Photography by Danielle Levitt
"There was a period where it was out of fashion to be a ballet choreographer and contemporary dance was really taking the forefront," says Wheeldon (left), who has spent his career flying in the face of fashion with his bracing moves for companies as celebrated as the Bolshoi, London's Royal Ballet, and the San Francisco Ballet, which recently brought his celebrated ballet Ghosts to New York.
One of the preeminent dancers in ballet today, Hallberg has the rare honors of having appeared on The Colbert Report and having been photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vogue, but neither of those achievements can match his history-making debut as the first American to join the Bolshoi as a principal dancer.
Photographed at Fast Ashley's Studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., on September 5, 2013