Feature Stories

Creative Outlets Offstage

The extraordinary talent on display at San Francisco Ballet is not in dispute. As New York Times Chief Dance Critic Alastair Macaulay recently wrote, “The dancers [of SF Ballet] are technically excellent … what exemplary stylists [they] are …”

Offstage the Company dancers channel this creativity into a myriad of interesting hobbies, applying the same diligence and discipline to these activities as they do to their dancing. Backstage magazine talked to three Company members about these hobbies: Principal Dancer Ruben Martin and Corps de Ballet Dancers Danielle Santos and Quinn Wharton.

QUINN WHARTON
Creative imagery

SF Ballet corps de ballet member Quinn Wharton hasn’t always had a passion for photography.  In fact he had never really thought about photography until three years ago during the Company’s engagement in Paris, when he had just joined the Company as an apprentice. There, he befriended two theater ushers, who happened also to be art school students. In their spare time, the group, through videography and photography, chronicled the numerous hip-hop competitions taking place in the suburbs of the French capital. Observing the different uses of multimedia piqued Wharton’s interest, and shortly thereafter, he invested in a high-quality digital camera.

During some time off following the Paris engagement, Wharton traveled for three weeks in Italy, Switzerland, and France, shooting mostly landscape photos and getting a feel for how the camera worked. Back in San Francisco he began experimenting, adding photography to the many other hobbies he enjoys, including video editing, playing guitar, cooking, and reading. After sustaining an injury last year that left him with time on his hands, he focused his energy on his budding interest in photography, which provided him with a sense of purpose that dance, for the moment, could not supply.

In San Francisco, Wharton was drawn to the unique elements of urban living as subjects for his photography. “Something like tags or different stencils on the sidewalks would catch my eye, and I started to see them as art in their own right,” he says. “It got me interested in using street art as a backdrop for portraits.”

Wharton has recruited fellow dancers like Frances Chung and Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun as subjects, placing them in settings, such as a graffitied wall, that are at direct odds with their classical ballet physique. The results are often refreshing and vivid. It’s been a good distraction, and it’s fun, he says, to watch his friends react to pictures of themselves. He likes the challenge of eliciting different emotions out of his subjects. “Sometimes it takes a while for people to let their guard down in front of the camera, but once they do, you see a whole new side of them that you might not see otherwise.”

Wharton’s neighbor, a photographer for the San Francisco Examiner, has been a mentor of sorts, critiquing his work and showing him various digital techniques to enhance his work.  His inspirations are pop artists like Andy Warhol and David LaChapelle. He is quick to acknowledge that he still has a lot to learn. “I’m not trying to make fine art, and I don’t pretend to be a professional; I just enjoy shooting and I hope my photography continues to evolve.”

DANIELLE SANTOS
A flair for style

San Francisco Ballet’s New Works Festival provided a unique opportunity to spot emerging talent in both dancers and choreographers. However, the impressive debuts were not limited to the Opera House stage. The Festival also afforded corps de ballet member Danielle Santos the opportunity to showcase her budding fashion design skills by creating a gown for Yurie Pascarella, co-chair of the New Works Festival Celebration Dinner.

Although the design process for Pascarella’s dress was more challenging than any project Santos had previously undertaken, she was by no means a novice. The 22-year-old dancer has more than 10 designs under her belt, including a deep purple gown she wore to this year’s 75th Anniversary Diamond Gala Celebration. Since joining the corps de ballet in 2005, she has also designed dresses for fellow SF Ballet dancers Mariellen Olson, Dores Andre, and Margaret Karl, among others. In fact, many of Santos’ colleagues have taken an interest in her burgeoning design skills, and Company members are lining up to serve as her muse for future projects.

Given her proficient skills, one might easily assume that Santos has extensive training in fashion design, but she is essentially self-taught, having observed her mother, Susan Santos—an accomplished seamstress—at work during her childhood. “I would just watch my mom and take note of what she was doing,” Santos explains. She had ample opportunity to do so, since her mother assisted in constructing costumes for the ballet school where Santos trained as a young girl. The learning process seems to have been largely a gradual and unconscious development. When asked about her capacity to take measurements with the expertise of a professional tailor, Santos simply shrugs her shoulders and responds, “I don’t know. This is how my mom always did our costume fittings growing up, so I just do the same thing.” Clearly the years of watching and learning have paid off, and Santos now possesses a solid understanding of the fundamentals of design. She is able to speak about the intricacies of garment construction—bias cuts, boning, and French hems—with an air of breezy familiarity, and her apartment serves as a makeshift workshop with a sewing machine, dress form, and arsenal of sewing tools. 

Santos’ expertly constructed designs attest to the fact that her mother was an excellent role model, but they also reveal that her skills have developed beyond merely replicating the examples of others. Over the years, she has cultivated her own unique design sensibility, which she describes as “youthful with a little bit of an edge.” As she explains it, she likes “to play with ‘not-so-perfect’ touches, like raw, unfinished hems.” Santos can often be found between rehearsals with a notepad in hand, sketching her design concepts. Her creative process is a collaborative one; she frequently asks her fellow dancers to offer feedback on her ideas and uses their suggestions to fuel her creativity. Santos also finds her imagination sparked by unique fabrics. “I love to walk through fabric stores and see what catches my eye,” Santos explains. “I may not even have a specific design in mind, but if I see some gorgeous fabric, it inspires me.”

When asked if her training as a dancer has influenced her designs, Santos takes a moment to reflect. “As a dancer, you are always conscious of form and beautiful lines, so I think my eye has been trained to know what looks good and what shapes are most flattering,” she explains. And although the Ballet’s busy rehearsal and performance schedule limits the time she currently has to pursue her hobby, one thing is certain: whenever Santos decides to hang up her pointe shoes, she has a promising career ahead of her as a fashion designer.



RUBEN MARTIN
Inspiration on canvas

In January 2005, Ruben Martin was injured in a rehearsal. It was two days before the opening-night Gala performance, and he was going to have to sit out. Weeks went by before an exploratory surgery revealed Ruben needed total ligament reconstruction in
his toe.

For any dancer, such news would be devastating, and it was, but during his ten months of recuperation, Ruben discovered a new artistic passion: oil painting.

“I felt that I had to invest my time into something else, something that would let me exteriorize the creative energy that was no longer in use,” Martin explains.

So he turned to a friend who was already an established portrait painter and asked for advice. They started out drawing, since Martin hadn’t painted before, but he quickly wanted to move forward.

All of Martin’s paintings are stunning, but one of the most captivating is a portrait of fellow dancer Sarah Van Patten. He explains that portraits are very difficult, and thus a great way to develop his technique. The challenge of making a person come to life on canvas is in the measurements and proportions. However, he claims it is the expression of the subject that gives the painting its “something special.” He admits he sometimes prefers landscapes, as there isn’t the same pressure to make the painting identical to the subject.

While Martin may be somewhat of a perfectionist, he does believe that realist painting is the best way to improve as an artist. He tends to work from photos, and once he feels he has mastered that method, he hopes to have a live model pose for him.

We were curious to know if there were any crossover skills between dancing and painting, and Martin responded with a resounding yes. “Being a dancer creates a special sensitivity through the years, which grows inside of you and lets you see things from a different perspective. Also, the physical aspect of it is very important; dancers have a highly developed ‘brain to body’ coordination that comes in handy, as well.”

Martin encourages budding artists to follow their hearts and not get discouraged when pursuing a new activity. If you love it, go for it at all costs. And, of course, practice, practice, practice.

“I can’t practice enough,” he says. “It’s funny how when I’m dancing a lot, I don’t paint as much because I focus all of my creative energy on the dancing, but on layoffs or even long weekends, I’ll find myself doing more painting. All I know for sure is that painting is something I’ll do for the rest of my life.”