In this story of his first sixteen years, Robert -Maiorano tells how a small boy from the slums of -Brooklyn became a world-renowned dancer. He -describes the years of hard work, the arduous training, the -frustrations, triumphs, and disappointments before he was accepted into the New York City Ballet. He details the fast-paced life of his tour with the company in -Russia, where as a sixteen-year-old he danced for Khrushchev on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Robert's story is one of many contrasts-of hope and despair, of love and sorrow, and of the two worlds in which he moved: the -gang-ridden Brooklyn of the fifties and the brilliant, -demanding, exciting world of the ballet.