Kage has spent his life dancing, beginning as a 9-year-old at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm, Sweden. He became a professional at 18 and went on to dance 25 of the legendary George Balanchine's ballets.
He met his wife of 30 years, Deborah Dobson, while working at American Ballet Theater, and the couple danced professionally 27 years with companies including the Zurich Ballet — "our base for 10 years." Their daughter, Isabelle, is nearly 16 years old.
Overcoming dyslexia: Dyslexia makes reading difficult, but "the more I am engrossed with what I am reading, the easier it is," says Kage, who enjoys books and magazines relating to his hobbies, from skiing to photography, mountain climbing to motorcycles.
Kiddie picks: "My favorite childhood book, like all Swedes, was, you guessed it, 'Pippi Longstocking!' "
Today's choices: The seven-year director of Ballet West just finished "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown and now is reading a Swedish tome, "Hermans Historia," a book about a selection of Sweden's kings and queens, their adventures and destinies by Herman Lindqvist.
On reading: "Reading is the key to enriching one's life," Kage says. "Besides information, it is about fantasy, imagination, imagery, magic and intellectual and emotional stimulation. It opens doors and leads you places you never knew existed."