National Dance Week: Paloma Herrera

I first saw Paloma Herrera's flawless lines and beautiful smile in a pointe magazine when I was about thirteen. I immediately fell in love! My favorite performance has to be Gulnare in Le Corsaire. She's such a beautiful dancer, you'll regret never watching her before!

Paloma began her ballet training with Olga Ferri in her homeland, Argentina in 1982 at the age of seven. She became one of the the most note worthy dancers of South America, winning competitions and receiving The Finalist Diploma from the Varna Ballet Competition in 1990, at the age of 14.

At 15 she moved to New York and continued her studies with the School of American Ballet, where she was given the lead role in Balanchine's Raymonda Variation for their annual workshop. She joined the American Ballet Theater six months later, was promoted to soloist at 17 and at 19 she became the youngest principle dancer in ABT's history.

Since then she has won the hearts of many ballet fanatics throughout the nation and was chosen as one of the top thirty artists to change culture for the next thirty years, by the New York Time's critics. Today you can find her still dancing her heart out for ABT and looking for a way to continue dancing for as long as possible.