Evelyn Cisneros

by Debra

Evelyn Cisneros is the first Hispanic Prima Ballerina in the history of ballet in this country---and she's all ours. : ) Her power and grace are astounding; when she dances, there's almost no venue large enough to hold her energy in. The San Francisco Ballet has done its level best to accomodate this spirit for the past 22 years, and Evelyn has rewarded their efforts richly. She's winding her performance career down this year, and we will miss her greatly.

Here is Evelyn's story, in her own words, excerpted from a convocation given in 1997 at Mills College in Oakland, California:

"I began my initial training at seven and a half years of age at a shopping center in Huntington Beach, California where I grew up. My first teacher was Phyllis Sear, and I studied with her until I moved to San Francisco at the age of sixteen to dance with the San Francisco Ballet as an apprentice. I studied with the School of American Ballet for a summer, I studied with the San Francisco Ballet School for three summers, and Iıve been dancing with the San Francisco Ballet Company for twenty years now...

"Iıll never forget being on the stage that first night and not being able to believe that here I was, dancing on the stage after being in the city for only three days! I was terrified, but I knew that this was my big opportunity and that if I proved that I was capable of learning a ballet and performing it well in that short amount of time, that I could make myself invaluable to the company...

"Working hard every day, often spending time alone in the studio, constantly striving to improve the imperfections which I might see reflected in the mirror - this has been the most difficult struggle for me. I have spent many, many hours working alone on both my technique and artistic expression - to make it right; to make it perfect. Of course, perfection is something quite transient, and one might attain it for only a moment, and then itıs gone and youıre constantly struggling to get it back! It is that sort of challenge that makes dancing so worthwhile to me as well as the performance which allows me to share with the audience the talent given to me at birth...

"...this tremendous challenge of constantly striving to attain perfection and the desire to dance, wanting to be there more than anywhere else - this passion is very internal, very personal and very essential."