Cory Stearns, ABT’s principal dancer in Mexico

After its two presentations in 2015, Carl Off’s Carmina Burana is back in Mexico City and this time it brings us the music of the National Symphony Orchestra, EnHarmonia Vocalis C hoir, and the Children’s Choir of the Schola Cantorum Mexico; the talent of Cuba’s Contemporary Dance Company; the voices of Susana Zabaleta, Víctor Hernández, and Enrique Ángeles; and the performance of 250 artists, including the principal dancer of the American Ballet Theater ( ABT ), Cory Stearns .

During an exclusive interview for EL UNIVERSAL in English by Manuel Guillén , Stearns confesses he decided to become a professional dancer at 13, after seeing the ballet film “ABT Now” during his first ballet summer program.

“I was inspired by the dancers and choreography I saw in the video,” he recounts.

Cory Stearns, born in Long Island , New York , first began his classical training at the Seiskaya Ballet under Madame Valia Seiskaya . He was offered a full scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London after his participation in the Youth America Grand Prix .

When asked about his professional role models, the dancer replies without hesitation: José Manuel Carreño , a Cuban ballet dancer.

“I was mesmerized by his seemingly effortless movement and sophisticated, clean quality,” he says, although he acknowledges in later years he also came to adopt Cuban Carlos Acosta and British Anthony Dowell as a professional inspiration.

Stearns, who is fond of composers such as the Russian Romantic Tchaikovsky and the contemporary minimalist Philip Glass , considers being promoted to principal dancer at the ABT his biggest accomplishment so far; winning the Erik Bruhn competition in 2009 for best male dancer, his second.

Cory Stearns joined the American Ballet Theater’s Studio Company in 2004, becoming a member of the corps de ballet by January 2006. He was promoted to soloist in 2009 and to principal dancer in 2011.

He’s played several roles throughout his career among which stand out Prince Charming in Cinderella , Prince Siegfried and von Rothbart in Swan Lake , Romeo in Romeo and Juliet , and he has even appeared in Kylie Minogue ’s video Chocolate in 2004.

Don’t miss his performance in Carmina Burana , a ballet show that has been acclaimed as one of the best stagings this year, opening tonight at Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City .

Carmina Burana, 

Carl Orff's best-known work, is based on Goliards poems that were found in the Beuren Monastery in Germany. The poems portray the depiction of love, the rebirth of life every year and the pleasure and joy produced by new love.

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