Life is a dance.

• Author: Durbin, Paula
• Position: Brazilian ballet dancer Marcelo Gomes

A few decades ago, the late British ballerina Margot Fonteyn predicted that in the twenty-first century Latin America would be to classical ballot what Imperial Russia had been in the nineteenth and what the United States was in the twentieth. Just three Years into the new millennium, the Northern Hemisphere is still home to the biggest and best ballet troupes, but their ranks are crowded with Latin Americans. Now, as if to further prove Fonteyn's point, yet another has moved center stage: Marcelo Gomes, American Ballet Theatre's newest male principal and the first Brazilian to make ballet's A list.

Gomes was promoted to the top rank in August 2002, but ever since he first joined ABT's corps de ballet six years ago he has stood out, even in this crowd of perfectly trained young physiques--and not just because he is movie-star handsome and six feet tall. Gomes dances his heart out on stage, without any swagger or stunts, and his enthusiasm for what he does is palpable. "A big, joyous dancer," is how the Washington Post's Sarah Kaufman described him as the cavalier attending senior ballerina Ashley Tuttle's Sugar Plum Fairy in ABT's 2001 Washington season of The Nutcracker. In fact, most critics are delighted with Gomes, and so is the Brazilian government. Before he left office, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso knighted Gomes with the Order of Rio Branco for his dance accomplishments, obviously, and for projecting a positive image of Brazil.

Born in Manaus twenty-three years ago and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Gomes has been dancing since he was five. "It's a pretty crazy story," he recalls. "My sister was the dancer, of course, and one day I was waiting for her to finish class. In the same building there was a musical theater class and I went to check it out. I thought I could do it, and I did, even though I had come in the middle. Then I went to my parents and said I wanted to go back, and they said absolutely. I was already dancing around the house anyway, and my mother wanted to get me in a better space-before I broke something."

By eight, Gomes had caught the eye of Helena Lobato, a prima ballerina in Rio's Teatro Municipal, and she created a semi-private class for him and her son. Grounded in the basics, he entered a bigger school with a scholarship from its ballet mistress, Dalal Achcar, a former director of the Teatro Municipal's ballet company. Dedication to his art made for a hectic schedule. Proud parents Haroldo Gomes and Maze...