Herrera, Paloma

Paloma Herrera Photos

Paloma Herrera Biography

Notable: Born 1975; American Ballet Theatre

Paloma Herrera was born in 1975 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She began her ballet studies with Olga Ferri at age 7. As a young dancer, she was a first prize winner at several major competitions in South America, and, at the age of 11, studied at the Minsk Ballet School in Russia before returning to Buenos Aires to dance the role of Cupid in Don Quixote at the Teatro Colon. Herrera was a Finalist at the Fourteenth International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria in 1990. After the competition, she was invited by Natalia Makarova to take class with the English National Ballet in London and by Hector Zaraspe to continue her studies at the School of American Ballet in New York. After just six months, Herrera was selected to dance the leading role in Raymonda at SAB’s annual workshop performance. She joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in June of 1991, was promoted to Soloist in June of 1993, and to Principal Dancer in March of 1995.

Herrera’s roles with the ABT include Mathilda Kchessinska in Anastasia, Polyhymnia in Apollo, Gamzatti and Nikiya in La Bayadère, the title role in Cinderella, Swanilda in Coppélia, Medora and Gulnare in Le Corsaire, the pas de deux in Diana and Acteon, Kitri in Don Quixote, the first girl in Fancy Free, Giselle in Giselle, His Memory and His Experiences in HereAfter, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Cerrito in Pas des Déesses, the Siren in Prodigal Son, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, a Lover in Sin and Tonic, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Coupava in The Snow Maiden, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, the Waltz in Les Sylphides, the Sylvia Pas de Deux, the first movement in Symphony in C, the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.