Misa Kuranaga and Sasha Mukhamedov Are Joining San Francisco Ballet

June 17, 2019

San Francisco Ballet just announced some major news: longtime Boston Ballet star Misa Kuranaga will be joining the company as a principal dancer for the 2019-20 season, while Dutch National Ballet principal Sasha Mukhamedov has been hired as a soloist. They join a slew of newly promoted SFB principals and soloists, announced earlier this year.

Kuranaga and Angelo Greco in Helgi Tomasson’s Soirées Musicales, part of SFB’s opening night gala in January.

Erik Tomasson, Courtesy SFB.

Kuranaga’s appointment marks a full-circle moment. Originally from Japan, she danced with SFB for one year as an apprentice in 2001. When she wasn’t taken into the company, she spent a year refining her technique at the School of American Ballet before joining Boston Ballet’s corps in 2003. Since then, she’s quickly risen through the ranks, becoming one of the company’s biggest draws. Earlier this year she returned to SFB to perform as a guest artist in the company’s opening night gala.

Mukhamedov in Balanchine’s Apollo.

Altin Kaftira, Courtesy Dutch National Ballet.

Mukhamedov, on the other hand, has spent her entire career at Dutch National Ballet, joining as an aspirant in 2008 and rising to principal dancer by 2017. The daughter of legendary Bolshoi and Royal Ballet star Irek Mukhamedov, she trained at the Royal Ballet School as well as privately with her mother, former Bolshoi soloist Masha Mukhamedov. In 2017 she talked candidly with Pointe about living up to her famous parents’ reputations: “There are times when people recognize my name, and it’s instant pressure.”

SFB also announced that former Polish National Ballet demi-soloist Bianca Teixeira will be joining the company’s corps de ballet. Meanwhile, SFB apprentices Leili Rackow, Estéban Cuadrado, Max Föllmer, Joshua Jack Price, and Jacob Seltzer have been promoted to the corps, joining Jasmine Jimison, who was promoted in March. And finally, trainees SunMin Lee, Tyla Steinbach, Rubén Cítores, Lleyton Ho and Adrien Zeisel have been named apprentices.