ODC: Part of a Longer Story...

ODC/SF
Dancing Downtown Season
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard Street @3rd, San Francisco
through March 19, 2006

Sentiment was in the air at last week’s opening gala for ODC/SF’s annual Dancing Downtown Season at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Even the most jaded couldn’t miss the bittersweet edge to the special program that included premieres from both Artistic Director Brenda Way and co-Artistic Director KT Nelson. But even as ODC lures retired San Francisco Ballet principal Joanna Berman back into the spotlight for the company’s three week home season, it also marks the retirements of favorite sons Brian Fisher and Private Freeman.

It was the glamorous Berman who opened the show in Way’s “Part of a Longer Story,” a work set to W.A. Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A that the choreographer has returned and added to in stages between 1993 and 2002. Way’s group sections -- created most recently, in 1995 and 2002 -- are disarming and sexy. She establishes encounters between dancers sketchily and then immediately melts them away in a flurry of sinuous movement. However, nothing is quite satisfying until Freeman and Berman emerge in the central movement, originally choreographed in 1993.

Guest artists often have a hard time fitting into a company’s signature style, but not so with Berman, who looks at least a lovely as she did when she retired from SFB in 2002. Though at the start of their duet she looked pensive, perhaps even a touch self-conscious, within a few measures of music, both she and Freeman seemed to release themselves to the moment, created a lyrical impression of a romance joined in progress. Partnering with an almost quizzical sensitivity, Freeman and Berman offered a transporting glimpse of how to make much more than just sense of a series of steps—of how to create nuanced shades of grey in between the black and white.

If the duet struck a chord of emotional depth, the last movement returned to a festive mood, highlighted by Fisher’s mischievous antics. It was a light-hearted if also light-weight showcase for Fisher, who was joined by Justin Flores, Corey Brady, Anne Zivolich and new apprentice Elizabeth Farotte.

One can only wonder if it’s the personalities of dancers like Freeman and Fisher, who have inspired the zany air of works like Way’s “time remaining,” which received its premiere on Thursday night.

Though packed with amusing imagery – dancers in saucy little tan tunics with peekaboo underwear, dancers sliding behind and tangling with dressmakers mannequins scattered like soulless stand-ins about the stage, a smarmy duet for Freeman and Andrea Flores – ultimately the meaning of time remaining is elusive. Is it a meditation on religious fanaticism, an investigation of the modern search for meaning, or a sketch of Heaven’s Gaters waiting for Comet Hale-Bopp? Ultimately, it is Freeman who entertains the most, with his jovially absurd holy-roller type. Seemingly unperturbed at the idea of looking ridiculous, Freeman plays his faith healer to the hilt with a consciously cheap twinkle in his eye to match the cheap twinkle of the giant blue rock on his ring finger.

ODC’s women of the moment – Andrea Flores, Zivolich, Yayoi Kambara, Marina Fukiyama and Quilet Rarang – ably displayed the their power-pack punch in KT Nelson’s premiere, “Stomp a Waltz,” to the music of Marcelo Zarvos. Flores, who was faintly subdued in “time remaining,” here blends sex appeal with knowing shrewdness in her quick glances at the audience from under her eyelashes.

Clad in black with pert splashes of red, the company headed into the final work of the evening full throttle, as if working off of the adrenaline push of a runner’s high. Nelson’s choreography, which bears the company’s trademark high-energy intricacy, is the kind of fast-moving and complex work that demands boldness. But though the strokes of each step are carefully calculated for the greatest effect, the dancers add a pleasant looseness as well, giving “Stomp a Waltz” a forward momentum to match the rhythmic drive of the music.

Watching the closing moments of the performance, with a freewheeling Freeman partnering Kambara, or Fisher and Andrea Flores cavorting, we suddenly remembered that there are only two more weeks to see them in action. At the reception after the show, an audience member murmured the same thing that was overheard at Berman’s retirement gala, “After that, it just won’t be the same again.”

This review originally appeared in the Contra Costa Times.

Ailey: Everyday Superhumans

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
through March 5, 2006
Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley

Program A (Mar 5): “Night Creature,” “Solo,” “Ife/My Heart” (Bay Area premiere), “Revelations”
Program B (Mar 4 mat): “Shining Star,” “Caught,” “Reminiscin,” “Revelations”
Program C (Mar 4 eve): “Love Stories,” “Urban Folk Dance” (Bay Area premiere), “Acceptance In Surrender” (Bay Area premiere), “The Winter in Lisbon”

If you're seeking the perfect antidote to a cold, damp winter evening there is no need to look any further than the heat of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's annual Cal Performances season at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall.

With three different programs, the company has brought along a little bit of everything, from hip hop to ballet, classic to modern, but it almost doesn't matter which progam you choose to see -- with Ailey, you're pretty much guaranteed a night of rip-roaring, terrific dancing.

One of the Ailey company’s most compelling qualities is the conviction they bring to their performances. There’s a core of integrity that each dancer shares on the stage and an argument could be made that it is this sincerity that has won them such a loyal following wherever they tour. Sure, the strength of their unparalleled athleticism is evident everywhere – the men mix flexibility with speed, the women are sharp-minded and unbelievably sleek. They could dance the hokey-pokey and it would be the most exciting and enthralling thing you ever saw in your life, but most importantly it would be deeply felt. Ailey never does anything halfway.

The company has been accused of becoming too acrobatic in the years since founder Alvin Ailey’s passing. Certainly, it’s easy to believe that this group has more tricks, bigger split jumps, higher legs than ever before, but the current company still boasts dancers like Dwana Adiaha Smallwood, Matthew Rushing, Linda Celeste Sims and Renee Robinson, who bring elevation of a different sort. Ailey is now a company of the new century, and they are cannily planning how to make relevant the works of the past for new audiences who have grown accustomed to extreme performances.

Has too much of the emotional core of the company been lost along the way? Without having seen them dance in the 1960s and 70s, it’s hard to say, but surely there is no company in the world that dances with more heart.

Given that, it’s no surprise that “Solo” a work for three men by Hans van Manen to the music of J.S. Bach that was most recently performed here at the San Francisco Ballet Gala is a terrific acquisition for the company. The three men -- Clifton Brown, Glenn Allen Sims and Rushing – put a stamp of humor and quickfooted sureness on this piece that is 100% Ailey. On this trio, van Manen’s choreography looks less like Ballet with a capital “B.” But if the look is more like speedy wrestlers rather than sleek racehorses, the men locate the mixture of humor and hubris that draws a reaction from the audience instantly.

It’s a boon for anyone who choreographs to be able to develop his or her work on these dancers, as was evidenced in the local premiere of “Ife/My Heart,” by hip hop phenom Rennie Harris. “Ife” refers to the location of the spiritual center for the Yoruba people of Nigeria and the nine dancers have clearly embraced the concept of a metaphorical as well as geographical heart to this work. The recent performances of his works by Harris’ own company, EVIDENCE, were intriguing, but not nearly as effective as this.

In white loose-fitting clothes that range from African dashikis to slim modern dresses, the dancers enter in a procession of small groups – a more African inspired quartet led by an earthy Renee Robinson, an Afro-Caribbean pair and three dancers who seem more generically modern. There’s a hodge-podge of a recorded soundscape that ranges from Art Blakey to the recited poetry of Nikki Giovanni, which almost, but not quite detracts from the pleasure of watching Brown’s hip hop phrases –the quick switches of weight from foot to foot, the scooping sweep of the hands— that Linda Celeste Sims and Asha Thomas perform with razor sharp focus. Among the men, Rushing, Jamar Roberts and Amos J. Machanic stood out whether solo or in a group for that same intensity of focus.

Brown typically structures his work around certain anchors – the opening processional, unison sections punctuated by ecstatic tribal dances, a communal circle, etc. His ballets often finish up in a free-wheeling house-music finale and “Ife/My Heart” is no exceptional, although in the case of Ailey’s performance the beat seeped palpably into the entire Zellerbach audience in a sort of low- throbbing pulse that was visible in bobbing heads and shoulders. It was the kind of dance that somewhere deep in your cells, you felt you already knew.

The program also included the sinuous “Night Creature,” a slinky, caterwauling Ailey standard to the music of Duke Ellington. Smallwood leads the pack of distinctly feline night creatures with hepcat, high-stepping style. If hers are not the most perfectly balletic jetes, there is no one in this troupe to match her for deep sweeping back arches and hip swivels. She’s having such fun that you can’t help but have fun yourself just by watching her stray cat strut as she pulls faces at every dancer on stage.

As usual, the company closed with the rousing Alvin Ailey classic “Revelations.” Every year Ailey brings it back but if you think that you’re “Revelation”-ed out, trust me, you only think you are. See it one more time, and you’ll be amazed at how easily you can be swept into a Baptist fervor. After 46-years, the dancers still pour inordinate amounts of energy into this gospel inspired crowd-pleaser, and they are rewarded at nearly every performance with hoots, hollers and standing ovations.

Tuesday night’s cast delivered all the usual pleasures: Dion Wilson hitting an edgy tone in “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” the husband and wife Simses adding perfectly tuned empathy and humanity to “Fix Me Jesus” and Amos J. Machanic, Jr. making classroom contractions of the abdominals look stunning in “I Wanna Be Ready.”

It was a performance made remarkable by the very fact that this is how Ailey dances every day.

This review originally appeared in the Contra Costa Times.

Smuin Ballet: Bluegrass/Slyde

Smuin Ballet
“Bluegrass/Slyde,” “Romanze,” “The Eyes That Gently Touch,” “To the Beatles”
Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts
February 11, 2006

It’s possible that on hearing that Michael Smuin’s latest work, “Bluegrass/Slyde” involves dancing with poles, your eyebrows went up at the thought -- but rest assured, it’s a better concept than you might think.

Set to the Appalachian-inspired compositions of bassist Edgar Meyer – as well pieces by the uncredited virtuoso banjo-player Bela Fleck, fiddler Mark O’Connor, and James Taylor -- “Bluegrass/Slyde” saw Smuin Ballet taking a pleasantly athletic turn on the stage at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts.

The fire-engine red set, built by James Beaumont, has the look of a rock band rig, with three poles arranged across the middle of the contraption. The poles themselves revolve smoothly, and with a small step attached to the bottom, the dancers can jump on and spin like kids in a playground or fly through the air and grab onto the poles, swinging around à la Spiderman, or at least Gene Kelly.

The effect is compelling and gives the dancers a kind of ice skater speed along with an unusual flow of movement. The laconic swizzling perfectly fits the bass and slide-banjo twang and the dancers look like they’re enjoying the sailing through the air, particularly Ethan White who brings a genuine energy and zest to the task.

“Bluegrass/Slyde” isn’t a perfect piece. Once the novelty of the convention wears off, it’s hard not to notice that there’s an awful lot of running onstage. A tap number to “Limerock” doesn’t have quite the clarity it enjoyed when the piece premiered in San Francisco last September. And the sections choreographed for pointe work -- which look overly classical – make it apparent that, for this piece, the women are far more comfortable and rangy when they’re in soft jazz shoes and grounded.

Still, Smuin is at his best in a lazy diversion for three couples to O’Connor’s “Misty Moonlight Waltz.” Amy Seiwert and White deftly set up the mood within a few minutes, with White floating compellingly over her head as they spin lazily around the center pole, a picture of mellow romance.

“Romanze,” which followed on the program, remains one of Smuin’s loveliest small vignettes, and one of his most imaginative creations. Inspired by a Victorian diary that detailed a real and a fantasy day in the life of a young couple, it’s a clever blend of dance with film. The “real life” portion, supplied by Francis Ford Coppola’s film of Catherine Batcheller and Alexander Topciy (the original dancers at San Francisco Ballet) is shown on a scrim, through which we watch their inner passions unfold as danced by Easton Smith and Celia Fushille-Burke. As the screen image zooms in on a grassy meadow or ocean shore or a flower, the dancers appear through the projection seemingly floating through the visual space.

Though some of the choreography looked spatially compressed, as if the dancers themselves felt a bit limited despite the sweep of Antonin Dvorak’s music, it was a pleasure to see Smith, who returns to the company this season from Sacramento Ballet, and who has found a lengthened line, refinement and more confidence.

That kind of fully realized concept was missing from “The Eyes That Gently Touch,” a work choreographed by Kirk Peterson for three couples to the music of Philip Glass, which was pretty, but less left impact. Despite a flowing style with striking abstract sculptural qualities, on the whole, the ballet looked safe, both in its conception and execution.

Also on the program, which seemed a bit lengthy, was Smuin’s 2001 “To the Beatles, Revisited,” in a revised form that included only 11 sections. To judge by the costumes – by Sandra Woodall -- and steps, which included moonwalks and breaking moves to Fab Four favorites like “Help!” and “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the ballet seems set in the era of 80s nostalgia for the 60s. Still, there was a sense of fun that cut through some cheesiness, and the stellar Benjamin Stewart, who joined the company this year from Atlanta Ballet, dove into numbers like “Day Tripper” and “Come Together” with intelligence to match his good-natured energy.

This review originally appeared in the Contra Costa Times.

San Francisco Ballet: 2006 Gala and Swan Lake

San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House, Van Ness Avenue at Grove, San Francisco
through February 4

San Francisco Ballet Opening Gala: Wednesday January 25, 2006

A light drizzle didn’t at all dim the spirits of the happy souls promenading in all their finery at San Francisco Ballet’s Opening Gala last Wednesday night at the War Memorial Opera House. Indeed, the mood in the lobby was still so giddy at ten minutes after eight that most of the audience members were barely close to their seats when the lights went down.

That’s business as usual for the annual ballet gala, but the program Helgi Tomasson cooked up for the opening of the company’s 73rd season offered more than the usual finger-food. This year’s selection ventured from the classical to the contemporary in what could have been a statement on the range and diversity requisite for a 21st century ballet company.

There’s a reason why San Francisco Ballet, recently named company of the year by Dance Europe Magazine, not only remains in the top tier of classically-based companies in the world, but also has run in the black financially for fourteen years. How many troupes can field twenty nine dancers in an evening that calls for the exacting classicism of “Paquita,” the asperity of William Forsythe, the Romantic softness of “Chopiniana” and everything in between?

It was the dynamic trio of Katita Waldo, Kristin Long and Vanessa Zahorian who opened the program with a deliciously breezy rendering of Forsythe’s “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude,” partnered with agile precision by Nicolas Blanc and Pierre-François Vilanoba.

Muriel Maffre and Damian Smith, dancing a pas de deux from Yuri Possokhov’s “Reflections” offered a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a modernist enigma. In one long seamless moment that left behind a sense of longing and loss, Maffre and Smith managed to conjure far more of a Romantic essence than did Claire Pascal and Ruben Martin, whose duet from “Chopiniana” – also known as “Les Sylphides”—was curiously lacking in Romantic style.

In the “Black Swan” Pas de Deux, Lorena Feijoo ably demonstrated how to give an account of a character within the first minute of an entrance. The evil glint in her eye was perhaps a trifle dismissive of partner Davit Karapetyan -- the Armenian-born principal who joined the company this season from the Zurich Ballet -- but her caprices could not cloud the high spirits which emerged in his spectacular jumps.

Among the many other standouts of the evening were Pascal Molat, making a sharply specific and percolating debut in Hans van Manen’s “Solo,” Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun, who produced gasp-worthy articulation partnered by new principal Tiit Helimets in David Bintley’s “The Dance House,” and a brightly magnetic Gonzalo Garcia in fire engine red for Lar Lubovitch’s “Elemental Brubeck.”

SFB's: Swan Lake
San Francisco Ballet’s spring season got off to thoroughly satisfying start with Gonzalo Garcia making an impressive debut opposite Tina LeBlanc in Helgi Tomasson’s “Swan Lake,” which opened on Saturday night at the War Memorial Opera House.

Tomasson’s “Swan Lake” – first produced some 18 years ago -- is among the more succinct versions of the sprawling classic though in essence, it is unchanged from the famous version choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. His is also a visually pretty production.

Although the original story is set in Germany, the inspiration for the scenery and costumes, designed by Jens-Jacob Worsaae, is the floral French Rococo landscapes made famous by 18th century painter Jean-Honore Fragonard. Conceptually this doesn’t interfere with the basic story – boy meets swan, boy falls in love with swan, boy betrays swan, boy and swan plunge to their deaths -- although the court scenes in the first and third act can look a little overly fussy, which is in contrast with the streamlined dancing onstage.

Among the chief pleasures of the evening, though, was seeing Garcia tackle the sometimes problematic role of Siegfried. From the start, Garcia has always had the tools -- easy multiple turns, a lofty jump and an exuberant love of being on stage. But as he moves through the classical canon, he constantly adds nuance to his dancing, and never more satisfyingly so than in his Siegfried, where every movement becomes a part and parcel to his expressiveness. A double assemblé turn – tossed off with disarming ease – is no longer just a tricky step, but seems to echo the turmoil in a troubled prince’s thoughts. He acknowledges relationships with the other dancers onstage as he passes them during his variations, and in his partnering work, he is more sensitive to how his line not only complements, but completes his partner’s, and often adjusts accordingly.

In the dual role of Odette and Odile, LeBlanc displayed her customary security and the swift dagger-like pointe work which speaks volumes about her strength. Even so, though, she imbued her White Swan with a forlorn desperation, shaping the character in a simple arabesque that sank down to earth with both a melancholy plushness and a keenly accurate instinct for the music. When Garcia enfolded her in his arms, the small nuzzle into his neck could have melted an ice block.

By contrast her Black Swan had the feeling of a caricature of Odette rather than a shadowy alter ego, and in this, LeBlanc’s technical accomplishments seemed a hindrance that made her Odile a distant figure. So solidly invulnerable was her performance that the sparks never really flew between her and Garcia the way they did in the second act.

A casual observer might assume that LeBlanc -- who joined the company in 1992 and has done this role many times – was cast secondarily in the role of mentor to Garcia, who is a younger principal. It may well be the case, but to say that is to deny Garcia full credit for the intelligence with which he approaches every role. In fact it looks more like this pairing works --as it did so well in “Giselle” last season -- because there is a meeting of two astute minds. LeBlanc and Garcia have peppered their interpretation with details -- the way she barely touches his shoulder before falling into his arms, a quick understated glance under the arm – so that it looks like a partnership, rather than just two dancers moving in close proximity. Even if certain aspects didn’t work completely, their performance as a whole had coherence.

If the devil is in the details for the Swan Queen and her Siegfried, it is doubly true for the corps de ballet. This flock of sixteen swans, augmented by eight soloists, boasts fine dancers, but sadly, small things – heads tilted at different angles, arms raised to varying levels – betrayed a lack of attention to what is, to many people, a key part of the appeal of the lakeside scene. Some of the more meaningful aspects of the corps’ steps have been forgotten or distilled away. Gone, for instance, is the lovely twining motion of the arms that used to signify swans preening. The dancers now do a simplified classroom-style arm movement that conveys little of the supernatural quality of their swan-maiden duality.

The owlish Damian Smith made the most of his predatory, scenery-chewing role as the evil von Rothbart and the pas de trois in the first act got a lift from the girlish and light Vanessa Zahorian, who danced opposite a nervous looking but very pretty Rachel Viselli. Sergio Torrado, whose bravado is impressive but whose technique has just enough sloppiness to mar the effects, partnered them both. Possibly the two dancers having the most fun at the ball in the third act, however, were Elizabeth Miner and Pascal Molat, who danced a fast and furious Neapolitan.

Newly appointed music director Martin West wrung every bit of drama from the Tchaikovsky score, particularly in the ebb and flow of the second act. His leadership is a welcome relief, and if the orchestra seemed to flag at the end of the ballet, still they sound livelier than ever under his baton.

KQED Profile: Flemming Flindt

Born in Copenhagen in 1936, dancer and choreographer Flemming Flindt is one of dance world's most distinguished artists. Trained at the Royal Danish Ballet School, Flindt joined the main company at the age of 19, quickly rising to the rank of international star. One of the most courtly and gifted premier danseurs of the 1950s, he was made etoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, starred at the Royal Ballet and the London Festival Ballet, and in 1950 he danced at the celebrations of Grace Kelly's wedding.

By 1963, his attention had turned to choreography with his highly regarded balletic adaptation of Eugene Ionesco's "The Lesson," and in 1966, at the age of 29, Flindt was appointed director of the Royal Danish Ballet, a post he held for twelve years.

Like many of the dancers of the Danish tradition, Flindt himself was as at home interpreting the characters of the 19th century narrative ballets of August Bournonville as he was in contemporary work of Birgit Cullberg and Roland Petit. And during his tenure at the Royal Danish Ballet, he was credited with carefully shepherding the historical heritage of the company while expanding the repertoire to include the work of modern choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Murray Louis and Glen Tetley.


Read more on the KQED Spark website.

KQED Profile: Healy Irish Dance

Beneath all the smoke and lights of popular stage shows like Riverdance and Lord of the Dance lies the precise and fleet-footed drama of Irish step dancing, a traditional folk dance with a history hundreds of years old, that continues to be passed down from generation to generation.

With its lively and intricate music - jigs, hornpipes, reels - and a scrupulously unbending carriage of the torso, Irish dancing is uniquely demanding, requiring both a high level of skill and of concentration to create the right combination of mesmerizing rhythms and graceful movement.


Read more on the KQED Spark Website.

KQED Profile: Rasta Thomas

Gifted with movie star good looks, prodigious talent and a youthful ambition, dancer and actor Rasta Thomas could be thought of as the epitome of the dance world's perfect star - a mercurial action hero as at home in the ballet classics as he is in Broadway musicals.

Born in San Francisco in 1981, Thomas displayed a phenomenal natural affinity for movement early on, studying martial arts, swimming and gymnastics from the age of 3 on. He won his first dance competitions at 9, and made a splash in the ballet world at Varna, Bulgaria in 1996 when he won the gold medal in the Junior Division, and then again in 1998 when he won the gold medal in the Senior Division at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS -- the first 16-year old to do so.


Read more on the KQED Spark website.

KQED Profile: Merce Cunningham

"There are ... distinct elements which when put together makes something which ... was not possible otherwise."

-- Merce Cunningham

One of the 20th century's most original dance-makers, Merce Cunningham has influenced a generation of choreographers with his abstract and complex methods of movement analysis and cerebral yet aesthetic creations. In fact, Cunningham's love of intellectual engagement and his academic background make his company a natural favorite at colleges and universities. In the "Masterworks" episode, Spark follows the Merce Cunningham Dance Company to Stanford University as he and his dancers take on "Encounter: Merce."

"Encounter: Merce" was an unusual campuswide interdisciplinary project that took place in March 2005. The event put Cunningham's decades-long career in context, with exhibits, films, workshops and panel discussions presented not only by the dance division and arts presenter Stanford Lively Arts, but also by the music and visual arts departments and the Stanford School of Medicine.


Read more on the KQED Spark website.

KQED Profile: Miss Tilly Abbe

Since 1970, countless generations of youngsters have donned tights and slippers for a weekly ballet class with San Francisco institution Miss Tilly. Teaching preschoolers about dance, however, is much more than plies and tendus for Tilly Abbe, whose 350 students range from 3 to 7 years old -- it's about giving them skills that will last a lifetime.

In "Ballet with Miss Tilly" Spark follows this veteran teacher to her California Street studios, where she and her daughter Iliza Gates offer a range of classes in dance, theater, hip hop and yoga, all designed to infuse a love of movement and the arts in their preschool-aged students. Early childhood is a critical time for physical and emotional development, Abbe argues, and she specializes in working with kids at an age when they are not only forming their reflexes and fine motor control, they're honing social skills that they'll need throughout their lives. Indeed, recent studies have shown that physical fitness is closely tied to a child's academic abilities, and with so many parents recognizing the importance of early exposure to the arts, Abbe's classes are always enormously popular.

Read more on the KQED Spark website.

Dancing Moms: Making motherhood work in the dance world

Spring season has been a hectic time for dancers. Jenifer Golden returned to dance Brenda Way’s choreography at ODC/SF. At San Francisco Ballet, Joanna Berman coached Kristin Long for hours for her debut in “Don Quixote” as Dana Genshaft rehearsed in the corps and Katita Waldo starred as Medea. Meanwhile, at Ballet San Jose, Karen Gabay launched herself into the impish role of the Cowgirl in “Rodeo.” The common thread? Every one of these dancers is a mother.

From principals to corps, modern dance to ballet, it seems as though never before have we seen so many mothers dancing onstage.

Conventional wisdom would have us believe that if a woman has a child, more likely than not, she’ll have to give up her career. But as with other professions, in the demanding and body-centered world of dance more and more women are finally discovering that they have a choice instead of an ultimatum.

Indeed, it might come as a surprise to find out that, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, 72% of all mothers in America are working mothers. Interestingly, eight out of the eleven dancers -- or 73% -- interviewed here returned to dancing after having children, while three retired to devote more time to their children, although they continue to work in the dance world.

A dancer’s career can be all too brief. Most begin working by 18 years old and retire by the age of 45, with the most important years almost exactly overlapping the child-bearing years. And dance can be a highly ambitious and time-consuming profession that leaves one with little energy or time for anything else.

“I retired so that I could start a family, because I knew that I just wasn’t going to be able to be the type of person that could dance once I had a baby,” says Corinne Jonas, who danced with Houston Ballet and Walnut Creek’s Diablo Ballet and now directs Berkeley Ballet Theater. “Being a dancer you have to just really in a way completely center in on yourself. Taking care of your body, getting ready to go out on stage, everything needs to be so focused, and I just knew that as a new mom, I wouldn’t feel that I was going to be able to handle that.”

It’s a concern that many professional women face, not just in the dance world. How to even visualize raising a young family and holding down a job?

“Having a child while I was dancing and then coming back to dancing wasn’t so much in my reality,” says Joanna Berman, who retired from San Francisco Ballet last year to start her family, “It just wasn’t how I pictured it for myself. Although if I had been a whole lot younger when I decided to start trying to have a family, then maybe my decision would have been different.”

However, four women at San Francisco Ballet saw the possibility of a different decision. Indeed, SFB is unusual among American ballet companies in the number of mothers in their ranks. Just recently, Tina’s sister, Sherri LeBlanc, announced that she is expecting a child this summer.

All of the mothers agree that Helgi Tomasson, the Artistic Director of SFB, has been supportive, although he shrugs off the question of whether his company has a consciously child-friendly approach.

“I feel that’s life. It brings a lot of joy to them and their families,” he says. “Are we different from other companies? I have never really thought about it very much. This is what happens here and how I deal with it and that’s it.”

For ODC, with three mothers -- Brenda Way, KT Nelson, and Kimi Okada -- at the artistic helm, children were definitely always part of the company’s plans.

“We could have gone to New York, but we wanted to settle down in a town and put down roots,” Way notes. “We said at the very beginning, we wanted to have enough months home so that we could raise kids and have a life.”

The fact that the ten-member ODC is smaller means that a person out on maternity leave for months will have an enormous impact, and probably someone would have to be hired in her place. But Way is adamant that if a dancer wanted to return after having a child they would find a way to work it out.

“We would never just say to someone, ‘Well, bye!’ These dancers have all of our works in their bodies, they are our history. So we have everything at stake in keeping them involved and encouraging them.”

“I knew that I would always continue dancing,” says Golden, who danced for two years with ODC, retiring at 38. “If I was going to dance full-time was going to be another story.”

Uncontrollable factors often drive the decision of whether to continue dancing while starting a family. Evelyn Cisneros, a long-time prima ballerina at San Francisco Ballet, planned to have a child with her husband, SFB principal Stephen Legate, while she was still with the company but ran into difficulty. After seeing specialists, she was told that there was nothing physically wrong, but because of her low body fat and the strenuous physical activity conceiving was going to be harder.

“They told me to eat more and gain some weight,” she recalls, “So I did. But it still wasn’t working, and here I was feeling fat and not getting pregnant either.”

Cisneros decided that she would focus on one last great season of dancing, retire and then concentrate on having a baby. Eventually, after struggling for a year, Cisneros and Legate had the chance to adopt their son, Ethan, and now she couldn’t be happier that she stopped dancing to have time for her family.

“I don’t think I could have managed it,” she says of balancing career and child, “I just don’t see how. You think you know how it’s going to be…I mean I had nephews, but it’s so different once you have your own.”

For Tina LeBlanc, who had her second baby only last month, having a family and a full career at the same time just made sense.

“From the time I was little I knew I wanted a family,” she says, “But I didn’t want to wait until my career was over and be forty trying to start a family, and I didn’t want to cut my career short. So the logical thing was to combine the two. I figured, other people did it in other professions. Why couldn’t I?”

Long, however, laughingly recalls that for her, the choice came about as a result of two accidents.

“It wasn’t something that was planned,” she says, “I had broken my foot and so I went to New York to spend time with my fiancé during the holidays and got pregnant. Boom.

“All along I had thought ‘I’m definitely not going to have children until I stop dancing.’ I was certain of that because I tend to get so into my work that I couldn’t even imagine having the energy with a child. However, the situation came up and we really wanted to have the baby, and I was nursing a broken foot anyway, so I thought maybe it’s a good time.”

Katita Waldo, who was considering her own options at the time, kept an eye on LeBlanc and Long. Like Long, she had always assumed that she’d wait until she stopped dancing to have children.

“I thought, ‘Well, let’s see what happens to them,’ she recalls, “And then Tina did it and came back. And Kristin came back. And I thought, ‘Well, okay, it’s possible.’”

Le Blanc, Long and Waldo may not have known it, but they were fast becoming role models.

“To see three fantastically accomplished principal women with children is a new thing.” says Berman, “These women proved something. They can have their families and they can come back to dancing better than ever, frankly. And I think that was worth it more than anything, just showing that it’s possible, showing how beautifully they’re doing it.”

“It definitely had an influence on me when I was making my decision,” says Genshaft, who returned to her place in the corps a month after giving birth to her daughter Nadia. “ Right in front of my face there were three beautiful ballerinas, so talented, so strong, so amazing, and they all have babies. They seemed to be really happy and it didn’t hurt their careers.”

“I said to myself, ‘If I have this baby, will I be able to continue with what’s important for me?’ Will I be able to pursue my career, which is what I’ve worked for my whole life? Will I be able to go to college? Will I be able to follow my own ambitions? And if the baby’s going to get in the way of that, then she’s the one who will suffer in the end. I really had to think about that. In the end, I decided I could do this. It was going to take a lot of work. Instead of having two rehearsals a day and being done and just going out to dinner with my friends or to the mall, or to the movies, like all the other girls do, I’ll come home and be with my child. But I thought, ‘Yeah, I could definitely do that.’”

Although San Francisco Ballet offers four months of maternity leave under their contract -- a welcome change from previous years when a dancer was likely to lose her place in a ballet company if she took time off to have a child – several of the women danced well into their pregnancy and returned within weeks of having the baby.

LeBlanc continued taking class until two days before her first son, Marinko, was born. Waldo performed full out all the way into her fourth month, and then luckily had the chance to do roles that didn’t require too much dancing, including the mother in “Giselle,” ironically enough.

“It sounds like I’m insane, but I actually came in a week after James was born,” she confides.

Tina LeBlanc was anxious to get back to the stage as well.

“I kind of pushed it to come back with my first, because I knew that the first thing I would be doing when I got back would be the gala in the opera house and they always tend to give me something difficult to dance,” LeBlanc laughs, “I thought that was a lot of pressure for not having been on stage for almost a year. So I decided to try for ‘Nutcracker.’ I had my son on Sept. 30, and then I started back sometime around Thanksgiving and actually did about six shows”

Unsurprisingly, both Waldo and LeBlanc had little trouble getting back in shape, which they attribute to the rigorous schedule and their pre-pregnancy shape.

“Between the breastfeeding and the exercising,” says Waldo, “It was hard to keep the weight on.”

But while many of the new mothers were happy to have their bodies back, there was still a

“As much as it was hard to not have the body I was used to, it was so incredibly special to be pregnant,” Jonas recalls. “As a dancer I think I sensed everything. I felt all the changes, and I felt cognizant of how much physically was going on inside of me and there’s a part of me that misses that.”

Golden agrees that she was content to just enjoy some time with her new baby and wait to get back into class.

“I knew then at some point that’s going to be gone,” she remembers, “I’ve been taking class for many years. Class is always going to be there.”

Perhaps the intense discipline and focus that they needed to become dancers allows some of the mothers to juggle what might seem like a superhuman schedule.

Karen Gabay, of Ballet San Jose, for instance, not only danced in the company’s season a few months after her daughter was born, but also choreographed a work for Ohio Ballet and while simultaneously running her own company, Pointe of Departure.

“I think it’s a mind-over-matter thing,” she observes philosophically, “You just go with it day by day.”

20-year old Genshaft, who is working toward her college degree while dancing with San Francisco Ballet agrees.

“It takes a lot of discipline,” she comments, “In my case, I had to wake up extra early so I could do floor barre, and then I had to pump milk, enough for the baby to last till lunch time. After class I would come home and feed again, then run off to rehearsal. And then have a rehearsal or two.”

It is striking too, that for many of the dancers, fathers have taken on a greater, sometimes primary role in their children’s lives.

“Michael is a gem,” says Long, whose husband became the stay-at-home mom allowing her to devote more time to her dancing. “He’s just incredible with Kai. I’m in a really lucky situation.”

Genshaft, who has a nanny come in a few times a week to help out notes, “It takes three people to raise a child. I’m convinced of that, even if the mother does stay at home. The husband has to be an active partner, in all the chores, and with all the baby’s needs.”

For all of the dancers who have chosen to return to the stage, motherhood has almost certainly changed them as artists.

“I’m still the same me,” says Golden, “But I always bring my life experiences to my dance, and this is a major change in my life. Seeing this new life and energy come to be and grow, I feel like that spirit is alive in me and is going to come out in my dancing.”

Waldo is equally enthusiastic.

“For me personally I think that the best thing that ever happened to my career was having my son,” she says. “He’s made me love what I do so much more. This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a child and I get to share this with him. He’s my inspiration. He’s my reminder that it isn’t life and death, it’s wonderful and enjoyable. I can’t think of a better thing.”

Way sees motherhood in an even broader context.

“I think having children connects you to the world,” she asserts, “It gives you perspective so that you can come back fresh to the struggle. I think that the paradigm of the artist living in magnificent isolation is really over. That we are in the vanguard of modern dance as part of the culture, not a sidebar, and I think that families are why.”

Like any one-year old, Golden’s son Aaron is like an active, curious monkey, but when his mom dances in a rehearsal, he quiets down in his dad’s arms to watch her, enraptured by the movement.

Many of the mothers note that having their child be involved in their theatrical life has been on of the greatest pleasures.

“I actually think that being a dancer is one of the easiest professions to have a child in. There’s a lot of flexibility. One of the great things about it is that you educate them about how to behave in the theater from the day they arrive on the scene. And I think a lot of times people don’t give children credit for what they can and cannot do.”

Balancing Acts: Lucy Gray Photographs Ballerina Moms

Lucy Gray Photography: Balancing Acts: What Being Mothers Has Done for Three Prima Ballerinas.

Photographer Lucy Gray still remembers the day she ran into her first ballerina mom.

“I was walking with my son and his friend to the market, and a very strange, beautiful, ethereal-looking woman came up to my son’s friend with her husband and their child,” she recalls. “When I took the daughter home, I said to her mother that we had met these people and she said, ‘Do you know who they are?’ And I said no. My friend said, ‘That’s Katita Waldo, who’s a prima ballerina at the San Francisco Ballet.’ Immediately I thought, ‘Great subject,’ as a photographer.”

Gray was so struck by the image of the beautiful dancer and her son that she got in touch with Waldo and discovered that there were two other principal dancers who had children. So Gray contacted the San Francisco Ballet proposing a photography project that would document the dancers’ lives with their families onstage and off.

To her surprise, the company not only agreed, but gave Gray wide access to their usually closed classes, rehearsals, and backstage.

“I was deeply impressed that San Francisco Ballet wanted to do it because that’s just a first,” she says. “It’s a first that all these ballerinas are having babies and they’re encouraging them to have a personal life. It’s a first that they want to celebrate this.”

For two years, Gray photographed Katita Waldo, Kristin Long and Tina LeBlanc in rehearsal, in performance, on tour in Europe, even went home with the dancers. The result is a series of intimate portraits, which she hopes will be published as a book entitled “Balancing Acts: What Being Mothers has Done for Three Prima Ballerinas.”

In the process, Gray not only developed a new respect for the beauty and strength of the dancers, but also watched as they grew with their young families. And she observed not just the closeness of the mothers and children, but also the unwavering support of their spouses, such as Long’s husband, Michael Locicero.

“He brought Kai to watch Kristin dance all the time for a year or two, and I mean rehearsals, dress rehearsals, the nights out, everything. And the truth is, that made Kristin as a dancer,” she says emphatically. “I watched her blossom under their gaze. Because her family was there, she felt so excited and connected and happy and loved. Nothing could have nurtured her more than have her family growing and being with her like that. It was pretty wonderful.”

Although Gray has approached other major companies as well with the same proposal, San Francisco Ballet and their ballerinas remains the primary focus of her project.

“I wanted the top performers at the top companies. I wanted the best of the best, because I wanted to show that you could still be the best of the best and have a real life.”