According to an article in The New York Times, it’s not just the reggaeton craze that Latinos are responsible for fomenting these days. American ballet, in a state of oblivion for the past 20 years or so, is beginning to see a revitalization at the hands (feet) of Latino dancers. Many are Cuban, a result of Castro’s long-time funding of the arts and ballet academies in particular, but dancers from all over Latin America are taking American ballet by storm:

“It used to be the Russians,” Kevin McKenzie, the artistic director of American Ballet Theater, said in a phone interview last week. “Now it’s the Latin community.”

Nearly half of the principal dancers at Ballet Theater and at the Boston Ballet are from Latin America or Spain. Four of the 12 foreign dancers at the New York City Ballet are from Latin America or Spain; one is from Puerto Rico. Principal dancers from Latin America and Spain now outnumber those from former Soviet-bloc countries at the Boston Ballet and the Royal Ballet, and are neck and neck at the San Francisco Ballet. At the Washington Ballet almost 20 percent of the dancers are from Latin America or Puerto Rico.