Local Costume Designer Grabs Royal Ballet Spotlight
Jenna Anderson has always dreamed of working with the Royal Ballet in London, and next month her dreams will come true.
The San Leandro native will be flying to London March 15 to design a costume for Royal Ballet principal dancer Yasmine Naghdi, who has drawn critical acclaim for dancing the title role in “Giselle” and Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet,” just before the pandemic hit.
Castro Valley-based photographer Brian Bassard plans to make a documentary film about the project.
“I am beside myself with excitement for the opportunity! It will be the tutu that she wears for her freelancing gigs worldwide,” said Anderson. She explained that dancers earn much of their income as freelance performers elsewhere, even if they have a home company.
But Anderson will have to get back to the US six weeks later — to graduate from college. She will receive a degree in costume technology and construction in May from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) in Winston-Salem.
Right after that, she plans to start a clothing company in Winston-Salem, specializing in button-down shirts. She already owns her own design firm, Jenna Sais Quoi Design.
“It’s wild to think all my childhood dreams are coming true, and it started in San Leandro,” Anderson said. Her parents still live here, just outside of downtown.
She was home-schooled, along with three siblings, all the way through high school, but she credits a big part of what she learned to the San Leandro Public Library.
“San Leandro Public Library was a big thing for us. We were there all the time. I checked out every ballet or dance book several times,” she said.
She studied at the Ballet Petit dance school in Hayward as a child, but she knew she didn’t have the incredible passion for dance itself that becoming a professional dancer entailed.
But she did have that passion for fashion and for costume design.
“I’ve always been obsessed with tutus,” she said.
After high school, she didn’t head straight for college. Instead, she traveled the US learning about dance costuming. She interned with a costume designer in Palo Alto and another in Chicago.
“It really helped me learn this field,” she said.
She felt ready to go to England in 2017 to formally study in her field, but Brexit intervened. Great Britain’s voting to leave the European Union caused colleges there not to accept foreign students for a time — even those who weren’t coming from Europe.
She diverted to UNCSA, rated one of the best schools for costume design in the U.S. But she kept up with the dance world, especially the Royal Ballet and Naghdi, who happens to be the same age as Jenna.
Anderson describes herself as the queen of cold calling, but she never thought major stars ever responded themselves to messages from even the most serious of their fans.
She wrote Naghdi on Instagram, offering to design her a costume and saying that she could probably get an arts grant for the cost. UNCSA offers Semans Art Fund Grants for student projects that benefit the school or community, and Winston-Salem boasts the oldest municipal arts council in the United States.
She was shocked to get a positive reply 20 minutes later.
“As far as I am aware, this is the first time ever that an American has collaborated with a dancer from the Royal Ballet on an independent project. So, it’s pretty exciting stuff!” she said.
The Semans Grant came through, covering some of her expenses, and the arts council agreed to serve as her fiscal agent, so people could make tax-deductible donations. The address, for those wanting to support her endeavors, is Arts Council of Winston-Salem, 251 N. Spruce St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101.
Anderson will be posting a blog of her London work on her website, jsqdesigns.com. You can read about Yasmine Naghdi’s work with the Royal Ballet at https://www.roh.org.uk/people/yasmine-naghdi.