Jock Soto was a mere 16 years old in 1981 when Peter Martins, director of the New York City Ballet, plucked him out of the company’s school. Just four years later Soto was promoted to the troupe’s top tier of dancers.

“At that time I was the youngest principal. I was in shock. It was hard to live up to,” says the openly gay Soto, who is half Navajo Indian and half Puerto Rican. “But I never call myself a star, I’m just a dancer.”

After a career that’s included more than 100 new ballets made specifically on him, Soto retires this month at age 40. His final performance, June 19 at Lincoln Center’s New York State Theatre, sold out almost two months in advance.

On stage virtually the entire night, Soto will dance an unprecedented line-up of five ballets including classic pieces by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.  “I’ve never done five ballets in a row,” says Soto, his handsome face filling with a mix of fear and excitement. “I may have to have a wheelchair at the side of the stage.”

Soto’s resilient body has already born the brunt of his long career, and he speaks of his injuries like a jock.

“The cartilage in this knee is deteriorating. I’ve had many back problems, I have neck problems, I tore a ligament in my wrist… it’s nonstop,” says Soto, who’s regular support team includes a chiropractor, a physical therapist, a trainer and an acupuncturist. “I think I’ve been lucky – I’ve never broken anything,” he adds.

Soto will be missed by more than just his many fans. He’s known as a consummate partner to ballerinas.

“There’s a certain trust level with Jock,” says City Ballet star Wendy Whalen. “He’s incredibly sensitive but he’s got brute strength.”

Male dancers count on him as well. “Jock always knows his stuff,” says fellow principal dancer Nikolaj Hubbe, who is also gay. “In hard ballets with counts and millions of steps, there was always Jock… He’s a leader on stage.”

Soto is quick to dispel the myth that all ballet dancers are gay, estimating that at City Ballet there’s a 50/50 gay/straight mix among the men. Whatever the persuasion of his colleagues, Soto helps keep the atmosphere in the rehearsal studios and dressing rooms friendly, even playful.  “Straight guys always like to joke and flirt with me. I’ll say ‘Oh would you come out already?’ But it’s easier for us to tease them because we can always come back with a dishy remark.”

Throughout the 1980s Soto was a regularly performer at AIDS benefits, but remarkably he never came out in the gay press. He claims that he simply wansn’t asked, and adds, “I think everybody just knew.”

Since 1996, Soto has been on the faculty of the School of American Ballet and he plans to continue. “Teaching comes so naturally to me.” But he’s setting his sights on the food business, a passion that’s fed by his boyfriend, Luis Fuentes, 30, a wine importer. They met two years ago at Park, a Manhattan club.

“I was single and hanging out. I saw this man wearing a suit and tie… went up and said ‘What’s with the tie?’ ” A few nights later, after attending a ballet performance for the first time, Luis took Jock out for a late supper that included some fine red wine. Only later did Soto learn that is cost $300 a bottle.

“I can say that I drink very very good wines from then on,” says Soto, who likes to stay home on the nights he’s not dancing. “We have a tiny studio and our kitchen is tiny but I’ve had 10 or 20 people for dinner.” Festive food for large groups is the theme of “Our Meals,” Soto’s 1997 cookbook. It was co-written with Heather Watts, who was his regular ballet partner throughout the 1980s.

For about a decade Soto and Watts, along with Watt’s husband Damien Woetzel, also a principal dancer with City Ballet, have shared a country house in Connecticut. “We still share a dog,” says Soto, “but I haven’t been there in a while, because I’m so busy… getting my life together to move on.”

For Soto, retirement is just the curtain going up on the next phase of his life. “I’ve never felt more secure than I do now about where I am, about leaving my life and that box of a theater and moving on. There are so many other options out there, I’m ready,” he says. “Five years from now I will hopefully have a very successful show on the Food Network – an openly gay chef that people remember sometimes used to dance.”

A version of this story originally appeared in The Advocate.