Feature Stories

Year of The Corps de Ballet

Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson has a reputation for choosing dancers who possess incredible individual talent and versatility. It’s a necessity due to a repertory that includes a wide range of dance styles from the classical to the contemporary. But what is perhaps less known is that the dancers Tomasson directs also know how vital it is to work together and how important it is to draw strength from each other.

This past season, works such as Tomasson’s Swan Lake, Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces, Paul Taylor’s Spring Rounds, and William Forsythe’s Artifact Suite revealed the strength, unity, and the talent of the Company’s corps de ballet. Recently, Backstage interviewed four corps de ballet members to get a sense of what it’s like to dance for one of the most versatile and talented corps de ballets in the world.

Brooke Taylor Moore

When Corps de Ballet member Brooke Taylor Moore was 15 years old, she left her home in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to accept a full-year scholarship at San Francisco Ballet School. For many teenagers, leaving the comforts of family and friends might have proven unsettling, but Moore took the experience in stride. “People ask me how I made that transition at such a young age,” she says. “All can say is, I just did it! I knew from the time I was 11 that I wanted to dance professionally. I never hesitated about coming to San Francisco.”

Forming a home with three other ballet students and one student’s Mother, Moore kept her focus on dance. “I was determined to get the most out of my ballet training. I thought I would train at the School and eventually go someplace else to dance.” Attending the School doesn’t insure a position with the Company, so Moore was pleasantly surprised when a year later Tomasson offered her an apprenticeship. The following year she was promoted to the corps de ballet.

Looking back on her seven years in the corps de Ballet, Moore acknowledges that she had a lot of growing up to do once she became a professional dancer. “When I first joined the corps I expected parts to be handed to me just because of my talent. What I didn’t fully comprehend was that I was dancing for one of the great ballet companies in the world and I was surrounded by an incredible body of dancers.”

Her first few years dancing professionally were difficult, Moore acknowledges. “Looking back, I was very young. I had to learn the hard way who I was as a person, what I had to offer the corps, and what I needed to do to be a good company member.”

Moore says that in the last two years, she’s begun working harder than ever, and in turn, her attitude has changed. “I’ve been dancing a lot more these last two seasons. I’ve come to recognize what a privilege it is to dance for one of the best companies in the world, and I’ve also come to recognize what a great sense of unity there is among corps members.”

And though Moore still hopes that one day she’ll have what it takes to be promoted to soloist, she says, “There are so many wonderful parts for corps members in this Company that I’m thrilled to give 120 percent.”

What are some of the works that stand out for her redundant? “[George Balanchine’s] Allegro Brillante is one of my favorite works,” she says. “It’s one of the most physically demanding ballets I’ve ever done. There are certain ballets that click for you as a dancer and you feel this connection through every part of your body. That’s how I feel about Allegro.”

She also counts Swan Lake among her favorite works. “I could do Swan Lake over and over again. In Helgi’s production there are 24 swans onstage at the same time—all of us standing straight, tilting our heads at the same angle, all in perfect arabesque. It’s incredibly difficult but also hugely rewarding. . . . When the audience erupts into clapping and cheers, we know we look good!”

Garrett Anderson and Courtney Wright

What’s it like to be a married couple, both dancing in the corps de ballet? For two members, Courtney Wright and Garrett Anderson, the experience is an integral part of their relationship.

Anderson, who spent two years training at the SF Ballet School alongside the likes of Gonzalo Garcia and Moises Martin, the School provided him with the male-specific training he was lacking. When he completed his training in 1999, he went to Pacific Northwest Ballet School (PNBS) to further his technique. There he met Courtney Wright who was also a PNBS student. The two hit it off and started dating.

A year later when both Wright and Anderson auditioned for San Francisco Ballet, the process was bittersweet. While Wright was accepted into the corps de ballet, Tomasson felt that Anderson still needed another year of training. Says Anderson, “At the time I was really excited for Courtney because I knew it was the right thing for her to take this position, but I also knew it meant that we would be separated.”

But the next season, a number of corps de ballet members left and Tomasson needed someone Anderson’s height. He became a corps de ballet member in 2001. Wright and Anderson were reunited. They married in 2004.

Wright’s and Anderson’s experience demonstrates that having two dancers in the family has its challenges. During her first season, Wright tore a tendon in her shoulder and didn’t get a clear diagnosis at first. Each time she returned to the studio her shoulder hurt too much for her to continue. “I had never been injured before so it was a very difficult time for me,” Wright says. “When your identity is tied to what you do, sitting out can be one of most challenging times in your dance career.”

Wright was able to return to dance with the Company on their 2004 tour to Athens, but when she returned in the fall to rehearse for the 2005 Season, she injured her foot. “I couldn’t believe I was injured again,” Wright says. For a second year in a row she was forced to sit out. Fortunately, the experience made her stronger as a person and as a dancer. “During that time I was able to explore who I was and reevaluate how I could be a better dancer and how to be more holistically healthy.”

For Anderson, the experience was inspiring. “Courtney’s injuries forced me to change. It helped me to understand how important it is to be there for your partner. Some days I would come home from a long day of rehearsals and Courtney would have been through a strenuous day of physical therapy and seeing doctors. As a couple we had a lot of empathy for one another. We learned to give each other the unconditional support each of us needed.” In the end, both dancers know what it’s like to rehearse long hours and to dance nights and weekends. “For us, our shared love for dancing has brought us closer together,” Wright says.

Both Wright and Anderson love being in the corps de ballet. “In the corps you’re a part of something bigger than yourself,” Anderson says. “It’s such a great feeling when there are 20 or 30 corps dancers onstage and you’re moving in a cohesive way—it’s kind of like riding a wave. In ballets like [Jerome Robbins’] Glass Pieces and [William Forsythe’s] Artifact Suite you get this pulse. You’re aware of each other and it’s as if we’re speaking with one voice and we’re heard.”

Image top: Rory Hohenstein in de Mille's Rodeo; Middle: Brooke Taylor Moore in Taylor's Spring Rounds; Bottom: Garrett Anderson in Robbins' Dybbuk. All images © Erik Tomasson

Rory Hohenstein

“I heard a lot about San Francisco Ballet growing up,” says Corps de Ballet member Rory Hohenstein. “The feeling was that if you were going to dance for a ballet company in the United States, San Francisco Ballet was it.” Hohenstein, who spent six years training at the acclaimed Kirov Academy of Ballet (now the Universal Ballet Academy) in Washington, D.C., says he was determined to dance for SF Ballet one day.

Hohenstein’s first opportunity to audition for the Company came in 1997 when SF Ballet was on tour at the Kennedy Center. Though Tomasson was encouraging about Hohenstein’s dancing, he told Hohenstein to check back in a couple of years when he was a little older. Two years later, and halfway through his senior year, Hohenstein learned of a position at Le Jeune Ballet de France. Upon audition he was accepted.

Barely 18, he packed his bags and set off for Europe. After purely classical ballet training at the Kirov, jeune Ballet’s largely contemporary repertory was a welcome challenge for the young dancer. Seven months later when Hohenstein was performing with Le Jeune Ballet, Tomasson happened to be in Paris and came to see the company perform. Afterwards, Tomasson came backstage and Hohenstein approached him, and without skipping a beat asked the artistic director for a contract. Looking back, Hohenstein says laughing, “I would never be so straightforward now!” Luckily, his youthful exuberance paid off and Hohenstein joined SF Ballet’s corps de ballet in 2000.

During his first year in the Company, Hohenstein discovered something unique about the corps de ballet. “Looking around, you couldn’t help but notice that every dancer possessed his or her own strengths and talents,” Hohenstein explains. “But at the same time, I quickly recognized that Helgi had assembled a group of dancers who knew how to work together and gain strength from each other. It made me very proud to be dancing for that kind of company,” he says.

Hohenstein’s first step-out role came in 2002 when he was cast in Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia. He had just begun his second season and was chosen by Wheeldon to partner Principal Dancer Kristin Long and in another section was paired up with Principal Dancer Pascal Molat. “When the curtain came down on opening night,” he says, “I looked down the line at these dancers whom I had looked up to during the last two years—Kristin and Pascal, Damian Smith and Muriel Maffre. I remember feeling overwhelmed just being in their midst. There was a part of me that was thinking, ‘Wait, I don’t belong here. . .’”

But belong he did, and during the 2006 Season, Hohenstein was offered even larger roles. One role that stands out for him was the Roper in Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo. The part called for an extensive tap solo. Recalling how the part came about, Hohenstein says that one day before a rehearsal, he was waiting for an elevator in the ballet building. “I was just tapping my feet, a habit I must have picked up from years of tap lessons before I started taking ballet. About that time, [Ballet Mistress] Anita Paciotti was walking by and asked, ‘Rory, do you tap?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I took tap before beginning ballet.’ And Paciotti replied, “(Hmm, that’s good to know).” It was a whole year before Tomasson announced that the Company would revive [Agnes de Mille’s] Rodeo. Consequently, Hohenstein got the part.

“There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t enjoy working in the studio on Rodeo,” Hohenstein says. “On opening night it was such an odd feeling to be in the Opera House laced up in a pair of tap shoes. The stage crew installed special microphones to pick up the tapping and hearing my first stomp echo through the house was terrifying,” he says. “It’s one thing to be dancing alone surrounded by 40 other dancers but it’s another thing to be dancing all alone with no music. It took until the third performance before I was finally able to relax and enjoy myself.”