Pennsylvania-born Ethan Stiefel began his dance training at the age of eight in Madison, Wisconsin. He studied for two years at the Milwaukee Ballet School with both Ted Kivitt and Paul Sutherland. He also studied with Marcia Dale Weary at the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet before moving to New York to attend American Ballet Theatre's School of Classical Ballet and The School of American Ballet on scholarship. At 16, he joined the corps de ballet of New York **** Ballet. In 1992, Stiefel took a leave of absence to perform with the Zurich Ballet. He returned to New York **** Ballet one year later as a soloist and was promoted to principal dancer in 1995. Stiefel has danced principal roles in many of George Balanchine抯 ***** masterpieces including A Midsummer Night抯 Dream, The **** Temperaments, Apollo, Symphony in Three Movements, Stars and Stripes, Harlequinade, Theme and Variations, Divertimento #15, Valse Fantasie, Symphony in C, Tarantella, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Chaconne and The Nutcracker. His repertoire of Jerome Robbins� ballets includes Dances at a Gathering, West Side Story Suite, The Goldberg Variations, 2+3 Part Inventions, Interplay, The Cage and Quiet ****. Peter Martins created Fearful Symmetries, Ash, Tchaikovsky Pas de Quatre and Mozart Piano Concerto on him, and he appeared as Prince D閟ir� in Martins� production of The Sleeping Beauty, and in three additional Martins works: Eight ****, Les Gentilhommes and Sinfonia. He has also had works created on him by William Forsythe, Kevin O'Day, David Allan, Robert La Fosse and Richard Tanner. Stiefel has toured extensively, appearing in France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Korea, Denmark, Italy, ******, Hong Kong, Russian and numerous cities in the United States. He has appeared as a guest with many companies including the Mariinsky Ballet, The Royal Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Z黵ich Ballet, New National Ballet in Tokyo, Teatro Colon Ballet in Buenos Aires, New York **** Ballet, Boston Ballet and toured the United States and Russia with Kings of the Dance, of which he was involved in the original idea and concept. Stiefel won a silver medal at the Prix de Lausanne in 1989. He was also the recipient of a Princess Grace Foundation-USA grant in 1991. In 1998, Stiefel was nominated for the Benois de la Danse Award as one of the rising stars in ballet. He received the Dance Magazine Award in 2008. Stiefel joined American Ballet Theatre as a Principal Dancer in April 1997. His roles with the Company include the Boy in Afternoon of a Faun, the title role in Apollo, Solor in La Bayad鑢e, the title role in Billy the Kid, the Prince in Ben Stevenson抯 Cinderella, Franz in Copp閘ia, Conrad and Ali the Slave in Le Corsaire, the Gentleman with Her in Dim Lustre, Basilio in Don Quixote, Oberon in The Dream, the second sailor in Fancy Free, Colas in La Fille mal gard閑, Albrecht in Giselle, Lescaut in Manon, the Cavalier in Kevin McKenzie's The Nutcracker, Lensky in Onegin, Cassio in Othello, Blue Boy in Les Patineurs, Petrouchka in Petrouchka, the Son in Prodigal Son, Jean de Brienne in Raymonda, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Prince D閟ir� in The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, James in La Sylphide, Act II and Aminta in Sylvia . His repertoire also includes leading roles Allegro Brillante, Mozartiana, Tarantella, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Theme and Variations, all by George Balanchine, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Push Comes to Shove, In The Upper Room, all by Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins' Other Dances, Stanton Welch's Clear and HereAfter (Earth), Mark Morris' Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes and Gong, Harald Lander抯 蓆udes, William Forsythe's workwithinwork, Nacho Duarto's Without Words, Jir� Kyli醤's Sinfonietta and Petite Mort and the second and third variations in Anton Dolin's Variations for ****. He created leading roles in Paul Taylor's Black Tuesday, Jean Christophe Maillot's In Volo, Peter Quanz' Kaleidoscope, Known by Heart and Rogue in Rabbit and Rogue, both by Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch's 搮smile with ** heart,� HereAfter (Heaven) and Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison, both by Natalie Weir. In 2000, Stiefel starred in the motion picture Center Stage, directed by Nicholas Hytner with original choreography by Susan Stroman. He reprised his role of Cooper Nielson in this film抯 sequel, Center Stage 2: Turn It Up in 2008. He has also been seen in the ABT PBS productions of Le Corsaire, as Conrad, and as Oberon in The Dream. He was one of the **** ABT men who were the subject of the PBS documentary, Born to Be Wild. He appeared on the TV series "Gossip Girl" in November 2010. Stiefel was appointed Dean of the School of Dance for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2007. In December 2009, he directed and choreographed a new production of The Nutcracker for the School. The production was revived in 2010 and seen on television in North Carolina in December. Stiefel will become Artistic Director of the Royal New Zealand ballet in September 2011. Mr. Stiefel performances with American Ballet Theatre are sponsored by Anka Palitz, in memory of Clarence Y. Palitz, Jr.