Early Career
Stretton was born in Canberra in 1952. He started as a tap dancer winning the Australian national tap dancing championships twice and winning numerous other awards. At the age of 11, he won a Channel Seven Junior Talent Quest with a judge comparing him to Fred Astaire. Stretton did not start performing ballet until he was 17 when he started taking classes with Bryan Lawrence and Janet Karin, former principals of the Australian Ballet.
He successfully auditioned for a position at the Australian Ballet School in 1971. In his first year, he won the Nureyev bursary and received a Harold Holt Memorial Scholarship in his second year. He graduated from the Ballet School in 1972 with honours in all of his practical and danced the leading male role as the prince in the School's production of Cinderella.
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