It was Isaac Hernández’s second week at American Ballet Theatersuper slots, and he was feeling achy from rehearsals. But as soon as the pianist began to play, his body and eyes snapped to attention. It was his big entrance. He rushed across the studio in series of jumps, legs thwacking together in the air. He turned with one leg extended to the side. He did a circle of leaps that almost brushed the walls. He made the space feel small.
“Amazing,” exclaimed the ballet coach Irina Kolpakova, in Russian-inflected English, her arms and eyes opening wide. “You make me very glad.” As Hernández stood in front of her panting, he broke into a broad smile. “My mood is improving,” he said.
Since September, Hernández, 34, has been preparing for his Ballet Theater debut during its fall season, which begins on Wednesday and goes through Nov. 3 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. That has meant working closely with Kolpakova, 91, a former Kirov star, in rehearsals that focus on intention and movement quality. At one point she placed his hand on her rib cage to show exactly what a position should feel like. He immediately recreated the shape in his own body.
ImageThe ballet coach Irina Kolpakova, a former star of the Kirov, working with Hernández. “When someone like Irina shows you something,” he said, “it’s like opening a history book and seeing the intention, the meaning.Credit...George Etheredge for The New York TimesHernández is a smart dancer, quick to take in information. But with his confidence, skillful partnering and matinee-idol looks, he is also a throwback to an earlier generation of male dancers at Ballet Theater, many of Latin American or Spanish extraction, whose swashbuckling stage presence was often as celebrated as their dancing. (The list includes José Manuel Carreño, Ángel Corella and Fernando Bujones.)
Hernández, who is from Guadalajara, Mexico, is already a veteran of top companies, including English National Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, which he left in May. So this summer when he approached Susan Jaffe, Ballet Theater’s artistic director, about joining the company, she jumped.
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