A wild, untamed youth learns nobility through art.

Before I was through my teens, I had been introduced and exposed to artists who would, in later years, become legendary.

I didn't know if I could act, but I knew I could be a great ballet dancer, and Balanchine put out the carpet for me.

If I had to reflect on the finest classical male ballet dancers of my time, Vladimir Vasiliev of the Bolshoi and the Danish dancer Eric Bruhn were, I feel, without peer.

Who am I? I'm a man, an American, a father, a teacher, but most of all, I am a person who knows how the arts can change lives, because they transformed mine. I was a dancer.