‘Ballet is woman,” Balanchine famously said, but this spring and summer, the dance world is raining men. One of them is 22-year-old Gentry George, who joined Ailey II last summer. Since then, Ailey director Troy Powell says, “It was as if he put on wings and he flew.” Also worth watching are the dynamic Lloyd Mayor, 19, who turned heads a few months ago at the Martha Graham Dance Company, and Chase Finlay, a 22-year-old winner of the Clive Barnes Award, who made it to the top of the heap at New York City Ballet, when he was promoted four months ago to principal dancer. Here’s what they’re like, and where and when you can catch their next leap forward.
LLOYD MAYOR
Company: Martha Graham Dance Company
Hometown: Geneva, Switzerland
First steps: Moved to the Isle of Man at age 13 to train, then London’s Rambert School.
Personality: Aristocratic, poetic, passionate.
Signature role: Achilles, the gender-bending role Mikhail Baryshnikov originated — in high heels — in Richard Move’s “The Show.”
The buzz: “I love his vulnerability but also his strength,” Move says.
Guilty pleasure: Pastries, particularly the macarons at Ladurée.
Catch him: At Central Park’s SummerStage with the Martha Graham Dance Company, July 23 and 24.
CHASE FINLAY
Company: New York City Ballet
Hometown: Fairfield, Conn.
First steps: After watching his older sister perform in “The Nutcracker” in Stamford, he begged his parents for lessons. He was 8.
Personality: Nutcracker Prince on the outside; regular guy on the inside.
Signature role: His youthful but godlike presence as Balanchine’s “Apollo,” a 2011 debut he recalls as “a surreal, out-of-body experience.”
The buzz: NYCB artistic director Peter Martins says, “He’s one of those dancers who doesn’t even have to take a step to command attention.”
Guilty pleasures: The holy trinity of football, pizza and beer.
Catch him: In NYCB’s premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s “Soirée Musicale” May 8.
GENTRY GEORGE
Company: Ailey II
Hometown: Miami, Fla.
First steps: Started training at 8. Before Juilliard, he attended a local school in Miami where his teacher, Linda Agyapong, taught not only dance but singing, modeling and cooking, and ran a book club.
Personality: Polite and thoughtful.
Signature role: A tour-de-force solo in “Doscongio,” which showed the doubting man behind the confident mask.
The buzz: “You don’t just look at his physique,” says artistic director Troy Powell. “You look at his artistry.”
Guilty pleasure: Gummi bears. “Sometimes I sneak them at barre. I could eat them all day.”
Catch him: May 7 at the Apollo Theater and with Alvin Ailey Dance Theater at Newark’s NJPAC May 10 and 11.