In ballet, on big screen, Ethan Stiefel takes 'Center Stage'

Stiefel is just a regular guy on a Harley when he steps off center stage

By Donna Freydkin
Reporting for CNN Interactive

May 11, 2000
Web posted at: 1:27 p.m. EST (1727 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- You could say that Ethan Stiefel is quick on his feet. His last name, after all, is German for "boot."

And as a principal dancer with New York's American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the country's preeminent dance companies, Stiefel spends eight hours a day, six days a week, doing plies and pirouettes. But even his grueling workout schedule didn't prepare him for his film debut in "Center Stage" and the promotional duties that accompanied it.

"Yesterday, by hour six, I started fading. Heavily," he says.

Stiefel, 27, is referring to an entire Saturday crammed with back-to-back press interviews for "Center Stage," which details the cutthroat, ruthless inner workings of an elite ballet corps led by a tyrannical director (Peter Gallagher). Think 1985's "A Chorus Line" with tutus and you get the picture.

As he lounges on a comfortable hotel couch, Stiefel is the picture of a laid-back, athletic suburban guy on his way to a high school football game. It's difficult to imagine the droll, dryly funny Stiefel, dressed comfortably in workout clothes and sneakers, twirling around on a New York theater stage. Then again, this is a Wisconsin native who says that after he's done with ballet, he'd like to "just fix motorcycles. I have two."

Power wheels

A telegenic, all-American dancer cruising New York in a Harley-Davidson? It's an image tailor made for the big screen.

So it's not surprising that in his cinematic debut, Stiefel didn't exactly have to extend his acting chops or break any new ground. He plays world-class dancer Cooper Nielson, a dashing renegade who happens to belong to a top ballet company and zoom around on a motorcycle.

But, says Stiefel, that's where the similarities end.

Stiefel co-stars with Amanda Schull in "Center Stage"

"It may seem like me, but it's not me," he says. "There are certain characteristics of Cooper that are me, but I'm not going about things the same way as he does. I have a Harley, I'm a principal dancer, I'm pretty focused, I do love women."

Stiefel says that when he sheds his dancing shoes, he's just an regular guy.

"I enjoy what I do, so why not just go about it in a good way, a positive way?" he muses. "I don't concern myself with becoming a star. I just go out there and try to give an honest performance and if, when I get offstage, I'm a complete schmuck, then that's me."

Still, Stiefel, admits, the air is better at the top. "Being a principal dancer allows me to do a press junket while the company is working," he chortles.

Bright lights, big city

Stiefel, who grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, stepped up to the barre by accident. A self-described hyper kid, 8-year-old Ethan accompanied his older sister Erin to ballet class one day. Undaunted because he was the only boy in the class, young Ethan gave dancing a stab. It gave him a thrill.

Stardom was imminent.

"It was memorable. I did a Mexican hat dance," he recalls of his first performance. "I was maybe just turned 9."

Stiefel stuck with dancing, but his path to fame and glory was a circuitous one. After his family moved to Pennsylvania, he studied at a state youth ballet and spent a summer at the School of American Ballet, the school of the New York City Ballet. And that was part of the problem.

Stieffel's role in the film was not much of a stretch from his normal routine as a principal dancer with New York's American Ballet Theatre

"I actually quit ballet when I was 14," he says. "I had just gotten a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, but it was so far away and there was no other school I liked nearby.

"But then my father was transferred to New York, and ... I knew this was it. I saw the bright lights, big city, the professional companies and great dancers. I was in a great school and knew that this was serious business and I had to do it."

By 16, he was fully committed to his art, with a full scholarship with the School of American Ballet and classes at the Professional Children's School. Then the New York City Ballet called.

In 1989, Stiefel first took the stage as part of the city company's corps de ballet. Stiefel then joined the Zurich Ballet, and in 1997 became the ABT's principal dancer. Since then, he's performed in such classics as "Don Quixote," "Romeo and Juliet," and Twyla Tharp's "Push Comes to Shove."

Stiefel insists he hasn't missed out on anything important, despite having spent the better chunk of life on his feet.

"I've done things that I wouldn't have done if I hadn't been a dancer -- like just leaving the state of Wisconsin," he says.

Not for couch potatoes

As anyone who read ballerina Gelsey Kirkland's popular autobiography "Dancing On My Grave" knows, ballet's shimmering exterior masks a secluded world rife with ambition, intense competition and severe physical demands that can lead to injuries and eating disorders.

Now, "Center Stage" aims to open the curtain on ballet's darker side.

"It does definitely deal with pretty big issues and things that are obvious to a dancer -- anorexia, injury, sacrifice, dealing with teachers and directors," Stiefel says. "It definitely gives a pretty true account."

Another obvious truth: Ballet isn't for couch potatoes. On a typical day, Stiefel starts training at about 10am, rehearsing from noon until 7 p.m. -- 6 p.m. if there's a show. Stiefel is on stage from 8 p.m. until 11 p.m. He repeats that schedule six days a week, during the season.

"The show ends at 11 and I may not be falling asleep until 4 a.m., because physically and mentally, you give everything to it," he says. "It's nice when I have a girlfriend -- I can hang out with her. I go out to dinner, hang out with people. I like music a lot, so I mix it a bit. It takes me to another place after a performance."

His non-ballet friends don't badger him with questions about his livelihood, says Stiefel.

"Most guys think that even the men dance on their toes," he says. "Well, the guys don't. That's probably the biggest question from my non-ballet friends."

Another oft-asked query from Stiefel's buddies: "How do you do the splits?"

Dancing exacts a toll, says Stiefel, who hopes to keep going for another five years before retiring.

"I don't dance for applause," he says. "But there have definitely been moments, when I've been injured, when I say to myself, 'To come back to this, is it really worth it?' It's just tough. It takes so much out of you physically and there's a lot of stress involved. Emotionally, it can drain you.

"I travel around a lot and it's great, it's exciting, but I don't see any of it. I do my shows and I'm off to the next place."

That's enough to keep anyone on their toes.

American Ballet Theatre home page
'Center Stage'

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