Pampas princes on pointe: although each has leaped into the limelight with distinctive talents, four male principals of the world ballet scene are strongly grounded in Argentina.

• Author: Durbin, Paula

International ballet's A-list of male danseurs is crowded with Argentines. You may be able to count them on just two hands, but that's a lot considering their fiercely competitive profession and the few students produced by their alma mater, the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires (see Americas, June 1998). Some of them are not just among the world's steadiest partners but also ballet's major box-office draws.

Best known in the United States, of course, is Julio Bocca, of whom Dance Magazine has said, "His name alone has sold out the Met." The career launched when he won the 1984 International Ballet Competition in Moscow has escalated from principal status at American Ballet Theatre to include film, Broadway, and the hard-won successes of Ballet Argentino, the company he founded in 1989 to give his Argentine colleagues exposure in the same venues he has graced. And ABT gives Bocca, now one of the most senior dancers in the company, the latitude to devote himself to these varied pursuits.

"I am always available for ABT's performances, and it is by mutual agreement that we confirm when or where," Bocca described the arrangement last June when he was in New York for his fifteenth Metropolitan Opera House season since joining the company, and also as the guest of St. Petersburg's acclaimed Eifman Ballet during its City Center engagement. His repertoire has evolved in that time beyond the classics to an extravagant range of contemporary works. "I have grown up. Now the roles I am most fond of are those which require technique and deep character interpretation," he said as he prepared to play Hamlet in Eifman's choreography of the Shakespeare work. "When I stop dancing the classical repertoire, which will be quite soon, I would like to keep on doing musicals or work as an actor. I already plan to shoot a whodunit in the Teatro Colon."

Bocca's U.S. fans might not know it, but at home, for a good part of his fame, their idol has had to endure comparisons with Maximiliano Guerra, his classmate from the Instituto and colleague in the Colon's Ballet Estable. Guerra is based at La Scala as "permanent guest" with leeway to perform all over the world. Sidelined for six months after an injury to his Achilles tendon, he's back in action, keeping one of the most hectic schedules in the business. "On average 150 performances a year," Guerra says. "Some years 170, some years 110. There are `investment years,' when I do fewer performances but add new ballets to my repertoire. How do I do it? I work!" The feat is all the more impressive since Guerra is a chain smoker.

In 1988, Guerra, with a contract from the English National Ballet in his pocket, took the gold medal at ballet's Olympics, the International Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, a slightly more prestigious venue than the International Competition Bocca had won as a teenaged unknown...