Ethan Stiefel will withdraw from performances with the company this spring, says the NY Times Artsbeat.

Stiefel, 38, said he had decided to withdraw so that he could focus on his duties as dean of dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

He is to take on the role of artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet in September. “Leading the U.N.C.S.A. School of Dance through a critical period of transition has required the type of energy and attention that has kept me from properly focusing and physically preparing for my upcoming performances,” Stiefel said in a statement. “I am truly disappointed not to be performing with my colleagues at ABT and for the New York audiences.”

This season he was scheduled to dance opposite Alina Cojocaru in “Giselle” in May and Natalia Osipova in “Coppelia” in June. Mr. Stiefel, who joined Ballet Theater in 1997, has also withdrawn from American Ballet Theater’s tour of Japan in July.