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Angel Corella, the 25-year-old Spanish-born star, has been a principal of the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) since 1996. Corella was a stylish Basilio on the opening night of the ABT's "Don Quixote" in Hong Kong last October during the company's Far East tour. He was a splendid partner to Paloma Herrera, whom he suspended in the air for far longer than normal in those two one-handed lifts of Kitri in Act 1.

Corella is a brilliant virtuoso dancer, and in particular his trademark fast-spinning multiple pirouettes are executed with a flair unmatched by any other dancer I have seen. In "Le Corsaire" pas de deux, his thrilling whirlwind pirouettes, with his working leg progressing in three different levels, dazzled the audience and brought the house down. And on top of his technical brilliance he has a magnetic star quality. Even seeing him on his knees at the end in homage to his ballerina (Julie Kent) was quite an excitement. Corella is also a good actor, for instance in the title role of Eugene Loring's "Billy The Kid" which I saw him dance in Paris in 1999.

After the company class on 5 October, I had a conversation with Angel Corella about his exciting career so far.

Question: Angel, when you were invited to guest with the Royal Ballet in London last season, which ballets did you dance in?

Corella: I was invited by Michael Kaiser. I danced in "Coppelia" as well as in "Nutcracker". And in the Royal Gala to mark the re-opening of the Royal Opera House, I did two pieces - "Romeo and Juliet" pas de deux with Viviana Durante, and the Bronze Idol variation from "La Bayadere". Some of the dancers weren't very happy that I, as a guest dancer, was doing two pieces, because everyone else was doing only one piece. But it was great for me.

Q: Are you going back next season to guest with the Royal Ballet?

C: Probably, I am not sure yet. My main company is the American Ballet Theatre (ABT); but if I have the time, then I'll probably go. I am also thinking of going to guest with the National Ballet of Canada and La Scala. We'll see.

Q: How did you enjoy your guesting at Covent Garden?

C: I danced with Leanne Benjamin (in "Coppelia" and "Nutcracker") - a beautiful dancer and wonderful person. Well, the atmosphere there is very different from New York. The European mentality is very different from the American one; it was like coming back to my own roots. So it was a very different way of working again. I don't know, you can't really compare one with the other.

Q: Did you find the people very friendly and helpful?

C: Yes, they were friendly and helpful in a different way. At the ABT everything seems to be more under one roof, and everybody seems to know each other. They know that I am dancing, they know what I can do, and I feel that they know me.

At the Royal Ballet I was a guest artist. Everybody's looking at me and asking, "OK, what's he going to do?" It's not that it's in a bad way. It's just that since they didn't know me, they were waiting to see what I could do.

Q: How do the facilities in the new Royal Opera House compare to those in the Met in New York?

C: Everything is brand new. In fact there were still some construction works when I was there. There are amazing views, really beautiful. All the facilites are incredible, and I haven't seen anything like that before. They have incredible studios, which are great. Those studios are really good for dancers - huge ceilings, incredible mirrors all over the place, which offer good preparation for dancing. But somehow the Met has some history that makes it very special. I love dancing at the Met - it's like my home.

Q: What are your favourite roles at ABT?

C: It's really hard to say. I love doing "Romeo and Juliet". I love doing "Billy The Kid"; it's really strange because there is not much technique in it, but more acting instead. A lot of times I love acting, and in fact I like acting more than dancing.

Dancing is just dancing, and soon you get to a point where you have to turn when you have to turn, or you have to jump. What is fun for the dancers is to create something out of the dancing - a personality. That's why I like to do roles which require acting.

Q: Still you recently danced some pure dance roles, e.g. Twyla Tharp's "Push Comes To Shove". Is it a difficult role?

C: I do everything, every role that they ask me to do. I've done all the Twyla Tharp (in ABT's repertory), works by Mark Morris, John Neumeier, Jiri Kylian. "Push Comes To Shove" is not as hard once you start working on it, but then you try not to show how hard it is.

Q: What new roles will you be doing in the near future?

C: I'll be doing "Weren't We Fools", a new ballet by Christian Holder. And David Parsons will create a new full-length ballet "The Pied Piper" for our Met season, and I'll be doing the opening night.

Q: Who are your favourite choreographers?

C: I am very open to everything, I don't have favourites. And after all there are so many wonderful things that you should be able to get the best from each person. So I always try to see the positive part of each choreographer, of each role that I am doing, and indeed of everything in life.

There is always something positive. And if there is something negative, I learn from that too. So I can't define that I like something the most, because that would be closing my mind a little bit too much. I don't really have a favourite choreographer. There are a lot of other choreographers whose works I really enjoy doing, e.g. Twyla (Tharp), Mark Morris, David Parsons, Kylian, Balanchine, Robbins. Everyone has something different to offer me.

Some people have something defined, and they feel like that's the only way it should be. I'm open to anything that's good. Even though sometimes I've done roles that I didn't think are so good, I have still done them and have tried to make the best out of them. And I think I can learn from that too, as it makes me more of a professional dancer.

I don't like to say, "OK, this is not good, then I won't do it." A lot of dancers get very close-minded and just do "Don Q", "La Bayadere", "Le Corsaire". They don't want to try new choreographers or anything else, because they know it works that way. But I'm open to anything, any choreographer, any girl, any company; and I'll do my best!

Q: Who do you normally dance with at ABT? You don't seem to have a special partnership with someone like the Ferri/Bocca partnership e.g.

C: Ferri and Bocca dance together most of the time, because they always danced together before and they don't really need to rehearse any more. So they just come three days before a show, do their show and leave. But I think it's great to have different chemistry for different ballets with different girls, because every girl has something different to give. I dance with everybody - with Julie (Kent), Paloma (Herrera), Ashley Tuttle, Gillian Murphy, Irina Dvorovenko. It's not the same.

For instance, I did "Don Q" with Paloma (Herrera) yesterday, and I thought she was the most wonderful girl that I've ever danced with. But then I'll do it with Gillian (Murphy) next summer at the Met, and I'll think that she's the most wonderful girl that I could do it with. It's not that I'm just changing every day. But I feel like every girl is wonderful because when I'm on stage with her, I give 100% to her and I'm expecting 100% from her. And once you get that connection on stage, then that's what matters.

Corella in Le Cosaire
photo Nadia Borowski-Scott

On this Far East tour, I did the opening night of "Le Corsaire" in Singapore with Julie Kent, and the second night with Paloma (Herrera). In Shanghai I did the opening night of "La Bayadere" with Julie Kent, and Irina Dvorovenko as Gamzatti. So I dance with all the girls. They have different personalities, but they are all so beautiful and wonderful; they all give you a different energy and look at you in a different way. It's like having three children and say, "I love this child more, this is my favourite child." It shouldn't be that way, you should love all of them in a different way.

I don't have favourites for anything. It's strange, but I don't even have favourite food, and I don't have a favourite colour. I don't have anything favourite.

Q: You have a sister who is also a dancer with the ABT, I heard.

C: Yes, my sister's name is Carmen, and in fact she will be dancing Mercedes tomorrow. She's very beautiful, and I am saying this not because she's my sister!

Q: Are you happy in the ABT?

C: I've been a principal now for five years. ABT is a great company, and it has a great repertory; it has all the full-lengths which I love doing. Also there are those choreographers who come and create ballets for me. And I also have a chance to dance with other companies, as long as the dates don't clash with ABT's.

Q: Who normally coaches you at ABT?

C: Well, we have a different coach for every rehearsal, it depends. If it's the MacMillan repertory, we normally have Georgina Parkinson. If it's something like "Don Q" or "La Bayadere", then it's Kevin (McKenzie). Actually most of the time it's Kevin, and he's been wonderful. He really takes care of the male principals, because he was a principal dancer himself and he knows what he's talking about. (No, I don't mean the others don't know.) Somehow it's easier for him to tell us, and for us to understand. Also we have David Richardson for the Balanchine repertory, and also Susan Jones.

Q: Do you see yourself as a danseur noble or demi-caractere dancer?

C: I don't know, and I don't like to catergorise. I try not to be a technician. It took me a long time to become a normal dancer, to try to do "Swan Lake", or "Sleeping Beauty". I had to have a completely different mentality, a different way of moving on stage, a different way of walking. It required a lot of concentration, but I could make it. I think if you believe in what you are doing, if you believe that you are taking every single step as a prince, you just have to put it in your head and start believing. And if you believe in what you are doing, then you are going to make everybody else believe. If you are a good actor, then everything comes across.

Q: Which male dancers do you particularly admire?

C: There are a lot of dancers in the company whom I really admire and respect. I like Ethan Stiefel, I think he's a good dancer. I like Jose Carreno, Maxim Belotserkovsky, Julio Bocca. I think you learn from everybody. There are many dancers from whom I can see what they are doing right, and I don't really have a role model.

Angel Corella and Yan Chen in Lar Lubovitch's Meadow
photo Steve Wilson

Q: What about ballerinas?

C: Makarova was a wonderful ballerina, and so was Gelsey Kirkland. And now, Sylvie Guillem, Julie Kent. I meet so many different people, I do so many things as a dancer, especially in ABT. I do so many roles, I meet so many girls, and I dance with so many people that it's really hard to define that "this is the one that I like".

Q: Are there any ballets, e.g. not in ABT's repertory, that you like to do?

C: I would like to do some Forsythe, some Mats Ek. I'd like to do "Le Jeune Homme et La Mort" (Roland Petit), and also "Carmen". There are a lot of ballets that I haven't done and would like to do, but I don't know if I would get to all of them.

Q: Besides the Royal Ballet, what other companies have you guested with?

C: I've danced with La Scala Milan in "Romeo and Juliet" (MacMillan production) for television with Alessandra Ferri, the National Ballet of Puerto Rico, National Ballet of Caracas.

Q: What about in your native Spain?

C: Never. Nacho Duato's company does more contemporary works. (At the ABT I've danced Duato's "Remanso" and "Without Words".) I was in Victor Ullate's company, which doesn't do classical ballet. But he didn't like very much the fact that I had left his company, and so our relations are difficult.

Q: Do you know Tamara Rojo?

C: Yes, we used to dance together when we were 13!

Q: What are your interests?

C: I like volleyball, and I am crazy about music. I can't live without music. I'd like to listen to any type of music - classical, heavy metal, rock, pop, reggae, rap, as long as it's good. I always travel with my 20 mini-discs. I walk on the street with music. I also like movies a lot. I read sometimes, normally on the plane.

Being a dancer is great because you get the chance to see so many beautiful cities and enjoy different cultures, so that's another treat that I enjoy from dancing. I love Hong Kong; in my life I've never seen a view like that outside the stage door.

Q: Do you return to Spain for holidays?

C: I don't have much time off, but every time when I have some time off, I normally go to Spain. My parents also come to New York to see me dance. My mother is a big fan of the ballet, and she's the one who introduced me to ballet. I used to live in Madrid, but my parents have moved to Barcelona now. I am a bit sad, but they say Barcelona is a more beautiful city.

Q: Do you have a manager?

C: Yes, she's based in New York. And she's going crazy too because I don't even have time to answer her messages - it's getting really hard!

Q: Is dancing your whole life?

C: My parents always taught me that I have to be a person before being a dancer. I'm a very happy person. I like to hang out with my friends, I love my family, I enjoy life a lot. Dancing is one of the parts of life that I enjoy, but it's not my whole life. I am not a person who wouldn't know what to do after I've stopped dancing. I've seen dancers who become lost and don't know what to do after quitting dancing because they focused so much on their careers. There are also dancers who spent so much time trying to be a big star but didn't get there, and they are lost because they don't know what to do afterwards.

Q: But aren't you a big star already?

C: Well, I never expected it. I just danced, that's all I wanted to do, and that's all I did. I think it's the audience who wants to make stars. You just go on stage to do your best job, and whatever happens it happens. I am very thankful that I am able to go on stage and do all these wonderful roles because the audience wants to see me. I think there is no point in being a dancer without the audience.