Today I’m excited to announce 4dancers new partnership with Ballet San Jose. Much like our relationship with the Joffrey, in the coming months you will see interviews with various dancers from this amazing California ballet company, and today is our first…please welcome Alexsandra Meijer…

1. How did you become involved with dance?

I suppose you could say my mother has always loved dancing. Even in her sixties she loves to salsa. So when my parents made us kids participate in all sorts of after school activities of course dancing was among them. My father thought that ballet was an excellent form of discipline, and he hoped that we would learn to move with grace outside the studio. It wasn’t until I discovered ballet’s athleticism, musicality and story telling that I started to understand its beauty.

2. What are you currently doing in the field?
I am dancing as a Principal with Ballet San Jose.

3. Would you share a special moment from your career with readers?

Without a doubt the greatest moments in my career are linked to roles like Swanilda and Odette/Odile, however one of my most cherished moments on stage didn’t involve being the lead in the ballet let alone my face even being seen. It was a little known ballet by the late SFB director Lew Christensen, named Il Destratto. Towards the middle of the ballet the lights suddenly go out and the stage is left completely dark. As Haydn’s music continues, slowly a pair of arms consisting of only an upper torso eerily emerges floating in midair. Some of the audience gasps while others giggle at this unexpected twist. Then shockingly a pair of legs bourrée from the wings on the other side of stage completely void of an upper body. As we perform a sort of “Dueling Banjos” pas de deux assisted magically by our men dressed all in black, as not to be seen, the audience starts to chuckle. Now, I have performed in many comedies in my time on the stage, and as always when the audience starts to crack up I know my timing is right and it brings a lightness to my heart. However what I could never have imagined was the intensity and roar of pure, whole-hearted, gut wrenching, explosive laughter that swept the audience. As I sailed offstage upside down in the splits, I couldn’t contain this infectious laughter. I was truly grinning ear to ear and it was at this moment that I felt that I had caught a glimmer of what comedians like Dave Chappell and Dane Cook must truly experience.

4. What is the best advice you have ever received from a teacher or mentor regarding dance? [Read more…]