Setting the next stage: Evelyn Cisneros left performing behind, but not her dedication to ballet

Dance Magazine, Sept, 2004 by Allan Ulrich

The Evelyn Cisneros era at the San Francisco Ballet ended with a gala performance on May 9, 1999, and no dancer could have had fewer artistic reasons to retire. For twenty-three years, SFB had been Cisneros' only professional home. She had survived the death of one artistic director, Lew Christensen; the firing of another, Michael Smuin; and the major overhaul of the company by successor, Helgi Tomasson. Cisneros' radiant smile, her exceptional balances, personal charm, and gorgeous line captivated audiences and choreographers alike. In the glory days of PBS' "Great Performances" Dance in America, she had won a national following, too.

"Dance was my passion. There was nothing else I would have wanted to devote my life to," says Cisneros. "except having children." At the beginning of the 1998-99 season, she was nearing 40, and had never suffered a serious dance-related injury or undergone a surgery. Yet, she was noticing that "things in my body were beginning to creak. And I wondered if it were worth dancing, if I couldn't dance at my highest level of expertise. I remembered my colleague Cynthia Harvey saying you should go while people are saying why, rather than when."

In addition, Cisneros had just been married for the third time (to fellow SF Ballet principal Stephen Legate). They were determined to make it succeed and, before it was too late, to start a family, but Cisneros was having problems conceiving. She consulted fertility doctors who suggested putting on pounds, "which isn't so great for the guy lifting you," she notes. "It wasn't working. So, Stephen and I talked. I decided to get down to dancing weight again, and that this would be my final season. My career had been better than I had ever dreamed."

A transition was not difficult. Cisneros had been volunteering for outreach programs even during her dancing days, and before retiring, she had discussed staying on in some capacity with then executive director Arthur Jacobus. "Education had always interested me. Having seen what has happened to ballet companies in this country--how The Joffrey almost evaporated, all the turmoil at ABT. I realized that I had not dedicated my life to an art form so that it might disappear. I wanted to make sure that the next generation had the passion and the experience to keep it going--as dancers, as audiences, as designers, or as musicians. I just felt a responsibility."

Five years later, Cisneros is fulfilling her mission and then some. She is SFB's Ballet Education Coordinator (the department was created two years ago). She has coauthored Ballet for Dummies (Wiley, $19.95) with conductor Scott Speck. She is the regisseur for ballets by Smuin and Val Caniparoli (she has set his popular Lambarena on companies from South Africa to South Florida). She is a certified instructor for the New York City Ballet Workout. She has hosted a local PBS documentary series, Bay Windows, about the neighborhoods of San Francisco. She has danced for the San Francisco Symphony and in a Carlos Santana music video. And, oh yes, Cisneros and Legate have started their family. They adopted Ethan almost four years ago.

As Ballet Education Coordinator, Cisneros runs the Family Connections program, in which children and parents dance together in informal settings. She also hosts the community matinees for which she writes study guides for both the elementary and high school levels. And for the Dance Education on Tour program, she goes into communities where SFB will perform, produces workshops, and arranges for children to be bused to open dress rehearsals. "In Los Angeles," she says, "there were kids who had never been to the Music Center before."

Through all this, Cisneros is guided by a personal code of conduct. "When you're out there in public, walking down the street, going to a restaurant, you are always representing the company. Because of my Mexican background, I have always had this awareness. We were the only Mexican family in a white neighborhood in Orange County, so we were taught to set an example. That has stayed with me."

Retirement from dancing meant losing more than half her income, but Cisneros was wise with her money. "Over the years, I saved every penny I ever made from guest appearances, which started when I was 21," she says. Her thrift enabled her to buy a house in San Francisco, at a time when ordinary mortals could still afford real estate here, and she and Legate must plan for the day when he, now 36, also retires.

Cisneros' advice for dancers in advanced stages of their careers? "At least five years before you are thinking of retirement, start investigating the other interests you may have. Do you want to go back to school? What excites you? And also, enjoy every second you're dancing. It won't last forever."

And what is Cisneros' greatest pleasure in retirement? "I spent my entire adult life being told where to go and when--something most adults don't even think of. The freedom now is just wonderful."

Allan Ulrich is senior editor of DANCE MAGAZINE and is based in Oakland, California.