Founded in February 1989, the then San Francisco Dance Center - which moved into the upper floors of the Odd Fellows Grand Lodge in 2002 - quickly became one of the busiest locations for dancers and choreographers on the West Coast.

A walk down the slightly grim, fluorescent-lit corridor takes you past an extended frieze of dancers stretching as the echoes of piano accompaniment drift through the halls. But step into any studio and you're suddenly drenched in natural light that pours into abundantly airy spaces from the high, arched windows.

For Eifman, ballet is about far more than dance and artistic ideas alone. “I see ballet as something that should not be isolated from the plot,” he said. “I create a synthetic performance full of expression, involving contradictory forces and consisting of strong characters, similar to the structure of a drama. My main task as a choreographer is to combine all the parts — the story, the choreography, the music, the set, the lighting — into a complete picture.”

One example of such a combination in Eifman’s series of ballets is “Red Giselle,” (1997) which sold out long before the night when it was performed at the Alexandriinsky Theater last month. The performance is dedicated to the tragic life and brilliant career of the great Russian ballerina Olga Spessivtseva, who fled Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Through the ballet, Eifman shows how Spessivtseva’s fragile state of mind is gradually destroyed by the shocking brutality sweeping Russian and the ensuing melancholy of emigration. Giselle was the ballerina’s favorite role, and the name “Red Giselle” is an expressive metaphor for Spessivtseva’s life, marked by violence and unrequited love. Twelve years after its debut, the ballet remains tremendously popular both in Russia and abroad.

She tells Fox News, 'I've been studying for the past month, seven days a week, four to five hours a day of doing ballet, cardio and pilates and I have two more months before choreography begins.

'This ballet I'm doing you can't fake it. Your body has to be structured differently, your hips have to be turned out, your shoulders have to be turned in, everything in your body is not natural, so I'm learning everyday.'

Delights are to both eye and intellect. Gorgeous prints by Léon Bakst, George Barbier, Natalia Goncharova, and Jean Cocteau stud the gallery. Reconstructions of costumes by Nicholas Roerich (The Rite of Spring) and Picasso (Le Tricorne and the cubist/futurist inspired Parade) occupy the rear of the space. Continuous showings of rare performance footage—Anna Pavlova levitating in The Dumb Girl of Portici, for example—offer glimpses of the unrecoverable movement source. Diaghilev’s letters to Russian authorities concerning the disappearance of his brother and sister-in-law (they were arrested), a denunciation of surrealist painters Max Ernst and Joan Miró for collaborating on Diaghilev’s Romeo and Juliet (they were accused of selling out), artists’ notebooks and other documents deepen our understanding of the times.

"She reminded us that Ana Roje would have been 100 years old this year in October."

'Ana Roje' is the third book written by Mr. Schopf and Mr. Vuckovic. The other two include 'Vesna Butorac Blace — The Gorgeous Poem of the Body' and 'Sonja Kastl — To Dance is To Live'. Mr. Schopf said Miss Roje is still well remembered in Croatia, and there are two ballet awards given in her name.

Due to my uncontrollable obsession my wife likes to tease me and often asks what I am going to do when my son chooses to do ballet over baseball. I am usually confident in my response and say that "I won't have to worry about that". Maybe I should be concerned because yesterday I noticed his hair was getting real long and I told him that we should probably cut it. He told me "No" and then started running around saying he was a girl. I still wasn't terribly concerned until later that day when I remembered that the only movie he wanted to watch the previous week was a Barbie movie.

"I am excited for myself and the Company as this tour will mark the first visit by the SF Ballet to China. All ninety-seven of us who will travel there are really looking forward to performing there,” exclaimed Tan, who has been the company’s major principal since 1995. “I feel confident China will be very receptive to our performances and I look forward to showing them what a wonderful and talented dance company we are,” she says.
Yuan Yuan joined the SF Ballet in 1995. In 1992 SFB Director Helgi Tomasson saw the 15-year-old Tan perform and win the Gold Medal of the junior female division at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Paris. He invited her to San Francisco to perform in the company’s Nutcracker Suite, and soon thereafter offered her a position with the San Francisco Ballet as a soloist. She became a Principal Dancer of the company a mere two years later."

Jeffrey, who is about to start work with the Boston Ballet, has won all kinds of prizes already. Here's a rundown, as well as info about the Princess Grace Award.