Tales from the City: San Jose’s Arts Culture

Ballet San Jose packs up the road boxes for another show. Photo by Ballet San Jose.

WHEN YOU THINK of a city brimming with culture and diversity, San Jose may not be the first metropolis that comes to mind. After all, San Francisco, New York and Chicago are old cities; their places in national memory are characterized by everything from world expositions to groundbreaking political movements to entire decades in United States history.

San Jose may not be San Francisco, but we do have a culture that is unique to our area. Much like Ballet San Jose’s dancers, the people who make up San Jose’s diverse population hail from all parts of the world. It is an important piece of the Silicon Valley puzzle, a symbol of that elusive entrepreneurial spirit.

In some ways, nothing characterizes the essence of San Jose better than its local arts programs. As we look ahead to Ballet San Jose’s 2012 Season, which begins this March, these things are always on our minds. When the curtain rises, we aren’t just putting on a show for the audience — we, along with organizations such as Symphony Silicon Valley and Opera San Jose, are functioning as parts of a larger arts culture.

Talia, a marketing intern here at Ballet San Jose, said it best when she wrote about walking into our building at 40 North First Street for the first time:

Interview day. Burgundy red carpet, white worn-down walls, wall to wall pictures elegantly hung along the stairways. Though it may not seem like much, the front lobby of the Ballet San Jose building looked beautiful to me. It was full of memory. At that moment, something told me that I was going to like it here at Ballet San Jose — not because this vintage building reminded me of New York but because of the warm, historical vibe that washed over me as soon as I stepped through the door.

I snapped back to reality and pressed the button for floor number two. (If I listened carefully, I could hear the dancers upstairs, practicing their routines.) As I waited for the elevator door to open, I didn’t know exactly what would happen. I did know that my day was about to take a whole new turn.

Since starting my internship at Ballet San Jose, I have accomplished many things. Whether I am creating engaging videos that draw people to our Nutcracker, sorting through stacks of mail, or exercising my creativity to develop an archival binder of striking news-clippings, candid pictures, engaging blog posts and reviews about our Nutcracker…I feel like I am creating something, like I am participating in the Silicon Valley arts culture — like I’m really a part of San Jose.

Until next time,
Ballet San Jose