| Contents |
Chapter 1 Prelude 1 -- Chapter 2 The Sleeping Beauty 13 -- Courage and Comfort on the Go 24 -- Chapter 3 Fearful Symmetries 27 -- The Sweet Confusion of a Multicultural Identity Crisis 40 -- Chapter 4 Papa's Got a Brand-new Name 43 -- In Celebration of Finding Fathers 53 -- Chapter 5 Saturday Nights and Sunday Picnics in Paradise Valley 55 -- The Happy Family Picnic 70 -- Chapter 6 Losing Arizona 73 -- Ballet-School Banquet in a Bag 85 -- Chapter 7 The Accidental Adult 89 -- A Little Hamburger Helper and My Friends 103 -- Chapter 8 First Love, First Job, First Trip, First Tiramisu 107 -- Amends for a Terrible Tiramisu 122 -- Chapter 9 So You Think You Can Dance? 125 -- A Soto Variation on a Balanchine Classic 145 -- Chapter 10 The Enigma of Arrival 149 -- A Feast for Milestone Moments 164 -- Chapter 11 Bright Lights, Dark Passages 169 -- Chop till You Drop: A Last-minute Meal for Fifty or More 187 -- Chapter 12 Exploring New Country 191 -- Christmas Cheer for Orphans and Strays 207 -- Chapter 13 Endings Beget Beginnings 211 -- Seasoning the Guest List for a Spicy Evening 228 -- Chapter 14 To Everything Turn, Turn, Turn 231 -- A New Year's Eve Feast and Dance Party 249 -- Chapter 15 Coda 253. |
| Abstract |
In June 2005 Jock Soto, age 40, gave his farewell performance as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. The program capped one of the most storied careers in ballet history--an ascent that began when Soto was just three years old. After retiring, Soto was determined to embrace a new future, teaching at the School of American Ballet, but he found himself obsessed with questions about his past. This book weaves together the diverse strands of Soto's life: being the offspring of a Puerto Rican-Navajo 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, and Lourdes Lopez, and shares his love of food in recipes marking the pivotal moments in his story. |
