Product Description

In June 2005 Jock Soto, at forty years old, gave his farewell performance as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. The program, an event of unprecedented ambition, showcased pieces from five legendary choreographers, and it capped one of the most storied careers in ballet historyan ascent that began when Soto was just three years old. After retiring, Soto was determined to embrace a new future, but he found himself obsessed with questions about his pastwhere had he come from, and where had he been? weaves together the diverse strands of Sotos life: being the half-breed offspring of a Puerto RicanNavajo couple, the gay son of a fiercely macho man, a naive teenager from the desert running in the sophisticated art world of New York, and a driven artist by day and hard-core party animal by night. Soto recalls his professional relationships with such icons as George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Darci Kistler, Lourdes Lopez, and many others. He shares his love of food throughout the book with recipes to mark the pivotal moments in his story. And he describes the newest chapter in his life: teaching at the renowned School of American Ballet. Intimate and moving, shows the honest and inspiring evolution of a remarkable man, a brilliant artist, and a living legend.