Soloist Jasmine Jimison is Pointe Cover Star
Jasmine Jimison Takes Flight at San Francisco Ballet
Author: Claudia Bauer for Pointe
On a chilly day last October, Jasmine Jimison arrived at the San Francisco Ballet studios to start her third week of understudying Giselle. As a second-year soloist, she was content to rehearse at the back of the room and eager to learn the role. Little did she foresee that it would soon elevate her from understudy to rising star. “That’s how it works in this career—expect the unexpected,” says Jimison, 21, with characteristic level-headedness.
San Francisco Ballet Soloist Jasmine Jimison. Photo by Michael Winokur for Pointe Magazine, Makeup by Diane Catorc
As it happened, principal dancer Esteban Hernández’s partner was ill that week, and Jimison filled in. “I was just excited to have the one-on-one time with the rehearsal directors and Esteban,” she recalls. Chance intervened again shortly before Giselle’s February opening this year, when an injury sidelined Hernández’s partner for the season, and artistic director Tamara Rojo cast Jimison, who had never performed a lead role, in her place.
SF Ballet Backstage
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