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Photograph by Douglas Rider
'Cracker' Jacks: Ramon Moreno and Maria Jacobs dance the lead roles in Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley's production of 'The Nutcracker.' Both are new Willow Glen residents after relocating to the area following the ballet company's shakeup.
Transplanted ballet dancers find new digs in Willow Glen
By Darienne J. Hosley
Three months ago, the dancers of San Jose Cleveland Ballet were looking at a bleak holiday season.
The company's trustees in Cleveland, deeply in debt, announced they were closing up shop and ending their 14-year partnership with San Jose. The dancers were laid off just days after the season had begun.
"I was stressed," recalled dancer Maria Jacobs. "It was really bad timing. We didn't have any money and (other ballet companies) already had their rosters full."
But a string of kindnesses, both large and small, has saved this year's season in San Jose. Not only does the city get its own company, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, but it no longer has to split stage time with Cleveland.
While the company--and its Nutcracker production--is now home for the holidays, several of its dancers are still looking for homes of their own.
"We were very lucky," said Jacobs. She and Shingo Yoshimoto are happily settling into their new apartment in Willow Glen, a neighborhood they praise for its "quaint little community feeling." They're so close to the rehearsal studio on N. First Street that they ride their bicycles to and from work.
They are one of two couples renting Willow Glen homes from Brett Blanchard, who performs with the company in nondancing roles. Husband and wife Ramon Moreno and Patricia Perez, both from Cuba, live in the second apartment.
Jacobs and Yoshimoto weren't sorry to leave Cleveland behind.
"In Cleveland, there's nothing," Yoshimoto said. A native of Japan, he enjoys the benefits of living in an area with a well-established Asian community with Japanese bookstores and supermarkets. And both enjoy the weather and natural beauty of the Bay Area.
About half of the company's dancers agreed to move to San Jose. Several others are staying in Cleveland, but will continue to perform with Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley.
"A lot of them were very concerned about being able to afford this place," said publicist Lee Kopp. "It's no secret that this is expensive."
Salaries for principal dancers begin at $650 a week, plus a weekly $50 housing allowance. Dancers also earn additional pay during performance weeks, but they only work 25 weeks of the year with the San Jose company. Several dancers capitalized on their time off at Thanksgiving, Kopp said, to travel to North Dakota to perform in The Nutcracker.
Trainees earn about $100 a week--"bus fare," according to Kopp.
The company offered financial incentives to convince dancers to move West, but it was a hard sell.
"Everybody got advances, everybody got raises, but it's not enough," Kopp said.
The company has received significant help in the form of a $1.1 million grant from the Resonate Foundation to subsidize the dancers' housing expenses.
A few are still living in hotels and others are living with friends in the area.
"We have several actually living with board members," said Kopp.
The company has also received funding and help from Mayor Ron Gonzales and Alex Sanchez, the city's director of housing. Garden State International trucking is donating free equipment for the season to move sets, costumes and other company equipment. Even the stagehand and wardrobe unions offered to extend their contracts this year at last year's wages.
"When the Teamsters are doing that and they're calling you, it's incredible," Kopp said.
Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley now has 32 dancers and is holding auditions to fill about eight vacancies.
The company's Willow Glen residents are performing many of the lead roles in The Nutcracker, which opened last weekend.
During the partnership with Cleveland, the holiday favorite was performed in San Jose in late November and early December and went to Cleveland for the final weeks before Christmas.
This year, for the first time, the entire run will be presented at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Performances continue through Dec. 28, but there will be no shows from Dec. 11 to 18, because the center had already been booked by another dance group.
This production, choreographed by the company's artistic director, David Nahant, is intended to follow the original fairy tale more closely than most. The difference is most noticeable in the second act.
Most companies depict the young heroine, Clara, and her prince being entertained by dancers from several lands. In Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley's Nutcracker, young Maria travels with her prince to his homeland, in Muscovy, traveling through several exotic lands before being welcomed by the tsar and tsarina with a royal ball.
"Our lead (Maria) does more dancing in this piece than any other Nutcracker I've seen," said Kopp.
Perez, Jacobs and three other dancers will perform as Maria. Moreno will dance as Prince Alexis, and Yoshimoto will appear as the Tsar of Muscovy. Nearly 160 performers, including area residents and students in the company's school, are involved in the ballet.
Company dancers perform in every show and play many different roles. Jacobs and Yoshimoto are each prepared for half a dozen roles. Even though they're the youngest pair in the company--she just turned 23 and he is 20--they'll also play Grandma and Grandpa Tannenbaum.
They admit that they do get tired of performing the same piece every year.
"It's different every time but it's still the same," said Jacobs. "It's fun--if we didn't do so many shows!"
This is actually her first time performing in The Nutcracker, but her partner has been in the perennial production for a decade. They face 12-hour workdays through the holidays, and are looking forward to getting some sleep when it's all over.
"We're just so happy to finish," said Yoshimoto.
They'll have three weeks off in January, and then they'll be back to work on the new company's first show of the 21st century.
Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley will perform David Nahant's The Nutcracker on Dec. 6 to 10, 19 to 24, and 26 to 28 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 155 Almaden Blvd. Tickets are $20 to $65. For tickets and information, call TicketMaster at 408.998.TIXS, or the ballet box office at 408.288.2800.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
