San Francisco Ballet Principal Sasha De Sola Shares Her Dance Bag Essentials

Among the pointe shoes and fitness tools, San Francisco Ballet principal Sasha De Sola’s dance bag is home to mementos from past travels. While on tour to Washington, DC, during her first year with the company, a fellow SFB dancer bought De Sola a patch from Florida, her home state. “I’ve been carrying it in my bag for 10 years. It has good memories and a little home-state pride,” says De Sola. Her travel mug comes from a trip she took to Walt Disney World with friends after the season ended one year. “It brings me a little bit of happiness,” she says.

In addition to these keepsakes, the contents of De Sola’s dance bag are a testament to her preparedness. She’s never without extra bobby pins, making her the company’s go-to girl. And she keeps a container filled with rosin in her bag. “It’s my emergency rosin,” she says. De Sola’s spacious black bag was a gift from Repetto when she switched to their pointe shoes about a year ago. “It’s mesh, so it has a lot of airflow, which is great when I have a lot of shoes in there.”

Photo by Quinn Wharton for Pointe.

The Goods

From top left corner: Disney travel mug; PerfectFit Pointe Shoe Inserts (“They mold to your foot and fill all the negative space in your shoes. I really love them!”); exercise band; custom Repetto pointe shoes (“I usually carry four to five pairs with me”); yellow ball; Degas-print pouch (“It’s been my sewing kit since I started sewing my own shoes as a teenager”); Florida patch; Arnicare gel; bobby-pin bag; Siddhartha’s Brain, by James Kingsland (“I just got this from the library. It’s about mindfulness and meditation”); pointe shoe glue; Emergen-C raspberry-flavored supplement (“I take one every day without water, like Fun Dip”); Repetto booties; blue lacrosse ball; Ibuprofen.