Artist Spotlight

Katita Waldo in Tomasson's Giselle © Erik Tomasson

11/17/2008

SF Ballet: When did dance begin for you?

KW:I started when I was six, and I’ve been at it ever since, although, at first, classes were not my exciting thing; I didn’t like that so much. In fact, my mom involved me because she thought I was very graceful and very active, so they put me in ballet. I hated it and didn’t want to do it, but they paid for a year, so my mom said “you just have to finish out the year,” and I did and at the end of the year—I was born and raised in Spain which is where I started— the way they did it there, the end of the year was a performance that was an examination, but it was a performance all the same. That was it— the minute I hit the stage that’s when I thought “This is it,” and that did it for me.

SF Ballet: What was the first role you ever danced?

KW: A jester in our version of Swan Lake. And I actually didn’t do Nutcracker until I was 11 and came to the states, because they didn’t do Nutcracker in Spain, it’s not a big [ballet] at all; Nutcracker is relatively unknown there, so I came to it late, at eleven, and have been doing it ever since.

SF Ballet: Were your parents also involved in dance?

KW: My parents weren’t involved in dance, though they were involved in the arts. My mother was musically involved peripherally; her father was a conductor and a pianist in Binghamton, New York, and a piano teacher. He was actually a very fine jazz musician and was asked to go to New York to join a jazz band, which he didn’t do for various reasons. My father was not involved in the arts at all, but he did a lot of interesting things like take a class with Martha Graham when he was in New York and he loved it, and he also loved jazz like Duke Ellington. There was music in my house all the time, usually classical or jazz. My mother had watched ballet as a child, but had no involvement in it. She went into film and she studied film in Spain, and she was actually the first woman to graduate from the Spanish film school—she wanted to be a director, and although she didn’t direct, she was assistant director and worked on a lot of films when in Spain, way back when. Artistic, yes, but more bohemian I’d say than “hippie”—but a lot of arts; both of my parents are highly educated. My mother and father both went to Cornell, so they were very literate, and loved literature and reading and music and art in all its forms. My father also was a photographer for a while, so they’ve done a lot. They’ve supported me in everything I’ve done, and everything I ever hope to do. At the moment, they’re too far away for my liking—they’re in Virginia, but it’s okay, I’ll get to see them when we go to DC next week, and spend Thanksgiving with them, so I’m very happy. They came to New York, and we had a wonderful time and got to spend some time together.

SF Ballet: After living and performing here for over two decades, how do you feel about San Francisco?

KW: I just love it. I’m very, very excited to be part of this Company, and I’m getting the opportunity to teach company class— I’m very excited about the future and what it’s going to bring and thrilled that it’s happened here.

SF Ballet: How does your teaching experience enhance or influence your dancing?

KW: It’s great; I’ve always been continuing to learn and I’m always trying to improve—I think all dancers do in whatever realm they work in, but I’ve always been thinking of how to get better, how to improve this or that, and teaching has helped a lot because I can see what I’m working on in other people— sometimes its harder to see in yourself, so I’ll have an idea of how something will work but I don’t see it in action until I see it in someone else, or I can test out the things that I’m working on in myself and see if they work on other dancers. So far, so good –it’s been extremely rewarding; I love the teaching, and the Company is, of course, extraordinary to work with. This level of dancers is just a thrill; it’s wonderful.

SF Ballet: Is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to in the upcoming season?

KW: Its going to be a special season for me, and I’m actually getting to dance everything that I wanted to dance, so I’m looking forward to that—I’m dancing in the middle, somewhat elevated, reprising a role I did a long, long time ago, which I love, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto. I get to sing again on stage as Anita in West Side Story Suite, and I’m in The Four Temperaments and in Ibsen’s House, which I got to do in New York and just loved doing— it’s a lot of fun. And I love continuing to teach and work with the younger generation to help them reach the level that Helgi wants of them, so that’s what I’m looking forward to.

SF Ballet: Could you tell me a little bit about your experience playing Anita in West Side Story Suite?

KW:It was awesome, absolutely incredible; I’ve never had any training, but I love singing; I’ve always sung in my car and in the shower and all that, and to get the chance to do it was wonderful, but what I liked the most about it was getting some training, some coaching, some idea of how to use this instrument about which I know nothing. I love the process, but I found actually that it was one of the most exhausting things that I’ve ever done. It’s a very short section that you’re in when you’re actually singing, but you have to use different breathing muscles when you dance than when you sing so it was absolutely exhausting; you have to relax your diaphragm to sing, tighten your diaphragm to dance, and by the time you get to the last chorus, you barely can belt it out—it’s so hard that, in fact, you can’t, and you’re counting on the girls behind you. But it’s amazing and it was also fun because I got to transform physically; they gave me a black wig and dark makeup, and it was funny that when my father came out to spend some time with me, he didn’t recognize me! He came to a dress rehearsal and they did me up to check the make-up and the hair to see if it would work, and I came out and he had no idea who I was for the longest time—it was great.