Sascha Radetsky now leads ABT/NYU program

Sascha Radetsky, a former soloist at American Ballet Theatre, has been named Director of the American Ballet Theatre/New York University Master’s Degree Program in Ballet Pedagogy. Radetsky’s appointment, effective immediately, was announced on January 28 by ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The New York University (NYU) Master of Arts Program in Teaching Dance in the Professions with a concentration in ABT Ballet Pedagogy, established in Fall 2008, emphasizes the study of ballet technique combined with discipline-based inquiries and scholarly research.

Radetsky was born in Santa Cruz, California, and began his ballet studies in the San Francisco Bay Area with Damara Bennett and Ayako Takahashi. He later studied at the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow and the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C. He also studied at the summer programs of the School of American Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet School, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Vail, Colorado, and with Mikhail Baryshnikov at American Ballet Theatre’s School of Classical Ballet.

Radetsky joined ABT’s corps de ballet in 1996 and was promoted to soloist in 2003. His repertoire with the company was vast and included Franz in Coppélia, Prince Charming in Cinderella, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Benno and von Rothbart in Swan Lake, Orion in Sylvia, Petrouchka in Petrouchka, the Champion Roper in Rodeo and leading roles in Fancy Free, In the Upper Room, The Leaves Are Fading, The Moor’s Pavane, Rabbit and Rogue and Études, among others. 

In 2008, Radetsky joined the Dutch National Ballet as a principal dancer, performing roles such as Albrecht in Giselle and the Son in Prodigal Son. He returned to ABT in 2010 and retired from the company in 2014.

He’s most well known for starring in the movie Center Stage. He’ll have a role in the upcoming Center Stage 3. He recently finished a role in the Starz television series Flesh and Bone.

Radetsky has taught ballet for numerous institutions, including ABT, Youth America Grand Prix, the New Mexico School of the Arts, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Ballet Arts, Broadway Dance Center, the Dallas Conservatory and the New York City Dance Alliance. He studied at Long Island University and St. Mary’s College, and has lectured at the University of California in Santa Barbara, the AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and at the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. He’s choreographed for Bucknell University’s Department of Theatre and Dance and a commercial for Under Armour. He is a repetiteur-in-training with The Antony Tudor Ballet Trust and was a fall 2015 artistic fellow at New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts.

Speaking of his appointment, Radetsky said, “The ABT/NYU Master’s Degree Program in Ballet Pedagogy brings together two world-class institutions. I am proud to contribute to this unique partnership and excited at the prospect of developing students into superlative teachers.”

The NYU Master’s Program in Teaching Dance in the Professions with a concentration in ABT Ballet Pedagogy is a 36-point graduate degree program that prepares dance teachers for studios, conservatories and company schools, as well as for further doctoral study in dance education and teaching in higher education. The full-time program starts each September and can be completed in three semesters.

Students in the program examine the study of ballet technique for the express purpose of developing research-informed and proficient teachers who possess a complete understanding of the use of the biomechanics of movement, artistic imagery and the development of students on professional and recreational tracks of study. Integrated fieldwork studies with ABT and its training programs give students the opportunity to cultivate professional networks in the city that is considered the dance capital of the world. Students also visit other exemplary artistic, teaching and learning venues in New York City.

Acceptance to the program is by application and audition. The next audition for the ABT/NYU Master’s Program in Ballet Pedagogy, taught by Radetsky, will be held on Sunday, February 21 at 10 am at ABT’s 890 Broadway studios in New York City. A formal application to the program and registration for this audition are required. For more information, visit steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/dance/auditions. 

Photo: Sascha Radetsky. Photo by Marcelo Gomes.