Dancer Jock Soto Looks Back on a Life in Tights (and Fishnets)

When Jock Soto retired from the New York City Ballet three years ago, he’d spent a quarter-century becoming one of the most celebrated male dancers in the company’s history. Half Navajo and half Puerto Rican, stocky and athletic, Soto didn’t fit the danseur noble mold, but his grace and strength as a soloist and fame as the surest of partners (famously to iconic ballerinas Heather Watts, Lourdes Lopez, and Wendy Whelan) cemented his reputation as one of the most universally beloved dancers in New York. PBS’s Independent Lens today airs Water Flowing Together, a documentary about Soto’s career and rediscovery of his heritage. Vulture caught up with Soto, who now spends his days running a catering business with his partner, and talked to him about the dances in his past and the cooking show in his future.

Now that you’re retired, is it strange to see all this footage from your career?
I first saw it in San Francisco at the gay and lesbian film festival there, and it was kind of shocking! I felt like I was watching somebody else. It was quite emotional.”*

*From: http://nymag.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

• Ana Isabelle de Puerto Rico is chosen ¡Viva el Sueño! Latin music superstar
• Star Trek On DVD: Few Latinos in Revisionist Version
• Penelope Cruz steers her own course in ‘Broken Embraces’
• It is Better to “Spic”? When Were Ricans Ever the Model Minority?
• Pedro Almodovar’s “Los abrazos rotos” (Broken Embraces), his latest film and the fourth collaboration between the former enfant terrible of Spanish cinema and actress Penelope Cruz, has received mostly positive reviews from U.S. critics ahead of its release Friday in New York
• “Lost” Star Nestor Carbonell to Play Khan in “Star Trek” Sequel?
• Efrain’s Corner: A Response to….”Puerto Ricans in New York Struggling…Still” Comment
• Puerto Ricans in New York Struggling…Still – Puerto Ricans are some of the most prominent figures in New York politics and culture, so some people are surprised when they hear that, overall, Puerto Ricans are among the poorest and least educated New Yorkers. Almost a third in New York are living in poverty.
• Celebrate Puerto Rican Heritage at the Comité Noviembre Puerto Rican Artisans & Health Fair – Saturday, Nov. 23 – Bronx, NYC
• Time Warner Cable Launches in Los Angeles VeneMovies, New 24 Hour Commercial Free Film Channel
• Puerto Rican, Latino Clergy, Theology Professors, Community Members To Condemn Brutal Hate Killing of Gay Puerto Rican Man
• The Associated Press on Wednesday announced changes in its Latin America and Caribbean operations, closing a service limited to Puerto Rican news within Puerto Rico while adding editors and reporters elsewhere for the expanding Spanish market in the Americas.
• Peru: Documentary about the “Diablada” dance will be done in Puno
• Mexican film “Cinco dias sin Nora,” directed by Mariana Chenillo, was awarded the top honor at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, and also receiving awards were Spanish director Cesc Gay and his Palestinian colleague Elia Suleiman.
• Keila Cosme, a native of Puerto Rico – The first Hispanic named to an Ohio appellate court
• Interview with Sofía Quintero – A self-proclaimed “Ivy League homegirl,” a writer, activist, educator, speaker and comedienne, was born into a working-class Puerto Rican-Dominican family in the Bronx.
• La película mexicana “Cinco días sin Nora”, de Mariana Chenillo, obtuvo hoy el Astor de Oro, el principal premio de la competencia internacional de la XXIV edición del Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata, el único con categoría A de América Latina.
• Longtime Rutgers Professor, Community Activist, Gay-Rights Pioneer Hilda Hidalgo Loses Cancer Fight
• Literanista: The LOST TAINO TRIBE Documentary
• Puerto Rico’s National Strike: “Peaceful Insurrection” Against the Wall Street Bankers