Sascha Radetsky, a former Soloist at American Ballet Theatre (ABT), has been named Director of the ABT/NYU Steinhardt Master’s Degree Program in Ballet Pedagogy.
Sascha Radetsky, a former Soloist at American Ballet Theatre (ABT), has been named the ABT Partner Director of the ABT/NYU Steinhardt Master’s Degree Program in Ballet Pedagogy. Radetsky’s appointment, effective immediately, was announced today by ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The Master of Arts Program in Teaching Dance in the Professions with a concentration in ABT Ballet Pedagogy, established in at New York University’s Steinhardt School in fall 2008, emphasizes the study of ballet technique combined with discipline-based inquiries and scholarly research.
"The ABT/NYU Master’s Degree Program in Ballet Pedagogy brings together two world-class institutions,” said Radetsky. “I am proud to contribute to this unique partnership and excited at the prospect of developing students into superlative teachers.”
“Sascha Radetsky is not only a tremendous performer, he is also one of our nation’s leading cultural voices on the subject of ballet, so we’re extremely proud to have him running this innovative program,” said Susan Koff, director of the Dance Education Program at NYU Steinhardt. “This collaboration with ABT has provided our students with a program that is truly unique and Sascha’s leadership can only enhance it.”
Born in Santa Cruz, California, Radetsky 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 included Franz in Coppélia, Prince Charming in Cinderella, Lankendem in Le Corsaire, Espada in Don Quixote, Lescaut in Manon, Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Hilarion in Giselle, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, among others. In 2008, Radetsky joined Dutch National Ballet as a principal dancer. He returned to ABT in 2010 and retired from the Company in 2014.
Radetsky starred in the movies Center Stage and the upcoming Center Stage 3, and in the Starz television series Flesh and Bone. He has contributed articles to Dance Magazine, Vogue.com and Newsweek.
Radetsky has taught ballet for numerous institutions including American Ballet Theatre, 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, Santa Barbara, the AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts and at the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. He has 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.
The New York University Steinhardt School 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 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. Immmersed in discipline-based inquiries and scholarly research, along with artistry, the students increase knowledge and expertise in the theory and practice of dance education and transform the way educators understand and teach dance.
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, 2016 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, please visit http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/dance/auditions.
About the NYU Steinhardt Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions
Steinhardt’s Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, established in 1925, instructs over 1,600 students majoring in music and performing arts programs. Music and Performing Arts Professions serves as NYU’s “school” of music and is a major research and practice center in music technology, music business, music composition, film scoring, songwriting, music performance practices, performing arts therapies, and the performing arts-in-education (music, dance, and drama).
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