Best ballerina on fire

Classic: Getting in shape after giving birth was a snap for San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Kristin Long. She just jumped right back into rehearsals. “The dressing room becomes like a home,” says Long, who can handle demanding roles “that don’t stop”—like the tavern keeper’s daughter Kitri in Don Quixote. “At one time, I thought about moving to another company. After I had my son, Kai, I realized I had something special here,” she says, noting that the company and some of the ushers (who save a seat for Kai at shows) are like family to her. She teaches the younger dancers that performing when exhausted requires exerting mind over matter and that you have to learn to adopt new personas seamlessly. “One minute you’re walking pigeon-toe like a cowboy, and the next you’re trying to be a beautiful swan,” she says. “After 17 years of that, you turn into a dancer who can adapt from one style to the other.” Breaking the string bean–thin ballerina stereotype, the able-bodied and muscular Long brings elegance and spotless technique and moves to her performance with a good-tempered determination that demands the audience’s attention.

Future classic: Bangkok-born Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun—Ommi for short—is best known for making the leap from student to soloist at age 18. Once you see her long, fluid lines and breathtakingly high extension, you’ll search for her on the casting list before buying tickets. While Ommi was training at London’s Royal Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet artistic director Helgi Tomasson spotted her at a student performance and whisked her away with a soloist contract. But being groomed for stardom hasn’t been easy for Ommi, who notes that she isn’t as strong as her colleagues. One day after performing in Sleeping Beauty she was rehearsing for another performance. “My thigh was trashed,” she says. “I was exhausted, but I kept pushing and pushing—and boom.” She tore a major ligament in her knee, sidelining herself until the 2008 season. Still, injuries are all in a day’s work for a ballerina, just another challenge—albeit a big one—for this blossoming star.