Twyla's works are complex, and they really push you as an athlete and push you spiritually as well. Before doing a Twyla ballet, you have to get everything in order: You have to get a good night's sleep, you have to eat well, you have to be in great shape, and then you just go and leave it all out there.

Sascha Radetsky

Categorized in : You Good Night Sleep

American Ballet Theatre's rehearsal studios are at 890 Broadway, an old building where exposed pipes clank and hiss in uneven accompaniment to piano music. The high ceilings wear a toupee of dust. The wall paint peels like a newbie ballerina's toes.

Sascha Radetsky

wear building theatre music

If age someday grounds my feet and wilts my port de bras, what vestige of the old life will be left? The signs that I was a dancer will gradually fade like stripes on a beach towel. Even my knowledge of the art form, reaped in sweat over decades, could be lost over time.

Sascha Radetsky

time life knowledge art

Performing, not rehearsing, is a dancer's raison d'etre, and I've been lucky to 'etre' in some extraordinary places - Cuba, Paris, Mongolia. In particular, a two-week stint in Greece leaps to mind. We danced in the Acropolis's Herodes Atticus amphitheater, once a venue for gladiator spectacles.

Sascha Radetsky

extraordinary paris lucky mind

It's an unfortunate reality of being a male dancer that it's not really looked upon... it's not appreciated.

Sascha Radetsky

being unfortunate appreciated reality

I hadn't really thought about doing any acting at all post-'Center Stage.'

Sascha Radetsky

doing thought stage acting

I think guys, because we share a history growing up of being stereotyped, because there are fewer of us in the dance world, that contributes early on to a bond among us. A lot of us share stories of being harassed or teased growing up - there's a certain deep camaraderie that's formed through that shared struggle.

Sascha Radetsky

dance struggle history world

People come and go, and I've certainly had experiences with overbearing figures and conflicts here and there, but for the most part I've found the dance community to be really supportive and I've formed some lifelong bonds, like with Ethan.

Sascha Radetsky

go community dance people

I'm doing a little bit of acting, but I can't really say it's going to be a career or even that I'm really suited to it. It's a whole other craft you have to study and be passionate about.

Sascha Radetsky

say doing you study

Sir Kenneth MacMillan's version of 'Romeo and Juliet' is my favorite full-length ballet, Sergei Prokofiev's breathtaking score a favorite composition of music. As a student of martial arts, I loved drawing my sword in defense of my Capulet kin.

Sascha Radetsky

sword loved drawing music

My injuries are more due to attrition than accidents. I have a couple of herniated discs in my neck, and that more than anything else - I had a flare-up last December, and I had actually made the decision to retire before that, but that just cemented the choice. I was flat on my back.

Sascha Radetsky

injuries back december decision

At 11, I went to Misha's school for two summers. So when I wasn't in that school, I was taking classes at David Howard or Robert Denver's studios - kind of legendary places - and there was one summer where Alexander Godunov sort of took me under his wing; the memory's a little murky, but I felt as if I was his project for those weeks.

Sascha Radetsky

memory me summer school

I think I tended toward the Russian training because my first teacher taught a version of Vaganova, and it was drilled into me that that was the best system, and also at the time there were a lot of great Russian stars.

Sascha Radetsky

best me stars teacher

At Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet Academy, I studied under a brilliant and fiery teacher. This tiny, stuttering old man flew into a rage if his students' white socks failed to reach mid-calf level. Nor could he tolerate floppy hair. We wore hairnets to class - an athletic brigade of short order cooks.

Sascha Radetsky

man white hair teacher

An ex-ABT ballerina, while staging a ballet for the company, once followed a dancer into the bathroom to deliver notes through the stall door. She was known to bark - literally, like a dog - during private rehearsals.

Sascha Radetsky

door she company dog

Most dancers are less eccentric than driven. It starts young. When other kids are at the playground, we're in the studio, endlessly drilling jumps and adjusting our socks.

Sascha Radetsky

playground socks than young

Ballet has a very small audience, unfortunately.

Sascha Radetsky

very small audience ballet

'Center Stage' reached people that, as live performers, we would have never had the opportunity to reach.

Sascha Radetsky

live never opportunity people