Artist Spotlight
 | | | Yuan Yuan Tan and Ruben Martin |
12/13/2006
Ruben Martin joined the corps de ballet in 2000 and three years later was promoted to soloist. After sustaining an injury that forced him to sit out the entire 2005 Repertory Season, he returned in 2006 for a remarkable year. Not only did he recover, he was featured in a number of works last season. Martin was promoted to principal dancer following the Company’s final performance of Sylvia in May 2006. In the following interview, Martin discusses his introduction to ballet in Spain and the joys and challenges of dancing.
How did you become interested in ballet?
Both of my parents worked while my three brothers and I were growing up, so it was more a matter of what to do with us between the time school ended and the time they arrived home at 7 in the evening.
My mother was always impressed with the posture of dancers and athletes so she enrolled us in a rhythmic gymnastics class. When we arrived the teacher told her in a nice way that the class wasn’t suited for boys and suggested a ballet school not far from our school (laughs). The ballet school just happened to be having auditions and we all auditioned at the same time. I was twelve, my brother Moises [an SF Ballet soloist] was ten, and my two twin brothers, were eight. We were four talented brothers so we were automatically accepted.
Where was your first professional dancing job?
I started dancing for English National Ballet in 1996 when I was 19. It was a difficult job. There were over 60 dancers and more than 200 performances a season. The repertory was primarily full-length ballets. I was constantly onstage. The stage experience for a young dancer was great, but after a while the repertory wasn’t very challenging.
How did dancing for San Francisco Ballet come about?
My brother Moises started training at the School in 1998 and joined the Company the following year. So he was here, dancing this amazing repertory, watching all these great dancers, and telling me about it while I was in England dying on the vine. I knew I wanted to dance a more varied, challenging, and contemporary repertory.
Who are some of the choreographers you’ve enjoyed working with?
Julia Adam created imaginal disc on Leslie Young [former soloist and currently the Ballet School’s trainee coordinator] and me in the 2003 Season. Not only is Julia an inspiring human being, but having a principal work created on me when I was in the corps de ballet was a turning point. Julia was understanding, giving, and patient.
Working with Christopher Wheeldon is also remarkable. He’s so eloquent and specific about what he wants. Yuri Possokhov has also helped my dancing a lot.
Up until this year I hadn’t worked with Helgi [Tomasson] in creating a role. I’ve always learned his ballets. I’m second cast in his new work [for the 2007 Season] but he alternates back and forth between first and second casts so he works with us in the same sort of ways. So that’s been amazing as well.
Outside of dance, do you have time to pursue other interests?
I started painting with oils a year and a half ago when I was out with an injury during the entire 2005 Season. I injured myself two days before Gala. At first I didn’t think it was anything serious, but after five weeks I hadn’t healed so my doctor did further exploratory surgery and found out that I needed reconstruction of the ligaments in my right toe. My doctor was very frank about the fact that he had never performed this type of surgery on a dancer and that he knew of no track records of complete recovery for dancers.
You did in fact recover and returned in time for the 2006 Repertory Season. You must have been performing at the top of your form because you were promoted to principal dancer. Were you surprised about that?
Last season, I was focused on getting back in the form that I was before my injury. I ended up challenging myself in ways I didn’t think were possible. I was cast in three out of the four [Jerome] Robbins works [Afternoon of a Faun, Dybbuk, and Other Dances] and in Helgi’s The Fifth Season.
During the midpoint of the season I could tell that my foot was becoming much stronger and it occurred to me that I was in much better shape than before my injury. At the end of the season I was very confident about my dancing but I wasn’t thinking about promotion. That takes a lot of energy and I don’t do my work because I want to be better than the next dancer.
On the last performance of the season [Mark Morris’ Sylvia], Helgi came to my dressing room after the show and told me that he was promoting me to principal. All I could think about was what a wonderful way to end the season and come back after an injury. It was a dream come true to accomplish that in one season. After Helgi left I sat in my dressing room and cried. I kept thinking, “I’ve made it. All this hard work has paid off.”
So what lies ahead for you as a dancer?
Now that I’ve stepped up in the ranks as a dancer, keeping the standard up, working hard, and setting an example for fellow dancers is really important to me. Being injured made me realize that my time is precious, and that thought really provides me with a lot of motivation on days when I don’t want to get up and move.