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| Photo: Erik Tomasson |
It's been 15 years since Felipe Diaz soared across the War Memorial Opera House stage with San Francisco Ballet. After training for a couple of years at the San Francisco Ballet School, the Colombian-born dancer joined the company in 1988, rising to the rank of soloist in his 10 years with the Ballet. In 1998, he and then-partner-now-wife Marisa Lopez left to join the Dutch National Ballet, where they enjoyed vibrant careers before retiring, he in 2011 and she in 2012. Now, at 39, Diaz has returned to San Francisco Ballet as a ballet master, wielding the experience of his 22 years onstage to guide a new generation of dancers.
Q: What drew you and Marisa Lopez to Amsterdam?
A: I think it wasn't necessarily Amsterdam, I just wanted to come to Europe. I had a curiosity about their repertoire and what it was like to live in Europe. Marisa and I wanted to be together - we've been together 17 years, this summer we will be married 10 years.
Q: What were some of the differences between dancing in Europe versus with an American company?
A: In most European companies they have their own theater, so the company performs all year round. The schedule is shared between the ballet and opera, so you prepare for a program and then it goes onstage immediately and is performed maybe 16 or 17 times. Here, the schedule is more condensed, and while there is in theory more time to prepare, one could argue that it's better for the body to perform all year round rather than suddenly shock the body and perform intensively from January to May. On the other hand, at SFB there is definitely no room for complacency or to relax. You have to be ready to work, and it can be very exciting for the dancer, because you work on many different ballets at the same time instead of doing only one production over and over.
Q: When you retired, did you already know what you wanted to do next?
A: My parents are dancers and teachers and they have a school, so from an early age I understood what it was like to teach. While I was still dancing, in Amsterdam, on my free days, I would get together with other dancers and organize a class. It started out as me by myself, but little by little, friends would join me and that grew until the director noticed. In the last four years of my career, he asked me to teach company class, and at the school in Amsterdam and at Royal Conservatory in The Hague. So, when I retired, the director said that he had a full-time position as a ballet master for me. I retired on Dec. 24, 2011, and on Dec. 26, I was a ballet master.
Q: How did you end up coming back to San Francisco?
A: I was invited to teach the school's summer program a few times, and to teach for the company as well. San Francisco Ballet is a place I hold dearly in my heart. The city and organization gave me so much early in my career, and Helgi (artistic director Tomasson) taught me so many things - how to be a professional dancer, how to go about it and what it's like. So the prospect of working with him again was very appealing.
Q: What do you love to do outside of the ballet studio?
A: What I really love is to take my son, Gabriel, to the park. When my wife was pregnant, I envisioned myself and my son going to get ice cream, and now he's finally old enough to do that, so I can enjoy spending time with him.
Q: What are you doing now that the ballet season has ended?
A: I am in Amsterdam as guest teacher for the Dutch National, then I go to Tokyo to teach. It's a busy summer and I'm not really resting, but I think it's good to travel and be exposed to other places in the dance world, so you can always keep your thoughts and ideas current and keep on learning - never stop learning.
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