No small passion: at San Francisco Ballet, outreach education is about changing the world

Dance Magazine, June, 2003 by Cheryl Ossola

It's hard to talk to Charles Chip McNeal without getting excited. The San Francisco Ballet Center for Dance Education manager's enthusiasm for what he does is palpable, and he practically vibrates as he speaks. At his side, in a partnership so close that they finish each other's sentences, is Ballet Education Coordinator Evelyn Cisneros-Legate.

The Center for Dance Education was born in 2001 to consolidate San Francisco Ballet's outreach programs. SFB consulted with education development firm Artsvision to develop a five-year plan that built on already existing programs and which placed McNeal, who started at the company twenty-three years ago as an assistant outreach teacher, at the helm. The goal? "How do we leverage our resources to make outreach relevant to the largest population possible?" explains McNeal. "How can we [be] models of inclusion, of access, of opportunity? How can we make what we do more meaningful to those we've already reached? Most important, how can we engage the concept of family?"

Together, McNeal and Cisneros-Legate are answering these questions. The center is divided into two branches; one focuses on public schools, and the other targets families and seniors. Both seek to make dance accessible, understandable, and a source of joy.

One of the oldest programs has been in place since 1979. Dance in Schools is a ten-week artist residency that explores historical and world dance and music. The free program has grown to twenty-three residencies in seventeen San Francisco public elementary schools. When selecting the sites, the goal is inclusion: McNeal and Cisneros-Legate look at a San Francisco map and say, "We're not in this neighborhood; let's get in there." McNeal, who has run DIS since 1989, develops the curriculum, which rotates so that no student repeats the same program. To take the experience one step further, McNeal created an opportunity for selected classes to perform in the San Francisco Youth Arts Festival.

San Francisco Ballet has long offered an after-school program as well as scholarships to San Francisco Ballet School for as many as 75 of the roughly 2,300 students who participate in the residencies each year. In the works for 2003 is the first-ever summer dance camp.

For many, DIS is their first exposure to dance, as it was for Alexander Jones, 10, one of the scholarship recipients. "He chose to stop taking karate in order to take ballet," says Alex's mother, Marie. Alex says ballet training "was more challenging than I expected." When asked what he likes most, he replies, "Degages, tendus--and the jumps. [when I learn something hard], I feel like 'Good job, Alex,' then I move on."

Focusing on families through dance education seemed natural to former SFB ballerina Cisneros-Legate. "I want to share what I love with people who don't know [dance], particularly children," she says. "When I danced the Sugar Plum Fairy--it could be my five-thousandth performance--I always made it a point to talk to the children, because that's real. It's the looks on their faces and their excitement that you have to keep"--she gestures to her chest--"right here."

She sees that excitement in the community workshops she teaches, where families learn ballet steps together and investigate aspects of production. A free ticket to a company performance allows participants to see ballet from their new perspective.

Like many companies, SFB has offered discounted matinees to student groups for years. But Cisneros-Legate has added seniors to the invitation list, plans to up the frequency from two to five per year, and has changed the format to offer portions of several ballets. Open scene changes have always been a part of the matinee; now Cisneros-Legate leads discussions with stagehands or musicians. Sometimes SFB School students demonstrate a barre and talk about why they dance or what's hard for them. Also new are study guides (available at www.sfballet.org) for teachers.

But how, McNeal wondered, could the matinees be even more meaningful? If you want to up his vibration quotient, ask him about Interact, which in 2001 began training volunteer docents in repertoire analysis, technique, and history, then sending them into classrooms before performances to prepare students for what they would see, or afterward, to discuss what they saw. Dance students at St. Mary's College, in Moraga, California, and San Francisco State University can now receive credit for the docent training.

"Involving students up to the university level is unique for a dance program," says American Ballet Theatre's Mary Jo Ziesel, director of education and training. "I think SFB's is a model program because of its many layers of parent, family, and community involvement. McNeal's leadership and commitment are impressive. When you see the care he takes, his thoughtfulness--that he thinks of carpools so that students can make it to a performance--it means a lot."

One year into the five-year plan, McNeal says the center is on the right track. But he and Cisneros-Legate seem never to stop brainstorming about how to broaden their impact. So now, whenever SFB goes on tour, so do they, bringing their programs to communities outside the Bay Area. And they've developed an online interactive educational program that allows dance students, families, and teachers to learn about technique and create movement on a virtual dancer; phase one launched in February.