As Good as it Gets?

Friday, October 16th, 2009 | All Posts by Matt Stewart, Perpetual Motion: SFB on Tour | No Comments

This summer was shaping up to be the best summer a person could reasonably ask for. Three weeks after the end of a successful 2009 repertory season I was able to record my first album, No Return Address, with some great friends from the Ballet, including soloist James Sofranko, former master electrician at SFB Dennis Hudson, and my twin brother, Benjamin Stewart.

Me, Jim, and Ben working in the studio

A short two weeks later, I’m in North Carolina walking down the aisle with my wife (Courtney Elizabeth) for the first time as “Mr. and Mrs. Stewart.” The feelings during and after the ceremony were overwhelming. I felt as good as I had always dreamed I would, just a flood of joy and peace. It was an amazing wedding week; no regrets whatsoever.

Mr. and Mrs. Stewart!

We then flew off to our honeymoon location of Prince Edward Island, which we chose because of our mutual love of the Anne of Green Gables series. It’s a quiet and charming island with miles of scenic drives, and plenty of space to just relax and get away from the world for a moment.

Here we are enjoying our honeymoon destination: Prince Edward Island

I’m not sure if everyone else feels the same way, but when things are going so perfectly, you start to wonder when the bottom is going to fall out. Well, it’s four months later and I’d say things are still looking up!

Courtney and I have moved into a wonderful new apartment only minutes from work. And we have an actual view! We had a great time releasing my CD in August at Crimson Lounge, as well as debuting another singer/songwriter in the Company, Shannon Roberts. She has a voice, as you may have noticed during West Side Story Suite. And I found out that WSSS was the first time she sang in front of an audience OR her parents! Talent! I’m going to have to collaborate with her for sure. Keep an eye out for her!

Performing at the release party at the Crimson Lounge

Then we had the tour to China: not a bad follow-up to the summer’s events— what a cultural experience. It was kind of a shock the first time I looked out my window in Shanghai and saw the magnitude of the buildings in that city. Four years in NYC couldn’t prepare me for that!

The view from my hotel room

The number of people is worth noting too; never again will I feel crowded in Union Square or Golden Gate Park! The highlight of the trip for me, and it was surprisingly emotional, was standing on the Great Wall. It had been a dream of mine to visit the Wall ever since I saw pictures and video of it as a student in Minnesota. I wrote it off as a dream that I would never get to realize since I was a middle-class Midwesterner and didn’t expect to leave the borders of the US. Boy did I ever! Thanks to SFB I’ve had the privilege of touring to Paris, Athens, London, Iceland, and now China.

Here I am on the Great Wall!

On the last day of the China Tour, another positive event occurred. I’m excited to announce that it’s easier than ever to access my music because as of September 2009, I’m on iTunes! (Search Matt Stewart, No Return Address, since there’s ANOTHER Matt Stewart on iTunes.) I think that one of the best ways to get to know me is to get to know my music. It’s truly a privilege for me to be able to share my music with people, and I hope you stop by and check it out.

A screenshot of my album on iTunes

After such a great summer I’m really looking forward to the rest of the dance season. A highlight for me last year was getting to dance in Russian Seasons as the Violet Man, and I can’t wait to revisit that role. Some other things I’m looking forward to are Paul Taylor’s Company B, John Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, and Helgi Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet. I really encourage you to come see these ballets if you get a chance. This season promises to be an exciting one, and who knows, maybe you’ll get to see my wife and me dance together!

See you in the Opera House!

Tags: Ben Stewart, China Tour, Courtney Elizabeth, James Sofranko, Matt Stewart

Two Programs Down, Six to go!

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 | All Posts by James Sofranko, Behind the Scenes | No Comments

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.

I’ll be back, probably to talk about Swan Lake next. Pssst….you don’t want to miss it (the show that is). -J

Tags: Diving into the Lilacs, in the middle somewhat elevated, James Sofranko, Swan Lake, William Forsythe, Yuri Possokhov

Hello blogosphere!

Monday, December 15th, 2008 | All Posts by James Sofranko, SFB Scene | 1 Comment

James Sofranko performs Trepak in Tomasson's Nutcracker. (© Erik Tomasson)

My name is James Sofranko, and I am now going to be maintaining a blog for San Francisco Ballet’s Open Studio 455. I haven’t done much blogging in the past, which is to say I haven’t done any blogging whatsoever! I mean really, I never even knew what the word meant ’till about a year ago! (And, I’m still not crystal clear.) Oh well, at least now if someone talks to me about blogging, I don’t have to nod my head politely and pretend anymore. I can confidently say that I myself am a dancing blogger, or should I be a blogging dancer?

So, my name is James, but people who know me usually call me Jim, much in the same way people call Mikhail Baryshnikov “Misha.” Yes that’s right, I just compared myself to Baryshnikov; you may find that happening a lot here. After all, it is my own blog, and I get to compare myself to whomever I choose, right? Just kidding, but seriously, Baryshnikov, as I’m sure he is to many male dancers, is one of my biggest inspirations. For one thing, he’s short at 5’7”, the same height as me. (I might even say he’s 5’6”; I stood next to him in the cafeteria once.) He’s amazingly explosive when he dances—you can feel his intensity and commitment to the movement. Of course, he does crazy tricks and millions of pirouettes, but that’s not everything that impresses me about him. So many dancers these days can turn more than he ever did and do all the same exciting tricks. I’m intrigued by the intangibles of his dancing as well as his physical achievements. His acting, phrasing, musicality—they all play a part in making him a full packaged artist/athlete. I say athlete because that’s what we, as dancers, are; we train our bodies and put them to use in just the same way a baseball player or football player does. “Game time” for us is the stage and we have pressure to excel just as they do.

Anyway, we’re getting ready for Nutcracker now, and for most of us it’s back to business as usual after the fall tours. The new dancers this year that haven’t been in our production might feel a little overwhelmed with new choreography being thrown at them in a short period of time, but for the returning dancers (this is my 9th Nutcracker at SFB), the steps are pretty much ingrained in our subconscious!

We still have to maintain a level of commitment, though. We have to remember that there are people for whom the Nutcracker is their first time at the ballet. We owe it to the audience to give the best show we can, and that means not just execution of steps, but full realization of character and belief in the story. Helgi has encouraged us to focus on this aspect of the performance, not just the steps. In a dancing dolls rehearsal, he said that we have to make someone believe they are watching an actual toy doll, not just a human impersonating one. So, even though Nutcracker is something we all feel we could do in our sleep, we can’t fall victim to that apathy.

I’m actually at the theater right now waiting for Act II rehearsal to begin. Opening night is tomorrow—I’m dancing the Nutcracker doll that comes out of the magic box in the party scene. For many years in a row, I performed the Russian variation opening night (I also performed it for the PBS filming), but this year I’m content to watch other people get their chance. I am still cast to perform the center Russian guy, and my first show this year is Sunday night. He doesn’t have that much more to do than the side guys, but there are all those split jumps and some extra turns in the finale, enough to make me a little nervous! It’s a great part and always a crowd-pleaser, so it is definitely fulfilling to perform. And, of course, the music for Russian is so well known that I think I’ve counted five holiday commercials so far this year that use it. The same is true of the Sugar Plum Fairy variation music. We hear the Nutcracker music so many times in our lives, but every year I’m reminded how good the score actually is. I love listening to and watching the transformation scene in the first act, when the tree grows. Spectacular! As ballet dancers, we owe a lot to Tchaikovsky. I wonder if he knew what his contributions would really mean to generations of dancers.

Well, gotta run and watch a new cast of Russians jump out of those eggs—always fun to watch someone jump out for the first time!

Talk to you soon.

Tags: Baryshnikov, James Sofranko, Nutcracker, Trepak