SF Ballet program book, April 2006
The San Francisco Ballet (SFB) is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States. It is among the world's leading dance companies, and along with American Ballet Theatre, and the New York City Ballet has been described as part of the "triumvirate of great classical companies defining the American style on the world stage today."[1]
[edit] History
[edit] 1938–1950
The company's first major production was Coppélia in 1938, choreographed by Willam Christensen.[2] In 1940 Swan Lake was produced in its entirety for the first time by Americans with principal ballerina Celina Cummings. The company also began showing The Nutcracker during the holiday season, beginning Christmas Eve, 1944. This too was choreographed by Willam Christensen and was the first complete production of Tchaikovsky's most popular piece in the United States.
In 1942 San Francisco Opera Ballet split in two, forming independent ballet and opera companies. The ballet half was sold to Willam and Harold Christensen, who became artistic director and appointed director of the San Francisco Ballet School, respectively.[2] The San Francisco Ballet Guild was also formed during this time as a support organization for San Francisco Ballet.[3]
[edit] 1951–1985
1951 saw the next significant shift in administration of San Francisco Ballet. In this year, Lew Christensen—the premier danseur at the time—partnered with Willam Christensen as co-directors. One year later, Lew took over entirely. With this new administration SFB began to broaden its horizons, travel, and establish itself as a significant American ballet company. Until 1956, San Francisco Ballet had remained on the West Coast, but Lew pushed the company into the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. In 1957 SFB was the first American ballet company to tour the Far East, performing in eleven Asian nations.[2] On New Year's Day in 1965, ABC-TV televised a one-hour abridgement of the Lew Christensen-choreographed production of "The Nutcracker", featuring San Francisco Ballet.
In 1972 Lew brought the company closer to its original home, the War Memorial Opera House, by officially naming the theatre as its official residence.
[edit] Timeline of productions
[edit] Present company
The company of the San Francisco Ballet, as of July 2010:[5]
[edit] Artistic Director
[edit] Ballet Master / Assistant to the Artistic Director
[edit] Ballet Masters
[edit] Choreographer in Residence
[edit] Principal Dancers
- Joan Boada
- Frances Chung
- Taras Domitro
- Lorena Feijóo
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- Kristin Long
- Vitor Luiz
- Rubén Martín Cintas
- Vito Mazzeo
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[edit] Principal Character Dancers
[edit] Soloists
- Elana Altman
- Victoria Ananyan
- Daniel Deivison Oliviera
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- Courtney Elizabeth
- Dana Genshaft
- Isaac Hernandez
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- Pauli Magierek
- Elizabeth Miner
- Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun
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- Garen Scribner
- James Sofranko
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- Anthony Spaulding
- Hansuke Yamamoto
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[edit] Corps de Ballet
- Gaetano Amico III
- Dores Andre
- Daniel Baker
- Clara Blanco
- Kimberly Braylock
- Nicole Ciapponi
- Charlene Cohen
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- Diego Cruz
- Sasha DeSola
- Jordan Hammond
- Koto Ishihara
- Madison Keesler
- Kristina Lind
- Alexandra McCullagh
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- Alexandra Meyer-Lorey
- Steven Morse
- Francisco Mungamba
- Mariellen Olson
- Sean Orza
- Rebecca Rhodes
- Shannon Marie Roberts
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- Lilly Rogers
- Jeremy Rucker
- Danielle Santos
- Dustin Shane
- Jennifer Stahl
- Benjamin Stewart
- Matthew Stewart
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- Myles Thatcher
- Raymond Tilton
- Sebastian Vinet
- Lonnie Weeks
- Quinn Wharton
- Luke Willis
- Caroline Wilson
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[edit] Apprentices
- Sean Bennett
- Megan Amanda Ehrlich
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- Ellen Rose Hummel
- Elizabeth Powell
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- Henry Sidford
- Shion Yuasa
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[edit] San Francisco Ballet at 75: The American Tour, 2008
The San Francisco Ballet, as part of its 75th anniversary season in 2008, made a national tour through four major cities: Chicago, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Millennium Park, September 16–21; New York City Center, October 10–18; Costa Mesa, California, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, November 11–16; and Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, November 25–30. The tour featured ballets from SFB's New Works Festival, the finalé of their Spring 2008 season, which featured over the course of three consecutive nights premières of ten new ballets by ten major choreographers.
[edit] Program A
- New York City Center, October 2008
[edit] Divertimento No. 15
- George Balanchine's choreography to WA Mozart's music, staged by Elyse Borne with costumes after Karinska and Mark Stanley's lighting.
[edit] Friday, October 10
- dancers
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- Tina LeBlanc
- Elizabeth Miner
- Rachel Viselli
- Vanessa Zahorian
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- Taras Domitro
- Ruben Martin
- Gennadi Nedvigin
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[edit] Wednesday, October 15
- dancers
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- Davit Karapetyan
- Mateo Klemmayer
- Hansuke Yamamoto
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[edit] Saturday, October 18, evening
- dancers
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- Taras Domitro
- Ruben Martin
- Gennadi Nedvigin
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[edit] Program B
- New York City Center, October 2008
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- Saturday, October 11, evening
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[edit] The Fifth Season
- Helgi Tomasson's choreography to Karl Jenkins' music with Sandra Woodall's scenery and costumes and Michael Mazzola's lighting
[edit] Concerto Grosso
- Helgi Tomasson's choreography to Francesco Geminiani's music with Sandra Woodall's costumes and David Finn's lighting
[edit] Joyride
- Mark Morris' choreography to John Adams' music with Isaac Mizrahi's costumes and James F. Ingalls' lighting
[edit] The Four Temperaments
- George Balanchine's choreography to Paul Hindemith's music, staged by Elyse Borne
[edit] Program C
- New York City Center, October 2008
[edit] Repertory
[edit] References
- ^ Jennings, Luke (February 18, 2007). "One Step Closer to Perfection". The Observer (UK: Guardian News and Media Limited). http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2007/feb/18/dance. Retrieved August 26, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g McCarthy, Terrence (Repertory Season 2004). "History of San Francisco Ballet". San Francisco Ballet Magazine 71 (6): 8.
- ^ a b c d e f g Renee Renouf (2001). "San Francisco Ballet history". Ballet.co Magazine. http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_99/oct99/rr_san_francisco_ballet_history.htm. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
- ^ Simpson, Michael Wade (2004). "Morris' 'Sylvia' forgoes showy dancing for an old-fashioned, irony-free romance". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/03/DDGGF6E12K1.DTL&type=performance. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
- ^ "Dancers" (Press release). San Francisco Ballet. 2011. http://www.sfballet.org/company/dancers/. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ^ "Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer" (Press release). San Francisco Ballet. 2011. http://www.sfballet.org/company/artistic_director. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ^ "Cupcakes & Conversation with Maria Kochetkova". Ballet News. April 1, 2010. http://balletnews.co.uk/cupcakes-conversation-with-maria-kochetkova-principal-san-francisco-ballet/.
- ^ "Cupcakes & Conversation with Vanessa Zahorian". Ballet News. August 11, 2011. http://balletnews.co.uk/cupcakes-conversation-with-vanessa-zahorian-principal-san-francisco-ballet/.
[edit] Further reading
- LeBlond, Jr., Richard E.; Madden, Meg (1988). From Chaos to Fragility: My Years at the San Francisco Ballet Association. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. ISBN 0840350139.
- Sowell, Debra Hickenlooper (1998). The Christensen Brothers: An American Dance Epic. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. ISBN 9057550288.
[edit] Articles
[edit] External links
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