Ethan Stiefel
Artistic Director
Ethan Stiefel, born in Pennsylvania, USA, joined Royal New
Zealand Ballet as Artistic Director in September 2011. Just prior to joining
RNZB, he served as Dean of the School of Dance at the
University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
3 News' David Farrier spoke to Ethan, read more here...
A Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Stiefel
began his dance studies in Madison, Wisconsin. He was awarded a full
scholarship at the School of American Ballet, where he studied under Stanley
Williams and then studied with Mikhail Baryshnikov at his School of Classical Ballet.
Stiefel began his professional career at age 16 with the New
York City Ballet where he quickly rose to the rank of Principal Dancer. He was
also a Principal Dancer with the Zürich Ballet and joined Ballet Theatre in
1997. He has performed leading roles in all of the classic full-length
ballets. He has appeared in a wide
variety of shorter works, including ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome
Robbins, Michel Fokine, William Forsythe, Lar Lubovitch, Paul Taylor, Mark
Morris, Jiri Kylian, August Bournonville, Bob Fosse, Antony Tudor, Christopher Wheeldon, Nacho
Duato, Frederick Ashton and Twyla Tharp.
Stiefel has toured and performed extensively on the
international level. Guest appearances include London’s Royal Ballet, The
Marinsky Ballet (Kirov), New York City Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Zurich
Ballet, Munich Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Teatro
Colon and Tokyo’s New National Theater.
He starred in the feature film Center Stage, and returned to
play the role of Cooper Nielsen in Center Stage 2- Turn It Up. Stiefel’s
television and video credits include The Dream, Le Corsaire, Die Fledermaus and
the documentary, Born To Be Wild.
Stiefel has been a guest teacher for many institutions
including the American Ballet Theatre II, American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, The National
Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet School. He recently staged and
choreographed a new version of The
Nutcracker for UNCSA.
He has received several awards, throughout his career. In
1999, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Albert of Monaco presented Stiefel with the
Statue Award of the Princess Grace Foundation, the foundations highest honour.He received the prestigious Dance Magazine
Award in December 2008. Additionally, Stiefel was a juror for the Prix de
Lausanne in 2001 and served on the selection committee for the 2010
International Ballet Competition held in Jackson, Mississippi.
Become a fan of TV3 on Facebook
,
on Twitter .