Ballet Break

You’ll have to excuse me for not writing about food.  Yesterday, a ticket to see the American Ballet Theatre’s performance of La Sylphide at The Metropolitan Opera House fell from the sky unexpectedly, and I’m feeling a little ethereal today.  There was a magical Sylph, a Scottish reel, and a poisoned gossamer veil, but it was still not as dramatic as the Edith Wharton story I cast myself in when I realized I’d be sitting in the romantic boxes ringing the theater.  Watching principal Herman Cornejo dance the part of James, I thought of a Today segment I’d seen earlier that day about the recent emergence of Latin American artists and performers in film and television.  This has long been true at ABT.  In addition to the Argentinians Cornejo and Paloma Herrera, there is the Brazilian Marcelo Gomes, and the Cubans Jose Manuel Carreño and Xiomara Reyes, and Spain’s Angel Corella among the company’s principals, not to mention Billy Elliot’s David Alvarez.  It’s a truly American ballet company.