STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

As a youngster growing up in Moscow, Alexander Tressor had a choice between the former Soviet Union’s great national pastime of hockey and its longstanding passion for ballet.

He chose the former, even though his stepfather Andrei Kramarevsky, was a principal dancer for the Bolshoi Ballet.

But his family’s immigration to New York in 1976 prompted Tressor to change career paths.

He became a student at the School of American Ballet, a Broadway dancer and a ballet master who even taught a Balanchine-style master class at the Mariinsky Theater of St. Petersburg.

And this past week he started as the artistic director and choreographer at Sun Valley Ballet, where he also hopes to present his Parkinson’s on the Move program to those who, like him, must deal with the daily struggles of Parkinson’s disease.

One of his first tasks is casting for a unique dance program inspired by the traditional “The Nutcracker” that he will choreograph to incorporate the local culture. “The Winter Celebration,” as he’s calling it, will involve singers, actors, jugglers, baton twirlers, magicians and other talents, in addition to dancers.

“I want to get more kids interested in dance. I want to shed new light on ballet, to help the community to understand that ballet is another part of the continuum like skiing or football,” he said.

“Kids who take my classes will find that it’s not just about learning to dance but about getting a huge education as well. You learn language, cultures, geography and even physicality as you ask your body to do things it’s never done.”

Tressor grew up watching ballet on TV—that’s one of the few things Russian TV of his childhood featured.But he didn’t take dance classes, even though his stepfather was taking dance to places like  London, Paris and Tokyo with the Bolshoi Ballet.

At 1975 Tressor’s parents decided to join the mass emigration of Soviet Jews when the Soviet Union lifted bans on emigration.

“My mother was half-Jew—or what I call ‘Jewish light’—but that was enough,” he said. “My parents decided you can’t spend your life in the Soviet Union—it’s a little stagnant. But it was not without risk. If they applied and got out, great. If they didn’t, their life was over. I probably would have been drafted and ended up in Afghanistan. My parents would have been given menial work.”

Tressor did not know English when he arrived in the United States. But he did know the language of ballet. And it was while watching a class at the American School of Ballet, where his stepfather was teaching, that he decided to try it.

“I have a long torso and short legs, which is the opposite of what they want in ballet,” he said. “But I did have some incredible conditioning and I could mimic whatever movement was thrown at me.”

A year and a half later Tressor found himself dancing for a ballet company in Sweden. Then George Balanchine, who had hired his stepfather on the spot to teach classes at New York City Ballet, redirected him to Broadway.

He spent the next 15 years as a Broadway gypsy, going to auditions with hundreds of other hopefuls. And he was fortunate to appear in numerous shows on Broadway and national and international tours.

Tressor played young Franklin Roosevelt in “Teddy and Alice,” danced with Anthony Quinn in “Zorba,” played opposite Barbara Eden in “Woman of the Year” and took part in such other musicals as “Hello Dolly” and “Ain’t Broadway Grand.”

He led his fellow dancers in warm-ups during that time and they gave him such positive feedback that he ended up teaching five to six ballet classes a day all over Manhattan.

Then, after 40 years of dancing and teaching, he decided he wanted to see what it was like to drive a car to work, to not be stampeded in the subway and to live in something other than a 400-square-foot apartment for $2,000 a month.

“I wanted something more normal because nothing is normal about New York,” he quipped.

Tressor began teaching in places like Cary, N.C., Greenville, S.C., and at Harvard University, where he met his wife Alexis Peterson, a dancer medical school student. It was Alexis who helped Tressor develop his “Parkinson’s on the Move” program, which includes a website (www.PDonthemove.com) that touts stretching, coordination exercises, strength training and cardiovascular intervals as ways to manage the disease.

Tressor was just 47 in 2006 when he noticed a tremor in his right hand. Six months later, it seemed that his right leg didn’t move the way it was accustomed.

His doctors dismissed both at first. But, as an athlete and dancer, Tressor was very attuned to how his body was capable of performing and so he continued pestering them.

Finally, he received the diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson’s--a progressive nervous system disorder caused by a deficiency of dopamine that can progress to involve a shuffling gait, stiffness, balance problems and difficulty speaking.

“I had heard some names associated with Parkinson’s, like Ali Muhammad and Michael J. Fox, but otherwise I didn’t know much about it. And the only thing the doctor told me was that they have great pills for it,” he said.

Tressor resisted taking pills as much as possible, instead utilizing the self-discipline he had learned as a dancer to try to mitigate the progression with exercise, diet and stress reduction.

He began walking a dog. He ran and biked. He increased the amount of stretching he did. And by improving his already healthy diet, he lost 25 pounds and trimmed four inches off his waist. And he created a dance therapy he called “Parkinson’s on the Move,” which he taught to patients at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut and elsewhere

He also began posting videos of himself and his dry sense of humor on YouTube, including one called “Shaken, Not Stirred” about Parkinson’s and “How to Wash a Schnauzer,” which has nothing to do with Parkinson’s but has lassoed in viewers by the thousands.

Twelve years later Tressor is still able to do the things he loves to do, including playing hockey, skiing and, of course, dancing.

“There are days I don’t have symptoms at all,” he said. “I’m not going to give up or slow down just because the prognosis isn’t necessarily positive.”

Tressor is excited about the opportunity to explore Sun Valley.

“It’s kind of a unique part of the world—like a slice of Switzerland in the United States,” he said. “It’s beautiful, quiet and gorgeous. You have mountains and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the people are exceptionally nice. And the Sun Valley Ballet School’s new studio is so beautiful.”

He also is excited about the opportunity to create dance here, drawing in part on the inspiration of George Balanchine.

“Balanchine was a genius choreographer who could make the most amazing ballets with power and dignity and romance. He could create a story in ballet that had no story and it would be as if you were reading a book about relationships.  He knew that you had to take care of the audience, as well as his dancers. He knew that if dancers showcase their best, the audience gets it,” he said.

He paused.

“Good dance is universal. It has to be honest, dynamic and energizing so people get entertained and they don’t even know why. That’s what I hope to be able to bring to Sun Valley Ballet.”

ABOUT SUN VALLEY BALLET

Sun Valley Ballet was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1978 to work with aspiring dancers of all ages. Scholarships are available. For more information, visit www.sunvalleyballet.com or call 208-806-1441.