Youngest of Krukow clan a big-time ballet talent Youngest child of Giants broadcaster is forging his own athletic journey

Recommended Video:

Watch a performance of San Francisco's Smuin Ballet and try to pick out the Puppy.

Look for one of the eight male dancers who is maybe a bit too eager, a little ungainly, not polished, nervous.

Can't find him? Smuin's dancers show their personalities onstage, expressive actors within the tight choreography, so a lack of confidence, however slight, would show. So where's the Puppy?

Maybe Wes Krukow has outgrown his company nickname. He's a rookie in ballet's major leagues, but the kid can dance. Ballet, jazz, tap, Broadway - bring it on. He's still the wide-eyed newbie with the famed San Francisco company, but Krukow has been honing his craft and entertaining audiences for two decades.

"Starting when he was 4 years old, every night there'd be a show," says Mike Krukow, Wes' dad. "We had a sunken living room with a couple steps up to a foyer with a wooden floor, and that was kind of like a stage. In his mind, it was a stage."

Wes is still the pup of the Krukow family, with three older brothers (Jarek, Baker and Chase) and an older sister (Tessa). Mike is a former starting pitcher for the Giants and their longtime TV-radio analyst, but now he yields the athletic spotlight to the Puppy.

At 24, two years out of college, Wes Krukow has hit the big time. After an internship with Smuin, Wes was invited to join the company last year, one of two men chosen from several hundred applicants.

Wes Krukow (in black) rehearses with fellow dancers at the Smuin Ballet company's studio in San Francisco. Wes Krukow (in black) rehearses with fellow dancers at the Smuin Ballet company's studio in San Francisco. Photo: Codi Mills, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Codi Mills, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Youngest of Krukow clan a big-time ballet talent 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

'Super charismatic'

This was not a case of giving a break to a local celebrity's kid. With only eight male dancers in the company, there is no place to hide a nervous newcomer, there are no minor break-in roles. Every man dances featured solos and does small-group partnering. Krukow is the only current Smuin dancer with no previous professional experience.

"Wes is super charismatic," says Amy London, Smuin's ballet master. "Some dancers will learn choreography first and add the layers of performances after that. With Wes, everything's a show, you can see that right away. Even as he's learning the choreography, he's applying the character and the role and the performance quality to it, which is something you can't really teach.

"He's a terrific mover, very versatile. We're a classically trained company, he has a foundation in ballet, but he's also a very good contemporary mover and jazz dancer. He has a Broadway flair, and he's a tapper. He fits right in our style of being really versatile."

This is no news to the Krukows. Mike's fraternal grandmother and great uncles were the Flying Codonas, a famous circus trapeze act. Mike's dad watched 2-year-old Wes dance and do flips and proclaimed, "He's a Codona."

"When he was 2, when he was first walking, he would just start dancing," says Jennifer Krukow, Wes' mom. "We watched a lot of Disney movies, and MTV when they had mostly music videos. What amazed me was how he mimicked the dance moves. We realized he had incredible coordination, and this passion."

All four Krukow boys played baseball. Wes was pretty good, but when the games were over and the other boys hit the streets for more ball, Wes headed to his room, cranked up the boom box and danced and sang with the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and Britney Spears.

"He'd be in there jumping and tumbling, it sounded like someone was moving the furniture," Jennifer says.

After Wes stole the show at a sixth-grade talent contest, dancing freestyle to "Let's Get This Party Started," he put down the baseball glove and signed up for lessons at a dance studio in San Luis Obispo.

During his senior year in high school, Wes stopped training and competing in dance to devote time to speech, Future Farmers of America competitions and student government. He still danced in his room every night, but Mom and Dad could see something was missing.

'You need to start dancing'

Jennifer, as a child, yearned to study dance, but her family's thing was piano and singing. She wasn't about to let her son experience the frustration of a passion unfulfilled.

"Why aren't you dancing?" Mom asked Wes.

"I don't know."

"You need to start dancing again."

He did and was accepted into the University of Arizona's prestigious dance school.

"Then it really took off," Wes says. "We were dancing six to seven days a week, so my dancing completely skyrocketed and my body changed dramatically. I got a lot stronger and more flexible, and learned a lot about partnering. That's where I fell in love with styles you can really express with a partner onstage."

After graduating in 2012, Krukow headed to New York.

"I want to sing, I want to dance, I want to be on Broadway," he says, looking back.

But after six weeks of grueling auditions and workouts, he blew out his back, herniating two disks. Wes returned to San Francisco, where Dad hooked him up with state-of-the-art sports doctors. Five months after surgery, Wes was ready to rip. He decided to stay in San Francisco and look for dancing opportunities.

Enter fate. Jarek Krukow was working at an insurance company. He took a call from a woman who mentioned she worked with the Smuin Ballet.

"Are you guys any good?" Jarek asked.

"We're fairly talented."

"Have you heard of my brother, Wes?"

"No."

"You guys should check him out."

The woman agreed to talk to Wes to give him advice. That led to a drop-in session at Smuin, then the apprenticeship. During a rehearsal break Wes was called aside and handed an envelope. He assumed it was his pink slip: Thanks for coming and good luck. He went to a corner of the stage, opened the envelope and burst into tears. It was an invitation to join Smuin.

Now it's his job, a grueling nine-month season with long workouts and rehearsals. Wes loves it, and he's still got his fan base, the Krukow clan.

'Intrigued by this journey'

It's been an education for Dad, who is struck by the similarities between pitching and dancing, the strength-power-movement components.

"Some of the ballet techniques that have been around for a hundred years, I wish I could have used some of them as a pitcher," Mike says.

He adds, "I used to think I worked hard. I never did what Wes does. ... He's in a lifestyle directly related to what I did, and I'm reliving my past through him, in a world I knew nothing about. It's opened my eyes not just to dance, but to many things. We've just been intrigued by this journey. It's been one of the most exhilarating things that's ever happened to our entire family. It's fantastic."

Fantastic for Wes, too.

"I live with my hero," Wes says of Mike. "I talk with him all the time about what I'm going through emotionally and physically, and get advice from him."

One baseball lesson that Wes says he is trying to absorb from Dad: "As a professional, you have to find a balance and moderation in all of it. The thing I've been able to get from (Mike) is to ground yourself, be humble. You're never as bad as you think you are, and you're never as good as you think you are."

Don't try to tell that last part to Mom.

"It's just a joy," Jennifer says. "I hate to miss a performance. Mike and I go to as many as we can. We try to watch all the dancers, but we just can't take our eyes off of him."