On the Road With San Francisco Ballet: The American Tour Blog
Alexandra McCullagh Dishes on Touring and the Best Pizza in the Windy City
By
Alexandra McCullagh
Alexandra McCullagh (far right) and the San Francisco Ballet in Helgi Tomasson’s On a Theme of Paganini. Photo by Erik Tomasson.
I just returned home after my first experience going on tour. San Francisco Ballet spent a week performing at the Harris Theater in Chicago. I arrived back at my apartment in San Francisco at about one o’clock this morning, after having performed just twelve hours earlier!
As I packed my bags for the trip and headed off to the airport at the beginning of the week, I was filled with nerves and excitement. I didn’t quite know what to expect. How would it be to stay in a hotel and basically live with everyone that I work with? What would it be like trying to find my way around a new city? Would I get lost trying to find the theatre? When I arrived at the airport, I could tell that, despite the fact that most of the company had been touring for years, everyone else was filled with a sort of buzzing energy as well. The flight went smoothly and we all landed in Chicago early that evening.
The next morning my roommate and I found our way to the new Joffrey Studios, where our optional class would be held. Excited about the week ahead, we both woke up way too early and arrived at the studios more than two hours before class was to begin! We had to kill some time by wandering around the neighborhood because the building wasn’t ready for us yet.
We spent the rest of our one-and-only free day exploring the Art Institute of Chicago. After about three hours of walking around inside, I realized that it was time to go back to the hotel and rest. If I was going to make it through a week of performing and rehearsing every day, I was going to have to pace myself. I learned early on in the week that going on tour can create a frustrating dilemma between wanting to experience a city, while making sure that you are resting enough and taking care of yourself, so that you will be at your best for the performances. There were so many things that I wanted to go to and do!
The next day we had class in the Joffrey studios again before we walked over to the Harris Theater. I knew that it would be different being in another theater, but I was not expecting it to be such a maze! We entered through the parking garage, took one elevator to level 2.5 (I’m not kidding, it was actually called 2.5), then we had to get out and walk up a flight of stairs, take another elevator… I think it took me about three days to finally figure out my way around. What makes it so complicated is that the theatre is underground. The stage is well below the street, and then the top of the audience is actually at street level!
Alexandra McCullagh in rehearsal.
That first day in the theatre, I performed a ballet that I had never performed before, Helgi Tomasson’s The Fifth Season. I was put into the first cast, with seven other corps members who had already performed the ballet multiple times. It is a different feeling to be the only new dancer in a ballet. First off, there are much fewer rehearsals when everyone else is so familiar with the ballet, and second it is a different kind of energy backstage. I found that I was the only one that was nervous, the only one going over the choreography behind the curtain, but I was excited and fulfilled after we performed it. The show went well. I was a little bit shaky from nerves, but I was happy that every show was increasingly better as I became more comfortable in the ballet and in this new theater.
I performed every night, except the night of our gala. I was expecting to go explore the city that evening and really make a night of it, but I was so exhausted that all I could do was pick up some dinner and watch a movie with my roommate in our hotel room! After all of our ideas about how we could spend that night—go to a jazz club or a comedy club, have drinks at the top of Hancock tower—there was nothing we wanted more than to stay in and have an early night. I even took a bubble bath in our hotel room. We woke up feeling nice and rested.
That’s not to say that we didn’t find some time to have fun during our trip. We did make it to the top of Hancock tower one night after the show. We found fun restaurants and wandered through the famous shopping districts. We made it our mission to go to the best “deep-dish” pizza place and experience true Chicago pizza before we left. So our last night there I was at Gino’s East with four other dancers sharing the best pizza I have ever had in this funky old building with writing all over the walls and furniture. Not to be left out of the fun, we all signed our names to the booths as well!
By Sunday morning it was time to pack up our things and check out of the hotel, before heading to the theatre for our last show. That day I was performing the other ballet that I was dancing in on tour, On a Theme of Paganini. I woke up tired, my body hurting from the stress of the week, and ready to wake up in my own bed the following morning. When I arrived at the theater I realized that I was not alone in my sentiments. Helgi taught company class on stage, then we all went to our dressing rooms and got ready for the matinee performance. At five-thirty, two buses arrived and the company piled in and headed off the airport to go home.
I had a great first tour experience! My only complaint is that I didn’t have more of a chance to experience Chicago. Now the company is home for two weeks before we head off to New York! After New York, we will also have tours in Washington DC and Orange County this fall.
Read more tour diaries in San Francisco Ballet’s blog, Open Studio 455.
San Francisco Ballet at 75: The American Tour runs through November 30. The tour’s next engagement is at New York City Center in NYC, Oct. 10-18. Click here for more details. Tickets: 212.581.1212 or www.nycitycenter.org.
