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Decision making is so important to be able to put your ego aside and in a way to reshape your dreams as you go, and to be willing to listen to people that are trying to look out for you.
From Futuro Media and BrX, It's Latino USA. I'm Maria Rosa. Today a conversation between Isak and Istevan Ernandez, the first siblings to become principal dancers for the San Francisco Ballet. Brothers Isac and Estevan Ernandez have performed on some of the most prestigious stages in the world, but their journey to the top rank of their industry had a pretty unique start. Originally from Guadalajara in western Mexico, Isaq and Estevan's first ballet teacher was their dad, Ector, and their
first ballet studio was their own backyard. Ecto had a fourteen year career as a professional ballet dancer in Mexico and in the US, so he taught his eleventh children in his own makeshift studio, but it was his son Isak who was the first one to really fall in love with the art of ballet.
He was really exciting when we would do something new. I remember the first time I did a triple tour, my dad came out running to look for my mom so that she could see it happen.
Isak's younger brother is Stevan, soon shared in that passion.
I would watch my siblings and my dad in our backyard doing classes, and then through that I think something sparked in me that made me want to also learn.
Both brothers would go on to develop successful careers on stage, even surpassing their mentor Stevan continued his education at the Royal Ballet School in London. In twenty thirteen, he joined the San Francisco Ballet, which is the oldest professional ballet company in the US, and in twenty nineteen he was promoted to principal dancer in the company. Isak continued his training at the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia.
He's danced for the American Ballet Theater in New York City, the San Francisco Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, and the English National Ballet in London. In twenty twenty two, Isak returned to the San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer, where he joined Estevan, marking the first time in the San Francisco Ballet's ninety year history that siblings reached the rank of principal dancer.
I admire how good my brother became so quickly. I had the luck also to have him around seeing me perform in different places, and then it made me want to do.
It better as well.
Today, thirty three year old Isak twenty nine year old is Steban sit down for a conversation at the San Francisco ballet in the city's bustling Civic Center neighborhood. They reflect on learning ballet from their father, the decisions young dancers face, and their work expanding access to ballet in their native Mexico. Here's izach Ernandez starting the conversation with his brother is Steban.
My parents got the house when it was not finished yet. They set up in the garden this like circus tent, and then it had a backyard that was covered with wires to hang clothes, and then it had a slight slow towards draining for the water, and my dad set up a bar there. And then on the other side they had sliding doors that would go into the dining.
Room, and we used to close those curtains to.
Use the windows mirrors as the reflect and then we would move out all the loading out to the side, and we would bring blightwood together tape it in the middle, and we would do class there every day, and sometimes when it was too hot, we could go on the roof and hang some plastic bear or if it was raining, we would go inside to the living room and do class there. And when my father's former students from like twenty years before that heard that he was training us
in ballet. They decided to put together some money and my dad to be able to redo the ballet studio. I mean, I definitely think having a more suitable space for dance rather than our patio where we hang the laundry really didn't make a difference. You're obviously older.
Than I am.
Obviously Obviously, Whenever you first started, I think I was around four years old maybe, and so when I was around seven, I asked my dad to teach me as well. I feel like by that point it had been what three years of you studying under him, and I feel like most of my other siblings had been like, it's not for me. Yeah, So it was really helpful when you came and joined us. He kind of gave us
continuity to the classes. But at the same time, I know that it was hard, obviously because we were at a place already after three years, and you were having to catch up, And it was amazing also to see how quickly you caught up. You know, at that point, we had barely any access to any sort of videos or any sort of context. Yeah, I remember that because the first time we got a VHS of a professional ballet company was abt Let, and also that other documentary they made, Born to Be Wild.
Yeah, that's right. That was really funny.
That was mind blowing because up until then it was my dad just describing steps and then trying to make it happen. Yeah, making it up as he went, using my dad's stories and his ideas of how ballet should be.
My dad sometimes would start class and then after two combinations would give you a philosophical conversation that would take about an hour about how you needed to be responsible for your actions, or how the world was not the place that he thought it would be, or it could be anything really about politics or for morals, or so many things. So it was really interesting period because I had the chance to spend a lot of time with him and to get to know a little bit more
of his past and his life in New York. He lived for fourteen years in New York when he was working for Dancity of Harlem, and then he had a really rough life in general. I got to really learn about resilience a sense from his stories, and how dance could also be so fulfilling to someone that they would be willing to leave everything behind. I think my dad was a very demanding teacher because he knew what he was talking about, and he knew that, but actually he
said it from the beginning. He said, if you want to be a valid dancer, you have to be one of the best. If not, you're going to really struggle, and you're going to have a really hard time. And it's a very competitive feel and the life of an average dancer can be quite tough. So he said, if you really want to do this, you really need to be good, and we really need to take this seriously. When we decided with my parents that it was time to go and study abroad, I took it quite lightly.
I thought I'll be back in a few weeks or months.
It didn't really.
Feel like that decision would mean that I would never again live with my parents or under my parents in a sense, because from then on I was making all my decisions professionally and personally, and I was all of the side and exposed to the United States of America. Teenage years in Philadelphia. Yeah, I definitely think that people don't always tend to consider the amount of a big decision making that dance can often require of the people
that pursue it, especially the people that pursue professionally. You left home when you were what thirteen? I left home when I was thirteen as well, And yeah, again, I think at the time, like you say, it seems like something that is trivial. It's not really going to affect the rest of your life in the way that it has. I also didn't think much about it. When I first got that chance to go study and live abroad. I was really excited about it. I was so yes, let's
do it. It was what I wanted to do. But then, yeah, I think when you look back at it, you definitely realize that it was a much bigger decision than you thought. I remember before accepting my scholarship to London, to the Royal Balley School, I didn't even think about it. I was just like, yes, that's what I'm going to do. I want to see it through. But I remember having that conversation with my mom, her being kind of torn about it, and she was like, are you really going
to go? Is this something that you really want to do? She was like, you've already moved to Philadelphia. Now you're going to move to a different part of the world where we're going to be truly responsible for yourself at age sixteen, you know, even though it's basically a boarding school and you're responsible for yourself in every way. One of the first things that I experienced there, and it was kind of like a big reality check, was first
night at the dorms. You know, there's a big communal kitchen, and I arrived a week late, so everybody was already established and I was like, okay, so what time is dinner someone coming? And are they going to make dinner everybody? Or how does this work? I don't know, And so everybody just cut their food from their lockers, made food, and I was like, oh, I guess I'm supposed to
do that too, So exactly went grocery shopping. It's like, okay, I think pasta seems easy enough that at the time, I was sorry, water first, water and pasta first together. I cooked that pasta for maybe thirty minutes, and it was still hard.
It's a reality check. Yeah, it's hard to take on that.
And then you are growing as a person and learning survival skills at the same time that you have to be fully committed to the valid and it's a really demanding schedule and you are constantly exhausted. I remember that something similar happened to me here in San Francisco, but for me was the amount of workload that I had my first season. I couldn't even make it back to my apartment.
I had to take minute breaks to sit down.
I was living in Russian Hill here, and then I would get home, and you're to do You're too tired to cook, You're too tired to do anything, and you have to kind of find a structure and a routine that allows you to continue to perform your best year. And I think people don't usually see that side of yeah, or don't consider that side of life when you're making decisions.
You just want to be a start, yeah.
And also the fact that these decisions are being made by people that are developing as human beings, you know, like seventeen eighteen.
Year old kids.
Literally that often they're not thought of as kids because they're maybe brilliant on stage. Decision making is so important to be able to put your ego aside and in a way to reshape your dreams as you go, and to be willing to listen to people that are trying to look out for you. Yeah. But I also have to say I think one thing that I feel like always made a difference was also the support around you
for the decisions that you make. I remember actually wanting to leave school a year early before finishing my three years of school over there in London. I remember when I started my second year, was like, let's say I'm ready to be a professional. I actually went to Russia at seventeen years old. I went to Saint Petersburg to audition for the Marine Ski and for the Mikailovski Theater.
Ended up a whole week of not knowing what was going on because I didn't speak the language and nobody spoke English to me, and taking classes with the school and taking classes with the company, and everybody referring to me as a kid, being like what is this kid doing here? And the one conversation that I had in English throughout my entire trip was with the director of the Marine Ski, Judifateev, and he said, Okay, so I've been hearing throughout the week that there's this Mexican kid
that is one thing to audition for us. And he was like, Russia does not feel like it's a place for you. You have to understand that I would offer you a job, but I don't want to limit you to doing only certain roles or certain things. I'm five seven, I'm not particularly considered tall in the ballet world, or I think tall in.
Under any circumstances.
But in Russia, you know, he said, all of the ballerinas are very tall. He was like, I could hire you right now, but he was like, I'm going to have to limit you to certain roles, soloist roles where yes, you're going to get to dance, but you're never going to get to fully develop your abilities to do the things that you should get to do. So he said, find a place that is going to appreciate you for who you are and what you can bring to the company,
and dance everything. He said, dance everything that's as much as you can, which I really appreciated it because I was like, ah, yeah, maybe I am being impatient also about what it is that I need to do right now. I think I need to see through my education and finish my training as a dancer. I remember arriving in many places and so of being like, you're here from Mexico, but are you?
Are you sure you don't really look Mexican?
Excuse me, how am I supposed to look like, and so it was definitely uncomfortable sometimes having to be the only one, often also feeling responsible for representing a whole country in a professional ballet school. But it was also good whenever you were able to find people from similar backgrounds other Spanish speaking countries. I had classmates from Colombia from Spain, and even just being able to speak the same language in a country that often wouldn't feel super
welcoming was really refreshing. And also feeling like that you were not the only one that had gone through the challenges to get to these places was comforting and supported the idea you've been talking about that even though there might not always be the opportunities so obviously present for people that were, there's a will there. There often is a way to make it happen. I took it in
a more aggressive way in a sense. I was really happy to be the first one there, and I was really happy when people wouldn't believe me that I was Mexican, and I was like, yeah, and I trained in my backyard yeah as well. And I really enjoyed that, especially when I went to Paris, for example, that it's this huge amazing school, and there is a code of conduct
that is really strict, and everybody has these uniforms. And I realized earlier on that all of that was protocol, that it didn't influence you being a better dancer or not. So I really understood that it was not about being at a place like that, but it was down to individual work, work that you would put in every day. And actually, I am not officially valid graduated from any organization. That didn't prevent me from having a great career and
dancing for the best theaters around the world. And like my brother was saying, you start meeting people that share some of the stories or challenges that you've faced, and you really learned to appreciate companionship. And that's really important in the valid world, because I feel like Hollywood has really damaged a reputation in that sense and how awful valid dancers are to each other, and that hasn't been my experience, and true excellence really has to be accomplished together.
Like I am a really good dancer because I had really good colleagues and because we all wanted to be really good and we would learn from each other, and one day somebody would come up with a new step and we would be like, Oh, I'm going to come up with my new step, or I'm going to do your step and.
I'm going to add my step.
And that really is what makes a brilliant dancer, the ability to share, to see, to copy, to be inspired by. And then at the end, I've loved to see how my generation has gone into having careers and doing all of this, and then you realize that it is them that will be running the organizations by the time you retire, that they'll be teaching the new generations of dancers.
So I really am.
Hopeful that the future of dance it's being shaped by people that are passionate about it.
That like the art.
Form in Mexico, and there is a lot of people that believe if you're an artist, you're going to starve, that if you're an artist, you are wasting your life, your time, etc. Yeah, it's like that's great as a hobby, but what are you going to really do. We wanted to create and portray an idea that the arts are important, and they are important too for social mobility. We were
able to create a platform that creates those opportunities. My dad and my mom started this project in Mexico of free balot schools around our state and they have seven locations and they have three hundred kids studying balid for free. So we made a deal with English National Ballet School to come to Mexico to audition for free. For the first time ever, we had over five hundred people apply for the audition. They had the intention of giving five
scholarships and they gave out about nineteen scholarships. We also focused on skill development. We wanted people to learn how to make costumes and to tos and make a living out of it, and to learn about stage management and even with the motion captioning and stop motion workshops all around creative industries and so we've had thousands of people participating that. And what I loved about that it was that all of it was free of charge. I do
think that, like they say, it takes a village. Yes, we have worked very hard and developed ourselves as dancers and artists, and we have also developed our technique with the help of our colleagues or teachers, but also our parents, are friends, the people that have supported the decisions that you've made, or maybe also the ones that have said actually, I think that was not right and.
Maybe you should try something else.
All of those things have helped shape who we are and that eventually gets put out on stage and you see it. It's a recollection of everyone that has been a part of our lives that eventually people get to see on stage. And I think that's what makes an artist. Essentially, like you were saying, you are trying to build yourself as a person, as an artist, and you need experience
for all that happened. And it's quite a visual art form, and it's about creating feeling, and it's about exposing yourself, about being able to be at a place that sounds a little bit weird, but that very few people can achieve because it requires an understanding of space, a rhythm, coordination, strength, but also it requires you to expose yourself to another person to be able to create something on that moment that exists only for a few seconds for the audience
to experience in the most personal way.
And now when I come back.
To San Francisco, can I get to see achieve those moments on a stage that go beyond technique and the practicalities of dance and create this amazing experience.
I realize that we are incredibly.
Lucky to have shared this profession so closely and learned from each other and also live through it.
It's quite quite remarkable.
That was Isac and Estevan Ernandez the first siblings to hold the top rank of principal dancers at the San Francisco Ballet. This episode was produced by Elizabeth loandl Torres and edited by Andrea Lopez Gruzado. It was mixed by gabriel Le Biez special thanks to Tamilo Garson. The Latino USA team also includes Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Daisy Contreres, Victoria Strada, Renaldo Leanos Junior, and Patris s Lubran, with help from Grii mar Marquez. Our editorial director is Fernanda Santos.
Our director of engineering is Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our associate engineer is jj Carubin. Our marketing manager is Luis Lunap. Our theme music was composed by Sean Ruinos. I'm your host and executive producer Maria no Josa. Join us again on our next episode and in the meantime, find us on social media and remember yes Este La Proxima.
Chao Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment, building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians, The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Heising Simons Foundation unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. More at hsfoundation dot org.
This is the way, and I will live my dream and this is the way.