伊桑·斯蒂费尔，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 City Ballet. In 1992, Stiefel took a leave of absence to perform with the Zurich Ballet. He returned to New York City 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 great masterpieces including A Midsummer Night抯 Dream, The Four 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 City. 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 More, 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, Taiwan, 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 City Ballet, Boston Ballet and toured the