California Literary Review

Toba Singer

Toba Singer, author of "First Position: a Century of Ballet Artists" (Praeger 2007), was Senior Program Director of the Art and Music Center of the San Francisco Public Library and its dance selector until her retirement in 2010. Raised in The Bronx, she graduated from New York City's School of Performing Arts with a major in Drama, the University of Massachusetts with a BA in History; and the University of Maryland with an MLS. Since high school, Singer has been actively engaged in a broad range of pro-labor, social, and political campaigns. She has lived, worked, organized and written in Baltimore, Boston, The Bronx, Cambridge, Charleston, West Virginia, Jersey City, Richmond, Virginia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., working in steel mills, chemical refineries, garment shops and as an airlines worker; also editing, teaching and as an office worker. Singer has contributed articles to the "Charleston Gazette," "San Francisco Chronicle," "Dance Magazine," "Dance Europe," "City Paper," "Provincetown Advocate," "Voice of Dance," CriticalDance.com, "InDance," and "Dance Source Houston." Singer returned to the studio to study ballet after a 25-year absence, and in 2001, was invited to become a founding member of the board of Robert Moses' KIN dance company. Singer studied ballet with Svetlana Afanasieva, Nina Anderson, Perry Brunson, Richard Gibson, Zory Karah, Celine Keller, Charles McGraw, Francoise Martinet, Augusta Moore, E. Virginia Williams, and Kahz Zmuda; and Modern Dance with Cora Cahan, Jane Dudley, Nancy Lang, Donald McKayle, Gertrude Shurr, and Zenaide Trigg. Her son James Gotesky dances with Houston Ballet. Singer lives in Oakland, California, with her husband Jim Gotesky.

Stories By Toba Singer

Blog-Dance

Smuin Ballet and Diablo Ballet: Two Praiseworthy Bay Area Dance Companies

By Toba SingerMay 11, 2022

There are a few privileges that come with the role of dance critic. One that is...
Blog-Dance

Dance to the Music: National Youth Orchestras of Chile

By Toba SingerApril 29, 2022

My father, Hugo Domínguez, had been Hen’s assistant, and one day they were walking in a...
Blog-Dance

Claiming Cranko’s Shrewd Choreography: An Interview with Andreza Randisek and Rodrigo Guzmán

By Toba SingerApril 29, 2022

This ballet is so hard! It will never go perfectly no matter how much you rehearse....
Blog-Theater

Ben Vereen Opens Up About Fame, Addiction and Love

By Toba SingerApril 25, 2022

I love my public, and if I’m walking down the street and someone wants to take...
Blog-Dance

Bay Area Dancers Perform in a Benefit for Cancer Prevention

By Toba SingerApril 24, 2022

On Wednesday, June 6, thirty-three dancers from or associated with twelve San Francisco Bay Area dance...
Blog-Dance

Wepa! It’s Aqua Zumba!

By Toba SingerApril 22, 2022

“The way I see it,” says Solano, “is that the endorphins kick in and make you...
Blog-Dance

Dance USA’s 30th Anniversary Conference

By Toba SingerApril 15, 2022

After having been dragged into an undertow where only conference-ese is spoken, two performance programs featuring...
Blog-Dance

Body In-Sight: Action Drawings from the Dance Studio at the Museum of Performance and Design, San Francisco

By Toba SingerApril 9, 2022

Aided by mirrors installed in their jewel box set, the gallery audience watched as they performed...
Blog-Dance

Post:Ballet — Dreams, Seams, and Salience

By Toba SingerApril 7, 2022

What does Post:Ballet mean in terms of classical ballet? Is it a rejection of the classical...
Dance

Spines, Wines and Dragonflies: Groovin’ in Stern Grove with the San Francisco Ballet

By Toba SingerApril 5, 2022

For me, Frances Chung and Daniel Deivison, as the couple in orange, delivered the most virtuosic...