Season Guide
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SEASON GUIDE Have you found your place in the world? We’ve made it our mission to help you get there. Compass – a real estate company with a purpose. Compass is the brand name used for services provided by one or more of the Compass group of subsidiary companies. Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California and abides by Equal compass compass.com Housing Opportunity laws. License Number 01079009. Have you found your place in the world? We’ve made it our mission to help you get there. Compass – a real estate company with a purpose. Compass is the brand name used for services provided by one or more of the Compass group of subsidiary companies. Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California and abides by Equal compass compass.com Housing Opportunity laws. License Number 01079009. CNB_ENCORE_SeasonGuide_HNW1_9.5x12.5.pdf 1 11/8/19 1:41 PM SFB season guide fp template.indd 1 11/14/19 3:54 PM SAN FRANCISCO BALLET 2020 REPERTORY SEASON GUIDE 44 See You at SF Ballet 69 PROGRAM 06 Present Perspectives Upcoming Events Classical Symphony 50 PROGRAM 01 Cinderella Appassionata The Seasons SF Ballet Premiere 53 PROGRAM 02 Classical (Re)Vision Bespoke 73 PROGRAM 07 Jewels Hummingbird 76 PROGRAM 08 Romeo & Juliet Sandpaper Ballet 80 SF Ballet Staff 09 57 PROGRAM 03 Dance Innovations 83 Season Sponsors The Infinite Ocean 87 Great Benefactors The Big Hunger World Premiere 09 Welcome to the Season Etudes 89 Annual Support 11 SF Ballet Leadership 61 PROGRAM 04 A Midsummer Night’s Dream 90 Institutional Support 12 Board of Trustees 65 PROGRAM 05 Ballet Accelerator 92 SF Ballet Endowment Foundation Endowment Foundation Board 7 for Eight 94 Thank You to Our Volunteers 14 Subscriber Benefits Mrs. Robinson World Premiere 96 A Conversation with Anima Animus 15 Artists of the Company Executive Director Kelly Tweeddale 43 SF Ballet Orchestra San Francisco Ballet | Vol. 27, No. 2 44 Season Guide 2020 Repertory Season Program Notes: Cheryl A. Ossola, Caitlin Sims Graphic Designer: Francis Zhou Photographer: Erik Tomasson Photo Editing: JC Szostak Principal Dancer and SF Ballet Leadership Portraits Photo Shoot Coordinator: You You Xia Photo Shoot Assistants: Mike Norman, Kevin Yoshimitsu, Mark Wilson, James Childers Photo Shoot Tech Assistant: Rachel Bauer Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists of Local 706: Richard Battle, Melanie Birch, Raymond Burns, Sarah Coy, Elisa Mack, Toby Mayer, Christina Martin, Thomas Richards-Keyes Cover: Benjamin Freemantle and Sasha De Sola // © Erik Tomasson This page (left to right): Helgi Tomasson // © Erik Tomasson; Pacific Northwest Ballet dancers in Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream // © Angela Sterling; 2019 Gala with decor by J. Riccardo Benavides // © Nikki Richter All editorial material © San Francisco Ballet, 2020 Chris Hellman Center for Dance 455 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 415-861-5600 | sfballet.org Cinderella© by Christopher Wheeldon 61 Advertising Representatives Marilyn Kallins, Terri Reed, Mike Hathaway [email protected] Live Exquisite Experience extraordinary hospitality in the most distinctive of urban settings. With refined accommodations, unique event spaces and locally inspired dining, The St. Regis San Francisco embodies timeless spirit with modern day sophistication. The St. Regis San Francisco 125 3rd Street, San Francisco, California 94103 United States stregissanfrancisco.com ©2019 Marriott International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved. ©2019 Marriott International, Inc. or its affiliates. of Marriott International, Inc., the trademarks and their logosSt. Regis are Stay exquisite at more than 40 St. Regis hotels and resorts worldwide. @stregishotels SFB season guide fp template.indd 1 12/10/19 3:59 PM WELCOME TO THE SEASON Welcome to San Francisco Ballet’s 87th Repertory Season. Together with this incredible Company of artists, I’m thrilled to introduce you to a season that will span the wide range of work that this company has become known for: beloved story ballets, neoclassical favorites, world premieres, and much more. The three story ballets in our 2020 Season explore love in its many forms, from the romance of Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella© and the whimsy of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to the heartbreak of Romeo & Juliet. We start in January with Wheeldon’s Cinderella, a wonderful retelling of the classic tale that encompasses both his inventive choreography and mesmerizing visual effects. In March, Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream returns to SF Ballet for the first time in 35 years. It’s a delightful retelling of the Shakespeare comedy with sets and costumes by Martin Pakledinaz, who designed our Nutcracker and Don Quixote. We end our season with my Romeo & Juliet, set to the powerful Sergei Prokofiev score. We brought this production to Copenhagen last fall and were delighted by the warm reception of Danish audiences. I’ve invited two choreographers from our 2018 Unbound festival back to San Francisco to create world premieres for our 2020 season. In Mrs. Robinson, Cathy Marston re-examines the story of © Erik Tomasson The Graduate from Mrs. Robinson’s perspective. Cathy has a very thoughtful process for creating narrative through movement, and her new ballet offers a look at the gender dynamics of the 1960s through a different lens. Trey McIntyre explores universal questions around the search for meaning in a world overwhelmed by minutiae in The Big Hunger, set to Prokofiev’s complex, beautiful Piano Concerto Number 2. I’m also thrilled to present the west coast premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s The Seasons, a fanciful, inventive reimagining of a lost ballet by Marius Petipa, set to the Alexander Glazunov score. This dynamic work features many of our dancers and draws upon both Alexei’s reverence for classicism and his endlessly inventive choreographic voice. Alongside these premieres, we have the return of Mark Morris’s Sandpaper Ballet, Liam Scarlett’s Hummingbird, Benjamin Millepied’s Appassionata, Harald Lander’s Etudes, and Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov’s Classical Symphony, as well as my own 7 for Eight. And I’m elated to bring back three Unbound festival favorites: Edwaard Liang’s The Infinite Ocean, Stanton Welch’s Bespoke, and David Dawson’s Anima Animus. For both personal and professional reasons, I’m also looking forward to our penultimate program of the season, George Balanchine’s Jewels, which we will be performing in its entirety for the first time since 2002. We’re also planning an event, “Celebrating Jewels” for which we’re bringing together a number of former Balanchine dancers to discuss about what it was like working with Mr. B on the three ballets that make up Jewels and to coach the dancers on the roles they know so well. I’m looking forward to hearing their memories and perspectives—and to catching up with some old friends. Thank you for your enduring support and for being a part of the San Francisco Ballet family. I look forward to seeing at the Opera House this season. Helgi Tomasson Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer 2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 9 Location, Location, Location... Imagine a place where you can conveniently walk to inviting parks, great restaurants, boutique shops and a world-class waterfront. Our intimate Life Plan Community will allow you to easily make new friends, while enjoying an engaged and active lifestyle. The warmth of our experienced staff and full continuum of care provides you with the peace of mind knowing this will always be home. Heritage on the Marina, It’s Time to Come Home For more information or to schedule a tour, call 415.202.0307 • heritageonthemarina.org 3400 Laguna Street, San Francisco, CA 94123 | RCFE #380500295 | CMS Certificate #555888 | Certificate of Authority #260 RETIREMENT LIVING SAN FRANCISCO STYLE SFB season guide fp template.indd 1 11/1/19 2:52 PM SAN FRANCISCO BALLET LEADERSHIP HELGI TOMASSON KELLY TWEEDDALE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER Helgi Tomasson, one of the most venerated classical dancers of his Kelly Tweeddale’s 30-year career leading arts organizations throughout generation, embarks on his 35th season with San Francisco Ballet in North America has had one focal point: connecting people and places 2020 and is the longest-serving sole artistic director of a major ballet through the performing arts. She is recognized for forging paths of company. Born in Iceland, he danced with Harkness Ballet, The Joffrey notable growth in audience building and innovation. During her tenure Ballet, and New York City Ballet, where he distinguished himself as a with the Seattle Opera beginning in 2000, she helped build one of the dancer of technical purity, musicality, and intelligence. Tomasson assumed highest per capita opera attendance rates in the United States. From leadership of SF Ballet in 1985. Under his direction, SF Ballet has become 2015 to 2019, Tweeddale was president of the Vancouver Symphony and a company widely recognized as one of the finest in the world. Tomasson VSO School of Music. Under her direction, the organization surpassed has balanced devotion to the classics with an emphasis on new works, milestones including a critically lauded centennial celebration, and the cultivating frequent collaborations and commissions with choreographers appointment of a new music director. There she led an experimental live such as William Forsythe, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, streaming agreement that promised a new model of digital engagement, Liam Scarlett, Cathy Marston, and Mark Morris, among many others. He has and expanded the orchestra’s performance season. Her previous choreographed more than 50 works for the Company, including full-length leadership roles include those with The Cleveland Orchestra and the productions of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo & Juliet (taped Seattle Symphony. Tweeddale is a dedicated advocate for women in for Lincoln Center at the Movies’ Great American Dance), Giselle, and leadership, has served as an adjunct professor for Seattle University’s Nutcracker (taped for PBS’s Great Performances).