Musings on ballet, classical music, the violin, and life
Musings of a former ballet dancer who’s returned, years later, to the studio as a student.
Confession time: I didn’t know about the Smuin Ballet until just a few years ago. I knew Michael Smuin’s name from San Francisco Ballet lore, where he’d been a principal dancer, a choreographer, a co-director from 1973 until Helgi Tomasson’s arrival in July 1985. Smuin founded his own company nine years later, by which … Read more
Ballet where you least expect it can be a very fun thing and bring scads of life and levity to an otherwise mundane Monday. Take a peek at these and have a ball. 1) You may be familiar with this first one, circling the Internet for a few months now, starring ABT principal Daniil Simkin, … Read more
Today, September 17th, is my birthday. I am no longer that milestone, easy-to-remember “fifty years old,” I am now “over fifty.” Which, in truth, doesn’t bother me. I am healthy; my body and I get along well. I can still dance, jog, kick-box and pretzel around in yoga. I remember as a kid, how “old … Read more
Story has it, San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Yuan Yuan Tan’s career once hinged on one precipitous toss of a coin (ironically and coincidentally a Chinese yuan). She was ten, born and raised in Shanghai by traditional-minded Chinese parents. Her father was against the idea of her training to become a ballet dancer (too Western, … Read more
Recently I did some hiking in Big Basin State Park, an 18,000 acre enclave of old growth redwoods tucked into the Santa Cruz Mountains. As one might expect from mountainous terrain, I encountered hills. Steep hills, long hills, hills that never stopped climbing. The sun beat down, bathing me in sweat. The scenery was gorgeous … Read more