New Faces Of 1996

A Leap Into the New World

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, TO BE a rising star in a European ballet company. Good pay, important roles in the classics -- "There was a lot of security and comfort," says Frederic Garner, 26, who grew up in Switzerland and joined the Stuttgart Ballet at 18. "But while I was dancing those ballets, I was listening to experimental music and going to see modern art. It didn't make sense to stay with ballet. I was curious about my own time." So he moved to New York and began taking classes at the Merce Cunningham studio. "I was attracted to his ideas," says Gafner. "Separating the music from the dance, exploring movement for its own sake. I had to relearn everything." Today he's a much praised member of the Cunningham company and looking forward to his role in "Ocean," Cunningham's last collaboration with the late composer John Cage.

"Ocean" will have its American premiere in Berkeley in April. And the first person audiences will see onstage, dancing alone, will be a former ballet dancer, reborn in the New World.

JUNOT DIAZ