Stiefel Chase

SPOTLIGHT

Ethan Stiefel rides a Harley-Davidson Sportster, has a steady girlfriend, and refers to his career as "this ballet thing." His father was a Texas state trooper. His redneck swagger notwithstanding, the 22-year-old Stiefel, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, is one of the most gifted male dancers we've seen since Edward Villella and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Yet he can hardly speak of ballet without equivocating. "I joined the company when I was 16," he says. "But I wasn't sure I wanted to make ballet a career. When I'm onstage I'm 1 50 percent there. But I'm not totally obsessed with ballet." There are no contradictions, however, in his dancing. His greatest roles are two of the most porcelain-exquisite Balanchine ever made for a man—Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Harlequin in Harlequinade. They are also two of the most difficult parts ever composed for a male dancer, both demanding overthe-top acrobatic effort, technical and musical refinement, and dramatic ability. Stiefel moves with such effortless, frictionless ease you'd swear he was born with WD-40 in his joints. "Well," he concedes, "a part of me always wanted to be a dancer."