Ballet in New York...or Seattle

[+ Lucky]

The Pacific Northwest Ballet starts its home season with an all-Balanchine triple bill. If you are not familiar with Balanchine, perhaps this picture of dancer Lucien Postlewaite will whet your interest:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/09/25/arts/nort190.jpg

 

And, in New York, the American Ballet Theater season is underway. Their ad for one program, Sinatra Suite, features the sultry stud Herman Cornejo, sans facial hair of course, dancing in a suit and loose tie as Sinatra.

http://abt.org/images/db_images/dancers/cornejo_hweb.jpg

 

I tried, obviously unsuccessfully, to get the sexy picture of Cornejo from Sunday's Art& Leisure ad posted here. Perhaps someone more talented than I can do it...it's an ad on page two of the Sunday A&L section. He sure looks cute!

[+ Lucky]

These pix could turn in to little red x's, so Google Cornejo Sinatra to see them if that happens:

 

http://www.abt.org/images/db_images/events/sinsuitecornejojmc.jpg

 

http://cpinfo.berkeley.edu/information/press/season_announcement_0708/pics/thumbs/dance/ABT_HermanCornejo_in_SinatraSuite_Credit_JoeMcNally.jpg

 

This one's from Fancy Free, also being performed this season;

http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/season/2007/dance/pics/ABT_HermanCornejo_in_FancyFree_Credit_GeneShiavone.jpg

[raulgmanzo]

Hmmm I might have to make a point of attending the ballet this season. Maybe even go to ballet class again. I went regularly for a couple years and enjoyed the excuse to wear tights and see others wearing tights.

Unfortunately there were never enough men but the few were usually pretty hot with bulges in the right places. Yum.

 

 

Raul

[+ Lucky]

RE: Bulging Cum Shooters

 

Thanks, Raul. I can never get enough pix of men in tights, even if they are speedos!

http://www.aintchicken.com/boyswimmer.jpg

[+ Lucky]

So I wasn't the only fan of Herman Cornejo, with today's NYTimes review of his performance Friday night stating: "One single jump in this Fall for Dance program, and everything about him seems aglow: the breadth of his chest, the taut line of his wide-parted legs and his arm flung up heroically. Though he is the least tall of American Ballet Theater’s male dancers, how gorgeously he lights up this space and indeed this choreography, so often stale in most performances.

 

He had the mix of sensuousness and sensuality it needed. At the end he not only slammed himself onto the floor à la Nureyev, but also lifted his pelvis ecstatically as he gestured up through his spine to glorify his standing ballerina..."

 

Now willsomeone here go see him in Sinatra Suite and review it for me?

 

 

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/01/arts/Fall650.jpg

[Epigonos]

The sad truth is that although Herman Cornejo is an outstanding solo danseur he is simply to short to have a successful career as a danseur noble. He is at most 5'4" or 5'5" which make it extremely difficult for him to partner all but one or possibly two of ABT's ballerinas. I'm afraid he is destined to dance out his career in the secondary roles of the story ballets. He will also be able to dance the lead in some of the shorter ballets (Sinatra Suite and Fancy Free being excellent examples) which appear on the company's mixed bills. These ballets, as a rule, do not require much serious parterning.

[+ Lucky]

RE: Ballet in New York

 

What can I say? I'm a sucker for short brown guys! Especially if he can dance well and thrust that pelvis! They ain't casting some tall guy as Frank Sinatra! They're casting their sexiest guy! And, btw, he does dance for the ABT, which ain't exactly "small" potatoes!

 

And Joan Acocella in the New Yorker states of him:

 

This situation has not sat well with certain dancers. As a ballet student in Leningrad, Mikhail Baryshnikov was tormented by his failure to grow as tall as his classmates. “I thought I would end up as a Joker or a Harlequin somewhere,” he told an interviewer. He slept on a wooden plank, so as not to sink into a mattress and thus impede any elongation that might occur in the night. It didn’t pan out; he reached only five feet seven. But by dint of skill and ambition and finding petite partners—and also by defecting to the West, where casting is more flexible than in Russia—he managed to become a danseur noble, a hero of the classics. He thus set an example for others, notably the Argentine dancer Julio Bocca, who came after him at A.B.T. Now, presumably inspired by Baryshnikov and Bocca, there is another short man at A.B.T. who dances tall: Herman Cornejo. He is five feet six and not unusually handsome. (He looks like a regular person, but with an overbite.) To my knowledge, he is the most technically accomplished male ballet dancer in the United States.

 

 

(Hmmm...an overbite? Maybe that could disqualify him!)

[+ Lucky]

Epigonos, not fair changing your post after I replied to it! Herman ain't hurting for work, as seen in his ABT bio:

 

Herman Cornejo was born in San Luis, Argentina and began his ballet studies at the age of eight at the Superior Institute of Art at the Colon Theatre. A multiple prize winner in several prestigious South American competitions, he went on to study at the School of American Ballet in New York as a scholarship student. He then joined Ballet Argentino as a soloist.

 

At the age of 16, Cornejo became the youngest Gold Medal winner in the history of the International Dance Competition in Moscow (1997). He was then promoted to Principal Dancer with Ballet Argentino, alternating with Julio Bocca in all the principal roles in the repertoire during the company’s worldwide tours.

 

Cornejo joined American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company in 1998 and the Company's corps de ballet in 1999. Promoted to Soloist in August 2000, his roles with the Company include the Bronze Idol in La Bayadère, the Red Cowboy in Billy the Kid, the fourth movement in Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, the Jester in Ben Stevenson's Cinderella, Franz in Coppélia, Lankendem and Birbanto in Le Corsaire, It Was Spring in Dim Lustre, Basilio and the lead gypsy in Don Quixote, Puck in The Dream, the first sailor in Fancy Free, Alain in La Fille mal gardée, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, The Man in HereAfter (Heaven), the Joker in Jeu de Cartes, Lescaut in Manon, the Lead Pontevedrian Dancer and the Maitre D’ in The Merry Widow, the Nutcracker-Prince and the Cavalier in The Nutcracker, Cassio in Othello, Petrouchka in Petrouchka, the Piper in The Pied Piper, Abderakman and Bernard in Raymonda, Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, the Bluebird and Gold in The Sleeping Beauty, the Rose in Le Spectre de la Rose, Benno and the Neapolitan dance in Swan Lake, Gurn in La Sylphide, Eros in Sylvia, the third movement in Symphony in C, Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, Le Grand Pas de Deux, Sinatra Suite, the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, leading roles in Amazed in Burning Dreams, Diversion of Angels, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, Gong, Jabula, Marimba, Mozartiana, Petite Mort, Sinfonietta, Theme and Variations, workwithinwork and a featured role in Baroque Game. He created Fortune in HereAfter and leading roles in The Brahms/Haydn Variations, Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra, Glow - Stop, Pretty Good Year and I Dig Love in Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison.

 

Cornejo was appointed a Principal Dancer in August 2003.

 

Mr. Cornejo's performances with American Ballet Theatre are sponsored by Edward A. Fox.

 

Performing in:

 

New Elo/Glass/Close Work 10/27/2007, 10/28/2007

Fancy Free 10/27/2007

Ballo della Regina 11/4/2007

Sinatra Suite 11/3/2007

Fancy Free 10/23/2007

Clear pas de deux 10/23/2007

Clear 10/24/2007

 

 

(But I do wonder who Edward Fox is and what's in it for him!)

[+ Lucky]

RE: Ballet in New York..

 

Herman Cornejo apparently is no longer too short. Epigonos, here's proof in today's NY Times article about him entitled Who Says You Have To Be Tall?

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/arts/dance/14larocco.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

[Epigonos]

RE: Ballet in New York..

 

Interesting Lucky BUT I'm not convinced. Keep in mind, in the article, Kevin McKenzie states that he has simply been waiting to find the right partner for Cornejo. You can take that to mean one short enough to dance with him. I have no doubt that McKenzie will throw him an Albrecht or a Prince Desire now and then. Where he is most likely to dance those roles is on tours when and if the Company's short big gun danseur ANGEL CORELLA is absent.

 

The only two ABT principal ballerinas short enough to dance with him are Paloma Herrera and Xiomara Reyes. Herrera is senior enough that she can virtually pick and choose with whom she wishes to dance. I’ve seen her dance with him BUT he doesn’t seem to be her partner of choice. Reyes on the other hand is new enough that she must dance with whom ever she is told. Additionally she is so short that he is about the only danseur with whom she can dance comfortably.

 

Tall danseurs have a terrible time with really short ballerinas as lifting them puts a major strain on their lower backs and can shorten their careers. In the “old” days, for example, Patrick Bissell had an awful time lifting Gelsey Kirkland. Even though they were very involved with each other they danced together infrequently because of the damage lifting her did to his back.

[+ Lucky]

RE: Ballet in New York..

 

Well, let's put it this way: Im 6'2" tall, and Herman can dance with me all night long! In the a.m. he can massage my sore back! Othewise, I guess time will tell.

[+ Lucky]

I come here today to admit that Epigonos was right and I was wrong.

 

When I started this thread, I had no idea that I would actually get to see this ballet, not to mention sit in the first row of the "grand tier" affording me an excellent view.

 

But Sinatra Suite disappointed. They played tapes of Frank singing, which made me feel a jukebox was there rather than an orchestra. Of the four songs, Cornejo (with 2-inch heels) danced with a girl about his height. Yet he seemed constantly concerned about the mechanics of the dance and the acrobatics he had to do. It made me uncomfortable for him. The fourth song he danced solo and he was indeed as smooth and sexy as I had imagined he would be.

 

The third and fourth peices the ballet did were spectacular, especially the 4th, a new composition that had its world premier last week. The music was raw and tribal. The boys and girls in their 20's style body tights were quite sexy. No cups were used for the boys and they danced their little hearts out. I was mesmerized!

[Guest n2colour]

RE: Bulging Cum Shooters

 

Damn right that ain't chicken. Who is that?

[+ purplekow]

RE: Bulging Cum Shooters

 

>Damn right that ain't chicken. Who is that?

 

 

Mario Lopez in the Greg Louganis story is my guess.

[AdamSmith]

>The music was raw and tribal. The boys and

>girls in their 20's style body tights were quite sexy. No cups

>were used for the boys and they danced their little hearts

>out. I was mesmerized!

 

You had my sympathy until this part!

 

Especially as you are in NYC while I am still wiping the desert grit out of the orifices. :-)

[+ Lucky]

What would have really made you jealous, Adam, was afterwards, when I was boarding the subway. A whole group of young Asian sailors in full uniform were boarding...I nearly got back on the train, but I didn't know what language they spoke!

[AdamSmith]

>What would have really made you jealous, Adam, was

>afterwards, when I was boarding the subway. A whole group of

>young Asian sailors in full uniform were boarding...I nearly

>got back on the train, but I didn't know what language they

>spoke!

 

Surely 1 or 2 would have spoken French, if not Greek! :7