Sascha Radetsky Gives Farewell Performance with the American Ballet Theatre in COPPELIA Tonight

Sascha Radetsky, a Soloist with American Ballet Theatre since 2003, will give his farewell performance with the Company tonight, July 3 at the Metropolitan Opera House in the role of Franz inCoppélia. Radetsky will dance opposite Xiomara Reyes in the role of Swanilda.

Radetsky was born in Santa Cruz, California and began his ballet studies in the San Francisco Bay Area with Damara Bennett and Ayako Takahashi. At the age of 15, he was invited to study with Pyotor Pestov at the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow. He studied on scholarship at the Kirov Academy in Washington, D. C. under Roudolf Kharatian and Andrei Garbouz and toured with the Kirov Ballet throughout the United States and internationally. He also studied on scholarship at the summer programs of the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre's School of Classical Ballet with Mikhail Baryshnikov, the San Francisco Ballet School and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Vail, Colorado.

Radetsky joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in 1995, became a member of the corps de ballet in 1996 and was appointed Soloist in 2003. His repertoire includes Her Prince Charming inCinderella, Lankendem and Birbanto in Le Corsaire, Espada and Lead Gypsy in Don Quixote,Hilarion and the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Lescaut and the Jailer in Manon, Tybalt, Paris and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Benno and von Rothbart in Swan Lake, Camille in The Merry Widow, Iago in Othello, His Friend in The Moor's Pavane, Orion inSylvia, Gaston in Lady of the Camellias, the Cavalier and the Nutcracker-Prince in Kevin McKenzie's The Nutcracker, Petrouchka in Petrouchka, the second and third sailors in Fancy Free, the Champion Roper in Rodeo, Accordionist in The Bright Stream, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy inCompany B, the Pastor in Fall River Legend, the Warrior Chieftain in Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, Rabbit in Rabbit and Rogue, the third movement in Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, the pas deux from Clear and leading roles in Thaïs Pas de Deux, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, In the Upper Room, Petite Mort, Études, The Leaves Are Fading, Dark Elegies, Offenbach in the Underworld, C to C: (Close to Chuck), Symphony in C, and Symphony #9, among others. His created roles includeAftereffect, From Here On Out, Glow-Stop, Gong, Troika and Thirteen Diversions.

In 2008, Radetsky joined Dutch National Ballet as a principal dancer. His repertoire included Albrecht in Giselle, Basilio in Don Quixote, Sanguinic in The Four Temperaments and The Son inProdigal Son.

Radetsky has performed in galas and festivals around the world and as a guest principal with companies such as the Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Berlin Staatsballett, Ballet San Jose, Ballet do Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro and the Mongolian State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. He has also appeared with troupes such as Ethan Stiefel's Stiefel and Stars, Benjamin Millepied's Danses Concertantes and Daniel Ulbricht's Stars of American Ballet. In 2012, he choreographed for Bucknell University's Department of Theatre and Dance.

Radetsky starred as Charlie in the movie Center Stage. He has written for Newsweek, Dance Magazine and Dance Spirit. He and his wife, ABT soloist Stella Abrera, were recently named repetiteurs-in-training with The Antony Tudor Ballet Trust. Radetsky will star in the Starz television series, Flesh and Bone, slated to air in 2015.

Photo Credit: David Cross