A Community That Supports Each Other

As we continue our series of sharing stories from BBT’s community, we interview Yuki Yamanishi, a former Board member and Adult Open Division dancer. She was interviewed earlier this fall by BBT Operations Manager Courtney King.

It was 1997 when I first joined the BBT community, and I joined as an adult student. I really didn’t know too much about Berkeley Ballet Theater, but I had heard from a friend that there was a really good ballet school in Berkeley and I should check it out. I had studied as a child and I was looking for some form of exercise and getting back into shape after having my first child. At the time I was almost 36 years old and I hadn’t done any ballet for 17 years.

A year later I first went to see BBT’s Nutcracker. It was a really sweet story at the Julia Morgan Theater and it was a really nice production. A few years later I started to become a regular student of Ms. Sally on the weekends. That’s when I started to see all of the upper-level dancers take the weekend class. It was so interesting to see the dancers be a part of the production as they get older and mature. It was really fun to see their improvements each year.

When my son was in first grade, I took 24 of his classmates as a birthday party to the Nutcracker, because my son’s birthday is in the middle of November. We booked the side seating so that we had an exit plan. Because I didn’t know how the little kids would do. But they did really well. It is a child-friendly production and it was really fun for them to see, and I wanted to expose them to classical ballet. A lot of times kids don’t have the opportunity to see these things until much much later.

Nutcracker is a huge amount of work, from all the parents volunteering backstage and handling the concession stands, and all of the costumes, and all the tech work. It really takes a village to do this. I really found that the community was full of really good people who were working hard. It was such a nice experience to see it all come together.

I asked my son three times if he wanted to do ballet, and he said no three times so I didn’t ask again. So unfortunately he didn’t pursue ballet, but I made sure he would go to the theater to see ballet. I think doing that at an early age is really important so it’s not a strange thing. It’s a really good education I think.

The whole Elmwood community would come out and watch the Nutcracker. I have really good memories from it.

And then we moved to the new theater, and I was so happy to see it come together because I was part of moving the school to the new place. We were able to move everything to the big theater and have it continue. I wasn’t sure how that was going to turn out, but we were able to do that which was fantastic.

Later on, they asked me to join the Board of Directors, and that is when I really found out what goes on behind the scenes. I was on the Board for about 13 years and then I retired. I did it for a long time. Half of the Board were parents of dancers, but since I was an adult student, I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet the parents, many of whom were of the same generation as me. And, many of us had mutual friends because the Berkeley community is quite small.

I had a really big job for BBT’s 30th Anniversary celebration. My job was the silent auction, and I was able to pull it together, but it was crazy! It was hosted at the Berkeley City Club. When you think about it now, I don’t know how we actually did it, but now I look back and think “wow we did that!”. It’s so rewarding. I think it’s the same thing with the Nutcracker production. You start preparing in October and it’s so much work, but when it comes together it is just a magical moment and you feel so rewarded. And I think the whole community feels the same way.

BBT to me was more than a ballet school. It was kind of my therapy and within the community, I had people I needed. During these years at BBT, my son was diagnosed with a serious illness. For an hour and a half, I didn’t have to worry about what was going on with my son. Being able to not worry made it possible for me to go on again. Ms. Sally’s brother had the same illness, so she knew what I had to go through, and she was always supportive. Every time it’s plié time, she would come around and ask how I was doing. And when my mom died, having ballet really helped me.

It’s more than a ballet class. It’s a community that supports each other and in a place that when you go back, it doesn’t change. So, when something is happening to you, it makes you very grounded and gives you the strength to face the next day.