Here is the youngest new male principal with The Royal Ballet, (2021) Cesar Corrales, rehearsing COPPELIA with coach Leanne Benjamin (former principal with The Royal Ballet). His parents were both ballet dancers in Cuba and Cesar was mainly trained by his mother Taina Morales. I first met Cesar when he was 9 years-old; when I was teaching and rehearsing Les Grand Ballet Canadien de Montreal. I would go there every year (16 in all) from late November thru December to get the company in shape for Fernand Nault's rather spectacular Nutcracker. I would do my own barre in the morning and his mother would teach him a private class after that. She saw how I worked and asked me to give her son some privates so he could get a taste of the Balanchine technique. The next year when he was 10 he took a few more of these privates. It was obvious from the start he was a major talent. Here he is at the top of his game, and living up to all his potential. He reminds me most of Rudolph Nureyev. When I was teaching and choreographing my ballets (4) for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Nureyev was guesting with the company, and he too asked me to give him privates and he took all my company classes too. Both Nureyev and Cesar have an almost supernatural power to their dancing, as you can see here. Both are speedy and both use force in their pirouettes. No slow turns for them! I'd also like to compliment his coach here, Leanne Benjamin. I love her attention to style and character, and agree with everything she's saying.
1 ноя 2021
