Ballet San Jose at the Napa Valley Festival del Sole Dance Gala, July 19

From Ballet San Jose Music director George Daugherty:

The Dede Wilsey Dance Gala at the Napa Valley Festival del Sole is going to be an INCREDIBLE evening on July 19. Here is the official program and casting. Extraordinary dancers will wow you, the fabulous musicians of the Russian National Orchestra will fill the air with music from the orchestra pit, a long-lost Fokine ballet will come back to the stage, a collection of breathtaking pas de deux and ballets will thrill and move you, and the rolling hills of Napa at sunset in the summertime will enchant you as you hold a perfect glass of locally-produced Napa wine. What more could you want? Please join us!

Artist Spotlight: Ballet San Jose Apprentice Thomas Baker

Ballet SJ apprentice Thomas Baker. Photo credit: Olivier Wecxsteen.

After a successful run of The Nutcracker in December, Ballet San Jose is all caught up in the magic of love! The company has spent the past month preparing in earnest for the company premiere  of Don Quixote — or, as we like to call it, ballet’s original romantic comedy. While Kitri polishes her fouettés and Mercedes perfects her sultry smolder, we’re continuing our Artist Spotlight blog series, in which we have been focusing on the new dancers in the company this season.

For all the male dancers out there, here’s another interview just for you! Thomas Baker is a new apprentice with the company, and he has some pretty interesting stories to tell. Find out how Thomas got his start in ballet, his favorite memories from 2012, and the inspiration that made him such a fabulous “Fritz” in the world premiere of Karen Gabay’s The Nutcracker.

Artist Spotlight: Ballet San Jose Dancer Alex Kramer

Alex Kramer photographed by Jade Young

Nine days ago, Ballet San Jose gave the South Bay a one-night-only preview of our 2013 Repertory Season with an amazing Inaugural Gala performance at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. The rep earned some very complimentary reviews from publications around the Bay Area and we couldn’t be more thrilled! Every person who took the CPA stage on November 3 — from critically acclaimed concert violinist Rachel Lee to the company dancers of Ballet San Jose, both familiar and new — gave an awe-inspiring performance. We think the gala gave Bay Area audiences a really inspiring look at the new pieces in the coming season!

Now, we’ve begun to look ahead to Ballet SJ’s new production of The Nutcracker, which will make its world premiere on December 8. As we gear up for this run of Nutcracker, we pick up where we left off with our Artist Spotlight blog series. Meet another new face in the corps de ballet: Alex Kramer, an alumnus of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and former member of ABT Studio Company. Before the gala, we talked to Alex about what inspired him to become a dancer in Grand Junction, CO, his mentor at ABT, and his thoughts about leaving New York City.

Catching Up with ABT’s Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens

Franco De Vita (far right) and Raymond Lukens (center) with attendees of the first ABT teacher training session at Ballet San Jose.

In May, Ballet San Jose hosted American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT) first National Training Curriculum Teacher Training session. Led by Principal of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at ABT Franco De Vita and and Director of the National Training Curriculum Program Raymond Lukens, Ballet SJ School faculty, along with dancers from the company and dance teachers from around the country, completed the training for levels Primary through 3.

Recently, Principal of Ballet SJ School Dalia Rawson wrote a two-part blog series for 4dancers exploring the teacher training experience. With the second session beginning this Sunday, August 12, we wanted to take a closer look at the curriculum from the perspective of the two people who know it best.

A Fairytale Evening: Guest Blog by Mesa Burdick

ABT’s Sascha Radetsky and Ballet SJ’s Alexsandra Meijer pose for a photo backstage with Mesa Burdick (center, in blue) and friends.

At the beginning of May, Ballet San Jose School student Mesa Burdick participated in one of Ballet SJ’s online contests and won the chance to go behind the scenes of Cinderella (May 4 – 6, 2012) with two of its stars, American Ballet Theatre’s Sascha Radetsky and Ballet SJ’s Alexsandra Meijer. We asked twelve-year-old Mesa to blog about her experience.

Playbill Notes: The Story behind the Story of Cinderella

From Texas Ballet Theater's 2010 production of Ben Stevenson's Cinderella. Photo by Ellen Appel, courtesy of Texas Ballet Theatre.

With opening night of Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella nearly upon us, we wanted to take a moment to share with you a bit of the fascinating history that surrounds the original Cinderella fairytale. Read this excerpt from pages 6-9 of Ballet SJ’s Cinderella Playbill, which can be downloaded and read in its entirety from the Ballet San Jose website.

One of the great ironies of life, and of art, is that out of pain is born beauty. A country is torn apart by war. A mother dies young. Artists hundreds of years apart give birth to story and music that will become the stuff that dreams are made of. Such is the path of this ballet. –Cinderella.

The Cinderella story is perhaps one of the best-known and best-liked fairy tales in Western culture. Like many folk tales, the origins of Cinderella can be traced back centuries, and individual elements of the story can be found in almost every corner of the world. It has been estimated there are at least 1,500 variations on the theme of Cinderella worldwide.

Thoughts about ‘Clear’ from BSJ dancers Damir Emric, Josh Seibel and Francisco Preciado

Corella Ballet performs Stanton Welch’s Clear in Barcelona (2009)

Ballet San Jose’s upcoming Program of Premieres, opening this Friday, April 13, features an eclectic mix of classical and contemporary pieces—the most hauntingly memorable of which may be Clear, a 2001 creation by Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch. Drawing inspiration from the events of September 11th, Clear is a male showcase in five movements described as an “abstract study of life’s connections.” It is unlike anything we have seen on BSJ’s stage in recent years.

For the last month, BSJ dancers have worked tirelessly to perfect the piece with the help of Dawn Scannell, former Ballet Mistress of Houston Ballet and stager of the piece, as well as BSJ Artistic Consultant Wes Chapman. BSJ corps de ballet dancers Damir Emric and Francisco Preciado and apprentice Josh Seibel appear frequently throughout Clear; Damir and Josh dance the duet in the second movement, and Francisco is one third of the pas de trois in the third. Damir, Francisco and Josh shared some fascinating thoughts about the work when I sat down with them during a rehearsal break last week.

A Conversation with BSJ Apprentice Vimala Jeffrey-Howe

Vimala Jeffrey-Howe was recently promoted to apprentice at Ballet San Jose.

When Ballet San Jose announced the promotion of 22-year-old Vimala Jeffrey-Howe, a former Ballet San Jose School student, to apprentice in the professional company a couple of weeks ago, she called her parents immediately.

Audition for the 2012 Ballet San Jose School Summer Intensive this Sunday, March 25

Advanced Students from Ballet San Jose School, photographed by Scott Belding

A reminder from Ms. Rawson, Principal of Ballet San Jose School:

Ballet San Jose School’s 2012 Summer Intensive Audition will be held this Sunday, March 25. This year’s Summer Intensive will include classes taught by Ballet SJ School’s world-class Faculty, all of whom will be certified in the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum. Rounding out a full schedule of focused ballet training that already includes Pointe, Mens Class, Variations and Partnering, we will be offering some new classes on our schedule this year: Modern, Contemporary, Ballet Mime, and Music for Dancers. Advanced students will also participate in Classical and New Works Repertoire classes, where they will be coached in selections from the Classical Repertoire and will have the opportunity to participate in the creation of a new work.

For more information, please visit the Ballet San Jose School website or call the School Registrar at (408) 288-2820 x223. We hope to see many of you there!

Ballet San Jose Looks Ahead to Program Two and ‘Cinderella’

Texas Ballet Theater’s “Cinderella” from Jeff Resta on Vimeo.

WITH PROGRAM ONE already a week behind us, Ballet San Jose is still bustling with activity. After a fantastic and inspiring run of Program One, the staff and dancers have barely had time to stop and savor the reviews. And there have been some good ones!

Steven Winn, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, liked the “dancers’ ingenuous charm and infectious high spirits.” Of Jerome Robbins’ contemporary romp Interplay, San Jose Mercury News correspondent Rita Felciano wrote: “…rarely has intricacy looked so easy.” Beeri Moalem of Examiner.com gave Program One 4 out of 5 stars, commenting that the “Corps de Ballet, soloists, and principals were all marvelous.” A big thank you to Steven, Rita and Beeri. We’re so glad you all enjoyed the show!

Now, we look ahead to another exciting series of premieres in Program Two (April 13-15), including George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, set to Tchaikovsky’s “Unfinished Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat,” and Clark Tippet’s Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1. Also on the bill are Splendid Isolation III, a stunning pas de deux choreographed to Gustav Mahler’s “Adagietto” by Jessica Lang, and Stanton Welch’s Clear. If Program One was, as Steven Winn wrote, a “diverse and entertaining evening,” our next spring repertory program will offer audiences an even wider variety of classical and contemporary works.

But the 2012 spring season doesn’t end with Program Two. From our conversations with Ballet San Jose School students and other supporters around the Bay Area, we know many BSJ fans young and old are particularly excited to attend Ballet San Jose’s company premiere of Ben Stevenson’s full-length story ballet Cinderella (Program Three, May 4-6).

Cinderella is two months away, but you can whet your appetite by watching Jeff Resta’s gorgeous slideshow above with photographs from Texas Ballet Theater’s 2010 production of Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella. We can’t wait to see this piece on our stage in May!

Tickets for Program Two and Cinderella are currently on sale. And here’s a tip from Dennis and Lauren in the Box Office: You can save 20% on tickets to Programs Two AND Three when you purchase a discounted 2-program subscription. Visit the Ballet San Jose website or call (408) 288-2800 for more information.

See you in April!
Erica