Happy New Year, can you believe its 2009? I’m sorry for my lag in blog entries, but I’m new to this, blogging takes time and dedication I’m realizing…and most of my energy in those departments is already taken with my full time occupation and love-dance! But here and there I get a break so hopefully between naps and meals I can squeeze in some more entries.

James Sofranko rehearses Yuri Possokhov's Diving into the Lilacs with Dana Genshaft. (© Erik Tomasson)

We just finished two weeks of alternating Programs 1 and 2…a nice intro. to the performing season; two new ballets for me, first the world premiere of Yuri Possokhov’s Diving Into the Lilacs, and also William Forsythe’s in the middle, somewhat elevated. They were both very different and challenging. Anytime you are doing a world premiere, the expectations are very high and the pressure is on everyone- the choreographer, the costume designer, the dancers, etc. There’s always potential for someone’s fuse to blow. So it’s an exciting time at least; there’s a bit of risk involved, nobody really knows how the audience will react, if the lighting cues will be just right, if the dress will stay where its supposed to, if we will hit our triple pirouette or not, etc… Of course, everyone involved here at San Francisco Ballet is of the highest quality and professionalism, so those risks are definitely minimized, and no one lost their cool (too much). I hope you liked Yuri’s piece, I can’t really comment on it because I haven’t seen it from the front. The set looks amazing from stage though, and I’ve heard its striking from the house too. Yuri seemed pleased and most people I’ve talked to enjoyed it very much.

In the middle, as we abbreviate the title, was a blast to dance. I’m sad that its over—I danced it three times and I have my fingers crossed that we will do it again next year. The atmosphere on stage is so casual, like we’re just tossing off some phrases in the studio for each other, that it actually relaxed me and made me less nervous. There’s a lot of eye contact, and a friendly sort of competition among the cast that gets everyone’s energy up. I danced with Sarah Van Patten, who is great to work with; we actually first danced together years ago at Chautauqua, a summer dance program in upstate New York, in Balanchine’s Tarantella. We’ve come a long way from Tarantella to in the middle. The partnering is unlike most ballet partnering, with the guy posing behind the woman holding her up and making sure she’s on balance. Here it’s more of a physical push and pull of each other’s weight, and the woman definitely takes on a more active role in the partnership. Forsythe’s choreography is also very extreme: you make use of the length of your arms and twist in your upper body just as much as you use your legs. That makes dancing the piece about twice as tiring, but I don’t think anybody minds—it’s fun to work hard, it’s fun to push your body to new limits: to see how far can I actually reach my arms and fingers to the sky, how wide can I make my back, how much can I stretch out this phrase without being off the music? These are all questions that Laura Graham, our coach, sent by Mr. Forsythe, asked us to explore. There was a lot of individual exploration in this piece, we were even asked to improvise certain sections. I had to improv some phrases by watching Katita dance and imitating her movements with just my knees. Not your typical day at the office…;) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did dancing it, and I hope we can continue to do different and exciting things like In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated here at SFB.