A little of of the discussion here, but I just wanted to add a little comment about an african-american dancer I saw a film clip of recently - he was a graduate of the Vaganova School in Washington DC, and he was dancing the Le Corsaire Pas de Deux.
I was knocked out by this dancer - he was extremely limber and passionate, and had an incredible sense of balance and grace. He would perfom multiple pirouettes and come out of them in a developpe into a la seconde, while still in releve. It seemed as though he was completely off of his center, but somehow he managed to retain his balance quite effortlessly, almost as though defying gravity! He did this all throughout his performance in his jumps, tours, etc. Unlike many dancers I see nowadays, many of whom seem to be very much preoccupied with the hieght of their legs, how many turns they can squeeze in, or all things technical, he was really DANCING! Although there were in fact a few things on the techincal side he needed to work on (i.e. lazy feet in his double saut de basque during the turns around the stage), the fact that he was so lost in the actual DANCING made up for it! Not to sound to poetic, but it seemed as though he was trying to transform himself through the balletic movements into something more than just merely a ballet dancer. I have seen this Pas de deux danced many times, but he was truly something else!!!!
Unfortunately I have seen in performance and have personally known only a small few of ballet dancers in my life, so few of them take up ballet - I truly believe that people of this particular race are somehow genetically disposed to have incredible musicality and gift for movement - they were all amazing dancers, and when such a person becomes a ballet dancer, that gift for movement is exploited to the highest level. The dancer (I wish I could remember his name) I mentioned in this post is an example of this.
--Sasha Torevna