Angel Corella

It is close to the end of American Ballet Theater's two-month New York season, and in the company's daily class in the bowels of the huge Metropolitan Opera House this June morning, the dancers are yawning and groaning jokingly. But Angel Corella, a 20-year-old soloist from Spain, is dead serious. He is slight, dark-haired and unobtrusive, watching quietly from the side wall, working intently.

It is close to the end of American Ballet Theater's two-month New York season, and in the company's daily class in the bowels of the huge Metropolitan Opera House this June morning, the dancers are yawning and groaning jokingly. But Angel Corella, a 20-year-old soloist from Spain, is dead serious. He is slight, dark-haired and unobtrusive, watching quietly from the side wall, working intently.

Kirov Ballet star Diana Vishneva has canceled her dates with the four "Kings of the Dance," Feb. 16-19 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. She will be replaced by Tamiyo Kusakari, a principal dancer with Tokyo's Asami Maki Ballet. According to OCPAC, Vishneva has a scheduling conflict because of rehearsals for "Ondine," which she will dance on the opening night of the Mariinsky Theatre's sixth International Ballet Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 6.

There's been another change in partners for the Feb. 16-19 "Kings of the Dance" program at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The Royal Ballet's Alina Cojocaru will replace Tamiyo Kusakari, who replaced Diana Vishneva as a partner for the four "kings" -- Angel Corella, Johan Kobborg, Ethan Stiefel and Nikolay Tsiskaridze. Choreographer Roland Petit's "Le Jeune Homme et la Mort" is also out of the program. It will be replaced by Flemming Flindt's "The Lesson."

It may not be exactly a Rose Adagio in Spanish Harlem, but American Ballet Theatre's "Dance Arriba!" program in New York City on Jan. 27 will celebrate Latino culture by presenting highlights from the company's classical and contemporary repertory far from its normal performing turf at Lincoln Center and City Center. The venue? Harlem's Apollo Theater.

American Ballet Theatre's new production of "Le Corsaire," filmed in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in February, will be broadcast Dec. 20 from 9-11 p.m. on KCET-TV Channel 28 and on Jan. 1 from 9 to 11 p.m. on KOCE-TV Channel 50. The principal dancers include Julie Kent as Medora, Paloma Herrera as her friend Gulnare and Ethan Stiefel as the pirate Conrad.

We've had the Three Tenors and "Lord of the Dance." Next season, the Orange County Performing Arts Center will up the ante with the world premiere of a program by the "Kings of the Dance" -- which, says the center, "promises to be an international dance event of historic importance." Angel Corella and Ethan Stiefel of American Ballet Theatre, Johan Kobborg of England's Royal Ballet and Nikolay Tsiskaridze of the Bolshoi Ballet will make up the quartet of monarchs, scheduled to perform Feb.

Four of the most prominent classical dancers on Western stages gather for "Kings of the Dance" this weekend at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. No Parisians or Cubans are on the roster, which immediately makes the event incomplete, but expect plenty of firepower from Angel Corella (American Ballet Theatre), Johan Kobborg (Royal Ballet), Ethan Stiefel (ABT) and Nikolai Tsiskaridze (the Bolshoi Ballet).

Imagine watching the largest modern dance corps you've ever seen not only move in perfect unison but breathe as one. Imagine looking closer to find each member a world-class soloist: physically eloquent and deeply involved emotionally. Imagine not imagining such phenomenal dancers but seeing them at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in works by a modernist master.

Just out of her teens, Paloma Herrera brings to the role of Juliet strength, freshness and a sense of living each moment to the fullest. In the Saturday matinee cast of the American Ballet Theatre "Romeo and Juliet," at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, she danced with great speed, force and surety.

Never let it be said that the ballet world doesn't know how to give a proper send-off -- especially when it's for someone as beloved as Julio Bocca, retiring from American Ballet Theatre after 20 years. The dashing Argentine was given a hero's farewell on Thursday after his final performance, as Des Grieux in "Manon," alongside his longtime partner, Alessandra Ferri.