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Having attended the Boston Ballet production of The Nutcracker pretty regularly since 1996 and being familiar with the New York City Ballet and Royal Ballet versions, I’ve seen quite a few Arabian variations in my time. So when I tuned into the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker on TV last December, I was not expecting to be wowed. The Arabian variation as danced by Sarah Van Patten, however, completely bowled me over. Choreographed by artistic director Helgi Tomasson, this version was elegant and mercifully free from the snake-charmer overtones that characterize many, if not most, Arabians.

I immediately wanted to know more about Van Patten and had a hunch she trained with Boston Ballet. As I found out in a phone interview, she was a Boston Ballet student for a limited time. Van Patten did the majority of her training with Jackie Cronsberg at Ballet Workshop of New England (BWNE) in Waltham, Massachusetts, but that is perhaps getting ahead of my story.

Sarah was born into a family of performers. Her mother, Kathy, is a former dancer and dance teacher who now owns the Movement Center of Boston, and her father, who lives in San Francisco, is a musician and photographer. I also had a phone conversation with Kathy, and she filled me in on Sarah’s early years.

It turns out that Sarah was something of a prodigy. Born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, she and her family moved to Boston, where she lived from the age of nine until she was fifteen. While her mother ran a movement studio in their house on Beacon Hill, Sarah took public transportation or taxis to the private schools she attended from sixth to eighth grades. In the ninth grade, dancing took up so much of her time, she was home schooled.

At Boston Ballet Sarah rose through the ranks of Nutcracker roles, going from lamb to polichinelle to party girl. Then came what Kathy calls “a turning point.” Sarah was in the advanced level at the Boston Ballet School and had an important audition for the Steadfast Tin Soldier, but decided not to go. She had been studying at BWNE in addition to training at Boston Ballet and, unbeknownst to her mother, had made the decision to study with Cronsberg exclusively. Sarah explained, “I knew Boston Ballet wasn’t right for me. Ballet Workshop was a small school with private lessons, where I could meet with my teacher an hour before class for one-to-one time.” The die was cast.

“We never looked back,” said Kathy; “Jackie is amazing. She has a gift for looking at kids, and if they have passion, Jackie will help them.” Sarah noted that at BWNE, she did “big roles at a young age,” such as Paquita when she was 11 and Concerto Barocco two years later. At BWNE, Sarah noted, “I gained confidence and experience,”

It was through Cronsberg’s daughter, Sandra Jennings, that Sarah’s life soon changed dramatically. Jennings, a former New York City Ballet dancer and then ballet mistress with the Pennsylvania Ballet, often came to BWNE to teach and set ballets. When Jennings was about to go to Copenhagen to work with the Royal Danish Ballet, Colleen Neary, wife of then company director Thordal Christensen, asked Jennings to bring some BWNE students with her as candidates for apprenticeships. Sarah was one of three girls Jennings chose to take to Copenhagen. There, Sarah was offered an apprenticeship, and at 15 years old, she quit school and moved to Denmark, where she lived on her own for two years.

How did her parents feel about her making this momentous decision at such a young age? Sarah recalls that her parents supported her move, and Kathy, who took her daughter to Denmark and visited her there once a month, agrees: “We value the arts; we didn’t want our kids [Sarah has a brother] to be doctors or lawyers.”

During her second year in Denmark, choreographer John Neumeier came to set his Romeo and Juliet. Not only was Sarah cast as the heroine, she headed the first cast and was featured in the publicity. When Tomasson came to Denmark to set The Sleeping Beauty, he saw Sarah in Romeo and Juliet. “I knew Helgi was interested in me,” remembers Sarah, and she later flew to San Francisco to audition for him.

The rest, as they say, is history. Sarah was hired as a soloist in 2002 and promoted to principal in 2007. Of her debut this past year as Odette/Odile in the new San Francisco production of Swan Lake, Sarah said, “That was big for me – really exciting.” Apparently, the critics agreed. In the San Francisco Chronicle (March 3, 2009) Rachel Howard called her performance “scintillating” and described her as one of “those dancers . . . who put their technique in constant service to dramatic depth.” Swan Lake was followed by an appearance in Balanchine’s “Diamonds,” which Sarah described as “the pinnacle of ballerina roles,” noting that “it was good to have Swan Lake and ‘Diamonds’ back-to-back.” Other highlights of the season for her were Balanchine’s Violin Concerto and Robbins’s Fancy Free.

The Boston-bred ballerina who never went to high school is now a college student. Having earned her high-school equivalency diploma, better known as GED (general education development) certification, she is now a junior at St. Mary’s College of California, participating in the Liberal Arts Education for Arts Professionals (LEAP) program, which is specifically designed for current and former dancers. With most of her required courses behind her, she is looking forward to taking electives in creative writing, business, and psychology.

I asked about her strengths and weaknesses as a dancer, and Sarah allowed that her greatest asset is her “ability to be versatile as an actress.” She cited her appearance last season in a program featuring Robbins’s comedy The Concert and Tudor’s drama The Lilac Garden - sometimes dancing both lead roles in a single performance - as evidence of that versatility. On the other hand, she doesn’t see herself as a particularly athletic dancer. In Swan Lake, she noted, “I powered through those fouettés, but they’re not my strength. I’m trying to build strength and confidence in classical ballets.” Whom does she consider role models in building her technique? Without hesitation, Sarah answered, “In San Francisco, its Muriel Maffre [who recently retired], at New York City Ballet Wendy Whelan, and at Boston Ballet Larissa Ponomarenko.”

What about that Arabian variation - were there any special challenges in the role? Sarah recalled that being carried onstage in a giant Aladdin’s lamp made for an interesting entrance. “It was dark and claustrophic in there,” she noted. The costume didn’t help any. Wearing what she described as “a big hat” forced her to “fold [herself] up” to get into the lamp. When she emerged, however, her conveyance and headgear became insignificant. All one could see were those mesmerizing eyes and the commanding presence of a great dancing actress.