel of ABT; and Nikolay Tsiskaridze of the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2007, Kings of the Dance toured to Russia with performances in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Perm, Russia. The next year, Angel Corella was the sole returning original cast member to perform it at the Mariinsky Festival. Prior to 2008, he toured Spain extensively with his own company Ángel Corella & Stars of the American Ballet. He is now Artistic Director of Corella Ballet.

In recent years, Corella has danced for Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States. He has performed all of the classics (see extensive listing below), and has received critical acclaim for his technique, musicality, and for his sensitive, dramatic interpretations of roles in ballets by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, specifically Romeo and Juliet and more recently, Manon.

He has had the opportunity to partner many well-known ballerinas including Alessandra Ferri, Xiomara Reyes, Julie Kent, Gillian Murphy, Diana Vishneva, Alina Cojocaru, Nina Ananiashvili, Paloma Herrera, Irina Dvorovenko, Viktoria Tereshkina, Alina Somova, Evgenia Obraztsova, Alexandra Ansanelli, Michele Wiles, Stella Abrera and Letizia Giuliani, among others.

Roles

Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake Des Grieux in Manon Romeo in Romeo and Juliet Albrecht in Giselle Peasant Pas de deux from Giselle Colas In La Fille Mal Gardée Conrad in Le Corsaire Ali the Slave in Le Corsaire Birbanto in Le Corsaire Lensky in Onegin The Prince in Cinderella Solor in La Bayadère The Bronze Idol in La Bayadere Basilio in Don Quixote Gypsy King in Don Quixote Danilo in The Merry Widow Camille in The Merry Widow James in La Sylphide Franz in Coppélia Cassio in Othello The Bluebird Pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty

Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty The Nutcracker Prince in The Nutcracker The Cavalier in The Nutcracker Henry VIII in VIII Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew The Blue Boy in Les Patineurs The Rose in Le Spectre de la Rose The Son in The Prodigal Son The Peruvian in Gaîté Parisienne Billy in Billy the Kid Aktaion in Artemis Petrouchka in Petrouchka Her Lover in Jardin aux Lilas The First Sailor in Fancy Free The Third Sailor in Fancy Free Aktaion in Artemis The Man from the House Opposite in Pillar of Fire Misgir in The Snow Maiden Her Lover in Weren't We Fools? The Dancemaster in The Lesson Oberon in The Dream

• Leading roles in other ballets include the following: Symphony in C, Other Dances, Push Comes to Shove, The Sleeping Beauty Act II, Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison, Variations on America, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Theme and Variations, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Bruch Violin Concerto, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, Ballet Imperial, Sinfonietta, Gong, Who Cares?, Variations For Four, The Leaves Are Fading, Mozartiana, Without Words, A Brahms Symphony, Stepping Stones, Americans We, and Spring and Fall, Concerto no. 1 for Piano & Orchestra, Sinatra Suite, In the Upper Room, and Allegro Brillante, among others.

• Ballets created on Corella by today's choreographers: For 4 by Christopher Wheeldon, Non Troppo by Mark Morris, The Pied Piper by David Parsons, HereAfter by Natalie Weir & Stanton Welch, Meadow by Lar Lubovitch, Baroque Game by Robert Hill, Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra by Robert Hill, Known by Heart by Twyla Tharp, Getting Closer by John Neumeier, Sin and Tonic by James Kudelka, and both Clear and We Got it Good by choreographer Stanton Welch.

• Ballets in Opera Productions: Dance of the Hours in Ponchielli's La Gioconda choreographed by George Iancu in Barcelona 2005 as well as Christopher Wheeldon's new Dance of the Hours in Ponchielli's La Gioconda for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, 2006. (Debut performances).

Television appearances

• 1996 Kennedy Center Honors
• 1998 Sesame Street
• 2001 Charlie Rose
• 2000 PBS presentation of documentary film Born To Be Wild - The Leading Men Of American Ballet Theatre
• 2005 (Emmy Award-winning) PBS presentation of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, with Gillian Murphy and Marcelo Gomes (Staging by Kevin McKenzie)

Corella's DVD recordings

Angel Corella backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2007 - Photo by Hermine Weiss

• Swan Lake with Gillian Murphy (American Ballet Theatre - 2005)
• Romeo and Juliet with Alessandra Ferri (La Scala Ballet - 2000)
• Le Corsaire with Julie Kent/Ethan Stiefel (American Ballet Theatre - 1998 VHS, 2001 DVD)
• Born To Be Wild - The Leading Men Of American Ballet Theatre (Biographical Documentary- 1999) with Vladimir Malakhov, Jose Manuel Carreño, and Ethan Stiefel.
• Don Quixote Pas de Deux with Paloma Herrera (American Ballet Theatre) on a mixed bill DVD titled American Ballet Theatre Now - Variety and Virtuosity (1996)

Awards

• National Ballet Competition of Spain - First prize, May 1991
• Concours International de Danse de Paris - Grand Prix / Gold Medal, December 1994
• Prix Benois de la Danse, 2000
• National Award of Spain, 2003
• Dance Europe Magazine DANCER OF THE YEAR Award 2007
• Leonid Massine Award, 2008
• International Medal of Arts, Madrid, Spain 2009

Foundation

• La Fundación Ángel Corella

"The Angel Corella Foundation was formed in 2001 to promote classical dance in Spain and to offer the opportunity for the finest professional training to all dancers, regardless of their economic or social condition".

At this stage of his career, Corella has created this ambitious educational, artistic and cultural project consisting of a Residence School for Dancers and a Ballet Company - Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon, both sited in the Palace of Santa Cecilia at the Royal Location of La Granja de San Ildefonso in Segovia, Spain.

The repertoire of the Ballet Academy and Corella Ballet will include classical, neoclassic and contemporary works.

This high-profile project in Spain is already attracting a great deal of international interest.

Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon

In April 2008, Corella established the first classical ballet company in Spain in 20 years — Corella Ballet, Castilla y León.

This new company had its world premiere in La Granja, Segovia, Spain on July 11, 2008 performing a mixed program of Bruch Violin Concerto, Clear and In the Upper Room. Its first full-length ballet was La Bayadere (staging by Natalia Makarova) on September 4, 2008 at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain.

Corella Ballet has since gone on to expand its repertoire and gain a great following across both Spain and the rest of the world. They are a touring company performing in many theatres across Spain, including Teatro Real, Madrid and the Liceu, Barcelona and have performed internationally at the New York City Center in March 2010 and the Los Angeles Music Center and Santa Barbara, California as well as the Gudalajara book festival, Mexico in November 2010.

The Corella Ballet will perform at New York City Center in April 2012.

Repertoire

• Full length

La Bayadère (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa)

Swan Lake (Angel Corella after Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa)

• Triple bill and pas de deux

Bruch Violin Concerto (Clark Tippet) Clear (Stanton Welch) We got it good (Stanton Welch) In the Upper Room (Twyla Tharp) Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux (George Balanchine) Who Cares? (George Balanchine) After the Rain, Pas de Deux (Christopher Wheeldon) VIII (Christopher Wheeldon) DGV (Christopher Wheeldon) Don Quixote pas de deux

Corsaire Suite Diana and Acteon pas de deux String Sextet (Angel Corella) Epimitheus (Russell Ducker) Fancy Free (Jerome Robbins) Apollo pas de deux (George Balanchine) Satanella Pas de Deux "Walpurgisnacht" (Leonid Lavrovsky) "Sunny Duet" (Vladimir Vasiliov and Natalia Kasatkina) "SOLEÁ pas de deux (María Pagés)

Dancers

The company currently consists of 25 dancers chosen from over a thousand applicants coming from eight countries: Spain, Cuba, Ecuador, Ireland, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and USA.

Principal Dancers

Carmen Corella Natalia Tapia

Angel Corella Herman Cornejo Dayron Vera

First Soloists

Momoko Hirata Kazuko Omori

Fernando Bufala Yevgen Uzlenkov

Soloists

Ana Calderón Cristina Casa Maria Jose Sales

Aaron Robison Kirill Radev

Artists

Leire Cabrera Alba Cazorla Tracy Jones Carla López

Ion Agirretxe Jonatan Diaz Russell Ducker Francisco Estévez Toby Mallitt Carlos Taravillo

Apprentice

• Lauire McSherry-Gray

External links and reference articles

• Company Website
• Bio Page at ABT's Website
• Official Website
• Link to Forum Angel Corella
• NY Times review of La Bayadere (1999)
• Review of The Pied Piper (2001)
• NY Times review of The Pied Piper (2001)
• Article from Ballet Alert Online (1999)
• Interview from Travel Classics Magazine (2006)
• Interview from Ballet Magazine (2001)
• Article from Dance Magazine (Cover Story, 1995)
• Review of Corella in La Bayadere from Ballet Magazine (June 2007)
• NY Times Review of Don Quixote (2005)
• Online review of Kings of the Dance (2006)
• Online review of Don Quixote (2004)
• Online review of Raymonda (2005)
• Online review of Corella in the Met's opera La Gioconda -Dance of the Hours (2006)

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Name	Corella, Angel
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Date of birth	November 8, 1975
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