San Francisco Ballet

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]

Contents 1 History 1.1 1938–1950 1.2 1951–1985 2 Timeline of productions 3 Present company 3.1 Artistic Director 3.2 Ballet Master / Assistant to the Artistic Director 3.3 Ballet Masters 3.4 Choreographer in Residence 3.5 Principal Dancers 3.6 Principal Character Dancers 3.7 Soloists 3.8 Corps de Ballet 3.8.1 Apprentices 4 San Francisco Ballet at 75: The American Tour, 2008 4.1 Program A 4.1.1 Divertimento No. 15 4.1.1.1 Friday, October 10 4.1.1.2 Wednesday, October 15 4.1.1.3 Saturday, October 18, evening 4.2 Program B 4.2.1 The Fifth Season 4.2.2 Concerto Grosso 4.2.3 Joyride 4.2.4 The Four Temperaments 4.3 Program C 5 Repertory 6 References 7 Further reading 8 Articles 9 External links

History

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]

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.

Timeline of productions

Premiere	Ballet	Choreographer	Original Leads	Notes	Source
1938	Coppélia	Christensen	Unknown	First complete production ever in the U.S.	[2]
1940	Swan Lake			First complete production ever in the U.S.	[2][3]
December 24, 1944	The Nutcracker			First complete U.S. production. Started tradition of Christmas Eve showing; for ten years this was the only complete Nutcracker performed in the U.S.	[2][3]
1947	Giselle				[3]
1976	Romeo and Juliet	Smuin			[3]
1978	La Fille Mal Gardée	Ashton			[3]
1981	The Tempest	Smuin			[3]
April 30, 2004	Sylvia	Morris	Yuan Yuan Tan, Yuri Possokhov	First complete U.S. production	[2][4]

Present company

The company of the San Francisco Ballet, as of July 2010:^[5]

Artistic Director

• Helgi Tomasson^[6]

Ballet Master / Assistant to the Artistic Director

Ricardo Bustamante

Bruce Sansom

Ballet Masters

Betsy Erickson

Anita Paciotti

Katita Waldo

Choreographer in Residence

Yuri Possokhov

Principal Dancers

Joan Boada Frances Chung Taras Domitro Lorena Feijóo

Jaime Garcia Castilla Tiit Helimets Davit Karapetyan Maria Kochetkova[7]

Kristin Long Vitor Luiz Rubén Martín Cintas Vito Mazzeo

Pascal Molat Gennadi Nedvigin Damian Smith Sofiane Sylve

Yuan Yuan Tan Sarah Van Patten Pierre-François Vilanoba Vanessa Zahorian[8]

Principal Character Dancers

Ricardo Bustamante

Val Caniparoli

Jorge Esquivel

Anita Paciotti

Soloists

Elana Altman Victoria Ananyan Daniel Deivison Oliviera

Courtney Elizabeth Dana Genshaft Isaac Hernandez

Pauli Magierek Elizabeth Miner Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun

Garen Scribner James Sofranko

Anthony Spaulding Hansuke Yamamoto

Corps de Ballet

Gaetano Amico III Dores Andre Daniel Baker Clara Blanco Kimberly Braylock Nicole Ciapponi Charlene Cohen

Diego Cruz Sasha DeSola Jordan Hammond Koto Ishihara Madison Keesler Kristina Lind Alexandra McCullagh

Alexandra Meyer-Lorey Steven Morse Francisco Mungamba Mariellen Olson Sean Orza Rebecca Rhodes Shannon Marie Roberts

Lilly Rogers Jeremy Rucker Danielle Santos Dustin Shane Jennifer Stahl Benjamin Stewart Matthew Stewart

Myles Thatcher Raymond Tilton Sebastian Vinet Lonnie Weeks Quinn Wharton Luke Willis Caroline Wilson

WanTing Zhao

Apprentices

Sean Bennett Megan Amanda Ehrlich

Ellen Rose Hummel Elizabeth Powell

Henry Sidford Shion Yuasa

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.

Program A

New York City Center, October 2008

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.

Friday, October 10

dancers

Tina LeBlanc Elizabeth Miner Rachel Viselli Vanessa Zahorian

Taras Domitro Ruben Martin Gennadi Nedvigin

Wednesday, October 15

dancers

Elana Altman Kristin Long Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun Sarah Van Patten Katita Waldo

Davit Karapetyan Mateo Klemmayer Hansuke Yamamoto

Saturday, October 18, evening

dancers

Frances Chung Dana Genshaft Maria Kochetkova Rachel Viselli Vanessa Zahorian

Taras Domitro Ruben Martin Gennadi Nedvigin

Program B

New York City Center, October 2008

Thursday, October 16

Sunday, October 12>

Saturday, October 11, evening

The Fifth Season

Helgi Tomasson's choreography to Karl Jenkins' music with Sandra Woodall's scenery and costumes and Michael Mazzola's lighting

Concerto Grosso

Helgi Tomasson's choreography to Francesco Geminiani's music with Sandra Woodall's costumes and David Finn's lighting

Joyride

Mark Morris' choreography to John Adams' music with Isaac Mizrahi's costumes and James F. Ingalls' lighting

The Four Temperaments

George Balanchine's choreography to Paul Hindemith's music, staged by Elyse Borne

Program C

New York City Center, October 2008

Friday, October 17

Repertory

List of SFB repertory

2011 repertory

2012 repertory

References

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. 

Articles

Sunday NY Times, John Martin, July 6, 1947

Sunday NY Times, Allen Hughes, May 5, 1963

External links

• Official website
• Archival footage of San Francisco Ballet performing Concerto Barocco in 1956 at Jacob's Pillow

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