Tiit Helimets and Molly Smolen Diary

Molly's First Performances

Hi all, and Happy New Year! It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this diary and a lot has happened since then. Most notably, I’ve just completed my first “Nutcracker” season with San Francisco Ballet. It was very exciting to perform onstage at the War Memorial Opera House for the first time. It’s a great theatre, very beautiful with a nice big stage, and it was a lot of fun to fill that space! The production here is by Helgi Tomasson and this was its third year. I danced the role of the Sugarplum Fairy, who welcomes Clara and the Prince to her land and also dances with the Flowers, as well as the Grand Pas de Deux, which in this version is meant to be Clara transformed to an adult. The Grand Pas turned out to be something of a treat for me because I was partnered with Tiit which was something neither of us had expected. It’s always special when we get to dance together and “Nutcracker” was no exception.

But going back a bit further, I’ve also been rehearsing several ballets for our upcoming season which opens with a Gala on January 24th. I’ve been learning roles in the two Balanchine ballets the company is putting on this season, “Divertimento #15" and “Symphony in C”. Elyse Bourne came to set the ballets which was interesting because it turned out that she had been at School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet with my mother! It often surprises me just how small the “ballet world” really is.

I’m also involved in the new ballet Helgi is choreographing this season. It has been great to work with him on something completely new. The creative process is always so interesting, it really is a completely different feeling to that of learning choreography that is already completed. If you try a step or a lift, even at the back of the studio, and the choreographer likes it then it can become part of the ballet! It’s a great feeling.

At the moment my time is mostly taken up with rehearsing for the Gala and the first two programs we’ll be putting on. I’m very excited for the Gala because the company has gotten permission for me to dance Ashton’s “Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan”. It’s a piece that I have danced many times over the years, stretching back to my first year with Birmingham Royal Ballet, when Lynn Seymour chose me to learn the role. It is one of my absolute favorite things to perform and I think it is the perfect way for me to introduce myself to the San Francisco audience at the start of the company’s “official” season.

So far this has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for me. There has been one odd thing though. At BRB we commonly used surgical spirit to clean our pointe shoes, thus enabling us to wear them for more performances. Here in America I simply can’t find it, even by another name! But, if that’s the only thing I have to complain about I guess that’s pretty great.