The SMUIN Ballet is a San Francisco must-see, not just for its innovative take on ballet, but for exquisite dancer Susan Roemer. The SMUIN Ballet has offered an inventive take on traditional ballet for 18 years, combining bold blends of classical ballet with modern and playful twists.

Roemer exemplifies SMUIN’s multidimensional style. The classically trained ballet dancer with a flair for the avant-garde has twirled and whirled since the age of four. Since landing at SMUIN in 2007, she’s captivated audiences in memorable programs that include Ma Cong’s French Twist, Michael Smuin’s St. Louis Woman and Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort. Even with the physical demands of working and traveling throughout the Bay Area, Roemer still finds time to play. The dancing queen seems to do it all—she knits, bakes, paints and choreographs–her latest choreographed piece, Images that Fade, debuted in summer 2011. Roemer gives Haute Living a glimpse inside a normal day.

7 AM

I wake up and I spend some time in the morning chilling out and doing a little research and working on the computer.

9:30 AM

We start class, which lasts an hour and fifteen minutes or an hour and a half, and that’s to warm up the body and maintain continual training. We have to maintain fitness within the classical realm.

11 AM-4 PM

We begin five hours of rehearsal. It doesn’t always mean were in every hour of that rehearsal, it might be broken up into two hours of one day and then three hours of some other show that we’re working on.

4 PM

Beyond that, every dancer is different; I like to occasionally cross train at the gym. Aside from that, I like to refuel in other ways. I’m very crafty; I like to do lots of different projects. We do this six days a week.