San Francisco Ballet’s online presence has changed the way they interact with their fans-in a very good way; quite simply, they have one of the absolute best ‘Facebook’ feeds in the biz, not to mention their twitterific ‘Twitter’ presence.

In addition to having special and often amusing contests (I couldn’t help loving their Nutcracker contest, where they posted photos of Mr. Cracker, himself, stealthily heading to a secret location around the War Memorial Opera House to give away free tickets to the first people to meet him there)-and promotions to win tickets and huge discounts for their online fans (specials not promoted on their regular web site), there is an abundance of information relating to the programming and dancers that is sometimes only presented on these feeds-or highlighted in ways that could easily be missed by those only checking their web site. 

A week ago, after expressing the desire on San Francisco Ballet’s facebook wall and my own, to know San Francisco Ballet’s casting for the ‘Olga’ and ‘Lensky’ roles in their upcoming ‘Onegin’ premiere…

*Presto*-wish granted! They posted all the ‘Olga’ and ‘Lensky’ casting my readers were craving, let me know about it, shouted it out on their ‘Facebook’ wall, and all with nary a phone call or email request. 

So, on behalf of my readers and myself, I did the same for the other major male role, ‘Gremin’ (also known as ‘Prince Gremin’ in other productions) a few days ago and, seriously peeps, their response was almost immediate.  

*POOF!*

The Onegin ‘Gremin’ casting is now here on Odette’s Ordeal (and SFB was much quicker to respond to my request than I was to post it today), direct from SFB’s casting page here. (There is a reason I direct you to casting info on my own site; SFB’s casting page must change with each program-a reason to keep their link very handy-but many of Odette’s readers like a page they can always come back to, to see who danced what in a particular program.)

Our ‘Gremins’ (alphabetically): Tiit Helimets, Pascal Molat, Damian Smith, and Quinn Wharton.

Kudos to SFB for their fearless and worthy adaptation to the social network scene! 

Oh…one more thing. Odette’s readers may not be aware of Odette’s own awesome ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ presence. To get the absolute latest SFB, SFB Dancer, and other dance news (even more current than this web site), please ‘like’ and subscribe to Odette’s Ordeal on ‘Facebook’ here; ‘follow’ and subscribe to her ‘Twitter’ feed here.

Those of you already on these social network sites *get* why I can post more news the moment it happens in those forums. To my other wonderful and loyal readers not in the social network scene, let me explain why you mustn’t feel ignored:

Building and maintaining a web site is labor intensive, especially for someone who has never done it before…and who also has a full-time job (sadly, this isn’t it!) that involves a commute across our lovely Golden Gate Bridge (into Marin, rather then the other way around) twice a day to make my work day 12+ hrs. long (from getting out of bed to arriving home on a normal-non SFB performance!-day). Posting on one’s web site isn’t such that one can go to a blank page and just start typing (like writing an email). There is ‘formatting’ and uploading of photos and videos to a ‘media library’ (no, not just a simple ‘cut & paste’), which then need to be captioned and told in what order and where to present themselves (yes, I am a dominatrix of words and images), ‘tagging’, and even learning-horror of horrors!-‘code’. Many dance writers actually do this as their career and have all day to do these things. (I hate them.) (No, I don’t. Some of them are my best friends.)  

When you consider that Odette’s life is not (yet!) 100% available for dance writing, these time-consumptive things cannot just happen instantaneously. This web site, though it still hasn’t been fully launched yet, is a one-woman show and a total labor of love. When I can find the time and energy to get to it, I do. But when I can’t, I have found that ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ provide me with a forum for almost immediate posting of much news that would take me hours to post here.

In essence, I am not choosing the social networks over sharing all the great news on my own web site; it’s just that I can post important updates in 30 seconds on them (!)…

…and all from my iphone while on a work break, or from my couch without needing to turn on my pc, after a long work day. Even with photos and links, the social networks are easy and quick, compared to the time it takes to post here on my web site.

Odette isn’t abandoning you-her faithful web site readers; she does have some great things coming, including those interviews and photo shoots she’s been trying to find time to edit and complete for so long.

For now, if you’re a real SFBalletomane (as opposed to a pretend one-ha!), or a big dance fan in general, that can’t wait till I catch up here on my web site, I invite you to become a ‘fan’ of my up-to-the-minute Odette’s Ordeal ‘Facebook’ feed here and SFB’s fabulous ‘Facebook’ feed here. If you’re rather fond of ‘Tweeting’, ‘follow’ Odette on Twitter here and SFB’s Twitter feed here.

Need more incentive?:

Right now, when Odette doesn’t have time before tonight’s San Francisco Ballet premiere of John Cranko’s Onegin, you can find a KDFC interview with Courtney Elizabeth about her role as ‘Olga’, a 30% discount for Onegin tickets, an interview by my friend, Mary Ellen Hunt, with Sarah Van Patten, cast as ‘Tatiana’, for ‘Pointe Magazine’, a video clip of Ruben Martin talking about his role as ‘Onegin’, and several other goodies on Odette’s Ordeal on Facebook. Oh yes, I will eventually post them here. But my whole weekend (tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday) is reserved for observing 3 different casts of Onegin.  

Another noteworthy bit of SFB news:

At 7pm tonight, the ‘Meet the Artists’ interview is with Sarah Van Patten and Pierre Francois-Vilanoba, the Tatiana & Onegin of Sunday 1/29/12 and Thursday 2/2/12.

(And yes, ‘Gala Tales’ is also coming soon-but, in the meantime, you can see the entire performance photo album on Odette’s Facebook page here!)

Merde to Masha, Vitor, Gennadi, Clara, Pascal, Martin (West), and the entire Company and SFB Orchestra for tonight’s performance! Toi, toi, toi everybody!!!

“See You at the Ballet!”

Odette