ETHAN STIEFEL

Ethan Stiefel, born in Pennsylvania, is a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre and Dean of The School of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Mr. Stiefel began his dance studies in Madison, Wisconsin. His early teachers included Paul Sutherland and Ted Kivitt. He continued his studies at Marcia Dale Weary’s Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. 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.

Mr. Stiefel began his performing 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.

His repertoire of full-length works includes Florimund (The Sleeping Beauty) Siegfried (Swan Lake), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Albrecht (Giselle), Lescaut (Manon), Lenski (Onegin), Jeanne (Raymonda), Colas (La Fille Mal Gardee), Solor (La Bayadere), Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Cassio (Othello), Basil (Don Quixote), Franz (Coppelia), Conrad and the Slave (Le Corsaire).

He appears in a wide variety of shorter works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Michel Fokine, William Forsythe, Lar Lubovitch, Nils Christe, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, Jiri Kylian, August Bournonville, Bob Fosse, Antony Tudor, Christopher Wheeldon, Eugene Loring, Peter Martins, Nacho Duato, Frederick Ashton and Twyla Tharp. He made his debut with London’s Royal Ballet in Twyla Tharp’s Junk Man pas de deux and returned frequently as a guest dancing the roles of Franz, Solor, Colas, Albrecht, Lenski, the Prince in a new production of Sleeping Beauty and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated by William Forsythe. The Kirov Ballet first invited him to dance Apollo in St. Petersburg and he later returned performing the role of Solor.

Other guest appearances include the Australian Ballet, the Zürich Ballet, the Munich Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Teatro Colon, and tours in the United States, Japan, Russia and throughout Europe. He starred in the feature film Center Stage, and returned to play the role of Cooper Nielsen in Center Stage 2- Turn It Up. Mr. Stiefel’s television and video credits include The Dream, Le Corsaire, Die Fledermaus and the documentary, Born to be Wild.

He 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 frequently teaches master classes internationally; was Artistic Director of Ballet Pacifica and a juror for the Prix de Lausanne in 2001.

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Albert of Monaco presented Mr. Stiefel with the Statue Award of the Princess Grace Foundation, the foundations highest honor, in October 1999.  He received the prestigious Dance Magazine Award in December 2008.