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Home , Aaron Robison, Ezio Bosso, Frances Chung (dancer), Leonid Lavrovsky, Misa Kuranaga, Nikolay Tsiskaridze

SEASON GUIDE

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SFB season guide fp template.indd 1 11/14/19 3:54 PM SAN FRANCISCO 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 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 © , 2020 Chris Hellman Center for Dance 455 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 415-861-5600 | sfballet.org Cinderella© by 61

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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 , 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 ’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 . We end our season with my Romeo & Juliet, set to the powerful 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...

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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 , 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 , 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), , and leadership, has served as an adjunct professor for Seattle University’s Nutcracker (taped for PBS’s Great Performances). He conceptualized the graduate program for Arts Leadership, and was one of the founding board 1995 UNited We Dance festival, in which SF Ballet hosted 12 international members of the Tessitura Network. She has a degree in Communications companies; the 2008 New Works Festival, which included 10 world and Advertising from the University of Washington, where she also premieres by 10 acclaimed choreographers; and the 2018 Unbound: studied ballet with Balanchine protégé Ruthanna Boris. A Festival of New Works. Tomasson has also connected SF Ballet to the world, through co-commissions with , , and ; and major tours to Paris, London, New York City, China, and his native Iceland.

MARTIN WEST PATRICK ARMAND MUSIC DIRECTOR & DIRECTOR, PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR SAN FRANCISCO BALLET SCHOOL

Martin West leads an orchestra that is as musically excellent as it is Born in Marseille, France, Patrick Armand studied with Rudy Bryans, his adventurous. Under his direction, the SF Ballet Orchestra has greatly mother Colette Armand, and at the École de Danse de Marseille. He won expanded its catalog of recordings. Born in Bolton, England, he studied the in 1980 and continued his studies at the School of math at Cambridge. After studying music at the Royal Academy of Music in American Ballet and the Centre de Danse International Rosella Hightower London and St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music, he made his debut with in Cannes. In 1981, he joined the Ballet Théâtre Français de Nancy and was appointed resident conductor. As a guest and was promoted to principal dancer in 1983. That same year, he was conductor, he has worked with New York City Ballet, The National Ballet nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in Maurice of Canada, and The Royal Ballet. He was named music director of SF Ballet Béjart’s Songs of a Wayfarer, which he danced with . in 2005. West’s recordings with SF Ballet Orchestra include the complete He joined English National Ballet (London Festival Ballet) in 1984 and score of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and an album of suites from Delibes’ in 1990. Since retiring from the stage in 2006, Armand has and Coppélia. He also conducted for the award-winning DVD been a frequent guest teacher for schools and companies in Amsterdam, of John Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid as well as SF Ballet’s televised Florence, London, Naples, Tokyo, and Toronto. He was appointed teacher recording of Nutcracker for PBS and the 2015 in-cinema release and ballet master of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 2006. He became of Helgi Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet for Lincoln Center at the Movies’ principal of the SF Ballet School Trainee Program in 2010, SF Ballet School Great American Dance. associate director in 2012, and director of SF Ballet School in 2017. In 1998 and 2009, he served as a jury member of the Prix de Lausanne and since Headshots // © Erik Tomasson, Chris Hardy, and Brandon Patoc 2010 has been part of the competition as a coach and teacher.

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 11 SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES | 2019–20

Sunnie Evers and Robert G. Shaw, Co-Chairs of the Board and Executive Committee

Carl F. Pascarella†, President and Susan P. Diekman David Hooker Spencer James J. Ludwig† Immediate Past Chair Shelby M. Gans Fran A. Streets Nancy H. Mohr Margaret G. Gill, Vice Chair Joseph C. Geagea Judy C. Swanson Marie-Louise Pratt James H. Herbert, II†, Vice Chair Richard Gibbs, M.D. Richard J. Thalheimer George R. Roberts Lucy Jewett, Vice Chair Beth Grossman Timothy C. Wu Kathleen Scutchfield James D. Marver, Vice Chair Thomas E. Horn Zhenya Yoder Robert M. Smelick Diane B. Wilsey, Vice Chair Hiro Iwanaga Janice Hansen Zakin Susan A. Van Wagner Nancy Kukacka, Treasurer Thomas M. Jackson, M.D. Dennis Wu Jennifer J. McCall, Secretary Elaine Kartalis Akiko Yamazaki Susan S. Briggs, Assistant Secretary James C. Katzman Yasunobu Kyogoku TRUSTEES EMERITI Helgi Tomasson, Artistic Director Kelsey Lamond Michael C. Abramson & Principal Choreographer Brenda Leff Thomas W. Allen ASSOCIATE TRUSTEES Kelly Tweeddale*, Executive Director Marie O’Gara Lipman Marjorie Burnett Ann Kathryn Baer, President, Alison Mauzé Robert Clegg San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary

Marissa Mayer Charles Dishman Steve Merlo, President, BRAVO Jeff Minick Garrettson Dulin, Jr.† Daniel Cassell, President, Jola Anderson John S. Osterweis† Millicent Dunham ENCORE! Kristen A. Avansino John T. Palmer Stephanie Barlage Ejabat Stewart McDowell Brady, Richard C. Barker† Patrice Lovato, Fritz Quattlebaum J. Stuart Francis† Karen S. Bergman Co-Chairs, Allegro Circle Christine Russell Sally Hambrecht Lydia Bergman Randee Seiger Ingrid von Mangoldt Hills Gary Bridge Christine E. Sherry Pamela J. Joyner† Christine Leong Connors Charlotte Mailliard Shultz David A. Kaplan David C. Cox Catherine Slavonia Mary Jo Kovacevich Lisa Daniels

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS | 2019–20

James D. Marver, President

John S. Osterweis, President Emeritus J. Stuart Francis, Vice President

Thomas E. Horn, Treasurer Richard C. Barker Hilary C. Pierce Kevin Mohr‡, Chief Financial Officer Susan S. Briggs Larissa K. Roesch Carmen Creel‡, Secretary Nancy Kukacka Elizabeth Lani‡, Assistant Secretary

†Past Chair *Non-Trustee ‡Non-Director

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SF Ballet - SFB020 Season Guide 2020 - NH.indd 1 11/1/2019 12:52:58 PM SFB season guide fp template.indd 1 11/1/19 2:46 PM SUBSCRIBER BENEFITS

DISCOVER THE REWARDS Your enthusiasm and commitment as a season ticket holder and/or donor are vital to sustaining San Francisco Ballet as a world-class company. That’s why we’ve reserved a host of exclusive benefits just for you.

DISCOUNTS GREAT SEATS Want to invite family and friends to performances? We offer discounted Principal Package subscribers get the same great seats for each subscriber prices when you buy additional tickets. Plus, we waive the performance in their package. Many subscribers have made lasting handling fee on additional tickets and you lock in the subscriber price so friendships with their seatmates as they share their love for ballet. you don’t have to worry about price increases based on demand. See something that catches your eye in The Shop at SF Ballet? It’s yours for 15% off the full price. Want to expand your ballet experience? Get discounts on an array of adult classes. MORE Plus, enjoy discounts at select neighborhood restaurants. If you have any questions about your tickets, call Ticket Services at 415-865-2000, Mon–Fri, 10 am–4 pm, or email [email protected]. On performance days we keep the phone lines open until the performance begins. The SF Ballet Box Office in the Opera House is open only on performance dates and opens four hours prior to each performance.

FLEXIBLE EXCHANGES* You can exchange your tickets in advance for a different performance or program. Exchange fees are waived for Principal Package subscribers, and Story Ballet Trio and Choreograph Your Own (CYO) subscribers pay only $10.

PREMIUM SEATING PROGRAM SUBSCRIBERS Subscribers in our Premium Seating Program (PSP) are entitled to these additional perks:

PREPAID PARKING LIMITED EDITION CALENDAR As subscribers in our Premium Seating Program, you have the option Principal Package subscribers in our Premium Seating Program to purchase prepaid parking vouchers at the Civic Center Plaza receive a limited edition 2020 SF Ballet calendar.† Garage. If your total donation is $2,500 or more, you’re eligible to receive access to the Performing Arts Garage across the street from the Opera House.

$25 CREDIT Principal Package subscribers in our Premium Seating Program receive a $25 credit toward any one-time purchase at The Shop at SF Ballet.**

*Subject to availability. Restrictions and price differentials may apply. **Minimum purchase of $75 (pre-tax). Must be used during the 2020 Repertory Season. †You must have subscribed before November 2019.

14 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ARTISTS OF THE COMPANY 2019–20 SEASON

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER Helgi Tomasson

PRINCIPAL DANCERS Dores André Mathilde Froustey Jennifer Stahl† Joseph Walsh Ulrik Birkkjaer Angelo Greco Sofiane Sylve John and Barbara Osterweis Principal Dancer Frances Chung Tiit Helimets Diane B. Wilsey Principal Dancer Wei Wang† Herbert Family Principal Dancer Esteban Hernandez Yuan Yuan Tan WanTing Zhao† Sasha De Sola Luke Ingham Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer Carlo Di Lanno Misa Kuranaga Benjamin Freemantle† Aaron Robison Diana Dollar Knowles Principal Dancer

PRINCIPAL CHARACTER DANCERS Ricardo Bustamante† Val Caniparoli† Anita Paciotti†

SOLOISTS Max Cauthorn† Jahna Frantziskonis Sasha Mukhamedov Henry Sidford† Cavan Conley Madison Keesler† Wona Park† Lonnie Weeks Daniel Deivison-Oliveira† Vladislav Kozlov Elizabeth Powell† Hansuke Yamamoto Isabella DeVivo† Steven Morse† Julia Rowe†

CORPS DE BALLET Kamryn Baldwin† Max Föllmer† Davide Occhipinti† Miranda Silveira† Sean Bennett† Gabriela Gonzalez Kimberly Marie Olivier† John-Paul Simoens† Ludmila Bizalion† Anatalia Hordov† Lauren Parrott† Bianca Teixeira Samantha Bristow† Ellen Rose Hummel† Joshua Jack Price† Myles Thatcher† Alexandre Cagnat† Jasmine Jimison† Leili Rackow† Mingxuan Wang† Thamires Chuvas† Blake Johnston† Nathaniel Remez† Joseph Warton† Diego Cruz† Elizabeth Mateer Alexander Reneff-Olson† Maggie Weirich† Estéban Cuadrado† Norika Matsuyama† Skyla Schreter Ami Yuki† Megan Amanda Ehrlich Carmela Mayo† Jacob Seltzer† Lucas Erni† Swane Messaoudi† Natasha Sheehan†

APPRENTICES Rubén Cítores† SunMin Lee† Adrian Zeisel† Lleyton Ho† Tyla Steinbach†

BALLET MASTERS & ASSISTANTS TO THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Ricardo Bustamante† Felipe Diaz†

BALLET MASTERS Betsy Erickson† Tina LeBlanc Anita Paciotti† Katita Waldo†

COMPANY TEACHERS Helgi Tomasson Ricardo Bustamante† Tina LeBlanc Patrick Armand Felipe Diaz†

CHOREOGRAPHER IN RESIDENCE Yuri Possokhov

MUSIC DIRECTOR & PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR

Martin West †Received training at San Francisco Ballet School

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 15 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

YUAN YUAN TAN Yuan Yuan Tan was born in Shanghai, China, and trained at Shanghai Dancing School and Stuttgart’s John Cranko School. She joined San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 1995 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1997. She was appointed Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer in 2012.

“It is no wonder that Tan is known as one of the world’s best prima ballerinas.” —Hong Kong Tatler

16 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE ANGELO GRECO Born in Nuoro, Italy, Angelo Greco trained at La Scala Ballet School in Milan. He danced with La Scala Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 2016. He was promoted to principal dancer in 2017.

“Greco knows how to move, carrying the entire stage with power and domination . . . his technique tidy, his energy high, and his charisma off the charts.” —HuffPost

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 17 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

DORES ANDRÉ Born in Vigo, Spain, Dores André trained with Antonio Almenara and at Estudio de Danza de Maria de Avila. She joined San Francisco Ballet in 2004 and was promoted to soloist in 2012 and to principal dancer in 2015.

“You’re astounded by her strength, the power to coil her spine like a cobra, but foremost by her willpower, which she deploys in the manner of Bette Davis. She is top dog on this stage.” —Bay Area Reporter

18 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE CARLO DI LANNO Carlo Di Lanno was born in Naples, Italy, and trained at La Scala Ballet School in Milan. He danced with La Scala Ballet and Staatsballett Berlin before joining San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 2014. He was promoted to principal dancer in 2016.

“This young dancer is everything a Romeo ought to be: technically pure yet natural, tender yet honor-bound to fight, conflicted yet focused on his one true desire.” —DanceTabs review of Romeo & Juliet

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 19 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

JOSEPH WALSH Born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Joseph Walsh trained at Walnut Hill School of the Arts and II. He danced with Houston Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 2014. He was promoted to principal dancer that same year. He was appointed John and Barbara Osterweis Principal Dancer in 2017.

“The dancer to see is Joseph Walsh, flashing that million-dollar smile, all irrepressible charisma. A wonder of physical freedom and control.” — The Fjord Review

20 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE PRINCIPAL DANCERS MATHILDE FROUSTEY Mathilde Froustey was born in Bordeaux, France, and trained at the Marseille National School of Ballet and School. She danced with Paris Opera Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer in 2013.

“[Froustey] has brought a quicksilver technique, a pliant torso, witty musicality, pinpoint articulation, and sheer elan to everything she has danced. . . . Froustey looks delicate, but hers is the strength of spun steel.” —San Francisco Chronicle

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 21 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

LUKE INGHAM From Mount Gambier, South Australia, Luke Ingham trained at the Australian Ballet School. He danced with The Australian Ballet and Houston Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 2012. He was promoted to principal dancer in 2014.

“[Hummingbird] offers the most arresting view of Australian-born Luke Ingham and his easy compatibility with contemporary abstractions.” —HuffPost

22 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE FRANCES CHUNG Born in Vancouver, Canada, Frances Chung trained at before joining San Francisco Ballet in 2001. She was promoted to soloist in 2005 and principal dancer in 2009. She was appointed Herbert Family Principal Dancer in 2018.

“[Chung] has only to float an arm or slide an instep across the stage to evoke a world of feeling.” —San Francisco Chronicle

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 23 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

JENNIFER STAHL Born in Dana Point, California, Jennifer Stahl trained at Maria Lazar’s Classical Ballet Academy and San Francisco Ballet School. She was named an SF Ballet apprentice in 2005 and joined the corps de ballet in 2006. She was promoted to soloist in 2013 and to principal dancer in 2017.

“It’s exciting to watch Stahl continue to grow, in ability and potential.” —Bachtrack

24 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE WEI WANG Born in Anshan, China, Wei Wang trained at Beijing Dance Academy and SF Ballet School. He was named apprentice in 2012, and joined San Francisco Ballet as a corps de ballet member in 2013. He was promoted to soloist in 2016 and to principal dancer in 2018.

“ . . . a superb live wire of a dancer.” —Culture Whisper

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 25 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

SOFIANE SYLVE Sofiane Sylve was born in Nice, France, where she studied at the Académie de Danse. She danced with Germany’s Stadttheater, Dutch National Ballet, and New York City Ballet prior to joining San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer in 2008. She was appointed Diane B. Wilsey Principal Dancer in 2017.

“The reigning goddess was Sofiane Sylve, a ballerina of rich expressive gifts and a large-scale, expansive technique. . . . [She] left the audience gasping.” —The Washington Post review of The Infinite Ocean

26 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE ESTEBAN HERNANDEZ Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Esteban Hernandez trained at The Rock School for Dance Education and The . He joined San Francisco Ballet in 2013 and was promoted to soloist in 2017. He was promoted to principal dancer in 2019.

“His solo, at once delicate and muscular, sinuous and doomed, could have been a last brave survivor’s final moments.” —San Francisco Chronicle review of Die Toteninsel

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 27 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

SASHA DE SOLA Born in Winter Park, Florida, Sasha De Sola trained at the Kirov Academy of Ballet. She was named a San Francisco Ballet apprentice in 2006 and joined the Company in 2007. She was promoted to soloist in 2012 and to principal dancer in 2017.

“Sasha De Sola was radiant in the first movement . . . showing off her pretty feet in a series of little steps on pointe.” —San Francisco Classical Voice review of Prism

28 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE MISA KURANAGA Born in Osaka, Japan, Misa Kuranaga trained at Jinushi Kaoru Ballet School and School of American Ballet. She was named a San Francisco Ballet apprentice in 2001, then joined Boston Ballet where she became a principal dancer. She joined SF Ballet as a principal dancer in 2019.

“Kuranaga, whose killer work ethic and lyrical lines have long made her a fan favorite, has come to embody the future of ballet—a world of dancers who are independent and endlessly versatile.” —Dance Magazine

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 29 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

TIIT HELIMETS Born in Viljandi, Estonia, Tiit Helimets trained at Tallinn Ballet School. He danced with Estonian National Ballet and before joining San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer in 2005.

“Helimets fulfills all the qualifications for a genuine danseur noble. He is tall and blessed with textbook proportions, infinitely tapered legs, and an aristocratic bearing.” —Dance Magazine

30 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE SARAH VAN PATTEN Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Sarah Van Patten danced with Massachusetts Youth Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 2002. She was promoted to principal dancer in 2007. She was appointed Diana Dollar Knowles Principal Dancer in 2013.

“The feathery etherealness of Ms. Van Patten draws the eye like a magnet.” —The New York Times

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 31 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

ULRIK BIRKKJAER Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Ulrik Birkkjaer trained at the Royal Danish Ballet School. He danced with the Royal Danish Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer in 2017.

“[Birkkjaer] has great technique; extraordinarily, though, it’s joined with his high-transparent portrayals of love, happiness, bewilderment, sorrow. You don’t see many faces like that in dance.” —San Francisco Classical Voice

32 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE WANTING ZHAO Born in Anshan, China, WanTing Zhao trained at the Beijing Dance Academy, the Rock School for Dance Education, and San Francisco Ballet School. She joined San Francisco Ballet in 2011, was promoted to soloist in 2016, and to principal dancer in 2019.

“ . . . lovely WanTing Zhao, of the beautifully expressive arms . . .” —San Francisco Classical Voice

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 33 PRINCIPAL DANCERS

AARON ROBISON Born in Coventry, England, Aaron Robison trained at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and at the Royal Ballet School. He has danced with Birmingham Royal Ballet, Ballet Corella, Houston Ballet, and English National Ballet. Robison joined San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer in 2016 and returned in 2018.

“ . . . A powerhouse of virtuosic energy . . . riveting to watch.” —Seeing Dance

†Received training at San Francisco Ballet School Principal dancer photos // © Erik Tomasson

34 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE BENJAMIN FREEMANTLE Born in New Westminster, Canada, Benjamin Freemantle trained at Caulfield School of Dance and San Francisco Ballet School. He was named a San Francisco Ballet apprentice in 2014 and joined the Company in 2015. He was promoted to soloist in 2018 and to principal dancer in 2019.

“Freemantle’s closing solo was like watching Michelangelo’s David come to life, iterating one elegant shape after another.” —Lucy Writer’s Platform review of Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 35 SOLOISTS

MAX CAUTHORN† Born in San Francisco, California JULIA ROWE† Named apprentice in 2013 Born in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania Joined in 2014 Joined in 2013 Promoted to soloist in 2017 Promoted to soloist in 2016

CAVAN CONLEY Born in Bozeman, Montana SASHA MUKHAMEDOV Joined in 2018 Born in London, England Promoted to soloist in 2019 Joined as a soloist in 2019

36 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE ISABELLA DEVIVO† STEVEN MORSE† Born in Great Neck, New York Born in Harbor City, California Joined in 2013 Joined in 2009 Promoted to soloist in 2017 Promoted to soloist in 2017

HENRY SIDFORD† ELIZABETH POWELL† Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts Born in Boston, Massachusetts Named apprentice in 2011 Named apprentice in 2011 Joined in 2012 Joined in 2012 Promoted to soloist in 2018 Promoted to soloist in 2018

†Received training at San Francisco Ballet School Soloist photos // © Erik Tomasson

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 37 SOLOISTS

HANSUKE YAMAMOTO WONA PARK† Born in Chiba, Japan Born in Seoul, South Korea Joined in 2001 Joined in 2017 Promoted to soloist in 2005 Promoted to soloist in 2018

BENJAMIN FREEMANTLE† LONNIE WEEKS Born in New Westminster, Canada Born in Los Alamos, New Mexico Named apprentice in 2014 Joined in 2010 Joined in 2015 Promoted to soloist in 2018 Promoted to soloist in 2018

†Received training at San Francisco Ballet School Soloist photos // © Erik Tomasson

38 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE JAHNA FRANTZISKONIS DANIEL DEIVISON-OLIVEIRA† Born in Tucson, Arizona Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Joined in 2015 Joined in 2005 Promoted to soloist in 2017 Promoted to soloist in 2011

MADISON KEESLER† Born in Carlsbad, California VLADISLAV KOZLOV Joined in 2009 Born in Saratov, Returned in 2017 Joined as a soloist in 2018 Promoted to soloist in 2019

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 39 PRINCIPAL CHARACTER DANCERS

RICARDO BUSTAMANTE† VAL CANIPAROLI† ANITA PACIOTTI† Born in Medellín, Colombia Born in Renton, Washington Born in Oakland, California Joined in 1980 Joined in 1973 Joined in 1968 Named principal character dancer Named principal character dancer Named principal character dancer in 2007 in 2007 in 1987 CORPS DE BALLET

KAMRYN BALDWIN† THAMIRES CHUVAS† Born in Honolulu, Hawai’i Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Joined in 2015 Named apprentice in 2014 Joined in 2015

SAMANTHA BRISTOW† MEGAN AMANDA EHRLICH Born in Media, Pennsylvania Born in Charleston, South Carolina Named apprentice in 2014 Named apprentice in 2011 Joined in 2015 Joined in 2012 Returned in 2017

SEAN BENNETT† DIEGO CRUZ† Born in San Francisco, California Born in Zaragoza, Spain Named apprentice in 2011 Joined in 2006 Joined in 2012

ALEXANDRE CAGNAT† LUCAS ERNI† Born in Cannes, France Born in Santo Tomé, Argentina Named apprentice in 2016 Joined in 2018 Joined in 2017

LUDMILA BIZALION† ESTÉBAN CUADRADO† Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Born in Frejus, France Named apprentice in 2006 Named apprentice in 2018 Joined in 2007 Joined in 2019 Returned in 2016 40 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE MAX FÖLLMER† CARMELA MAYO† Born in London, United Kingdom Born in Las Vegas, Nevada Named apprentice in 2018 Named apprentice in 2017 Joined in 2019 Joined in 2018

JASMINE JIMISON† LAUREN PARROTT† Born in Palo Alto, California Born in Palm Harbor, Florida Named apprentice in 2018 Named apprentice in 2012 Joined in 2019 Joined in 2013

GABRIELA GONZALEZ SWANE MESSAOUDI† Born in Mérida, Mexico Born in Aix-en-Provence, France Joined in 2017 Named apprentice in 2017 Joined in 2018

JOSHUA JACK PRICE† BLAKE JOHNSTON† Born in Wollongong, Australia Born in Charlotte, North Carolina Named apprentice in 2018 Joined in 2017 Joined in 2019

ANATALIA HORDOV† DAVIDE OCCHIPINTI† Born in Santa Clarita, California Born in Rome, Italy Named apprentice in 2017 Named apprentice in 2016 Joined in 2018 Joined in 2017

ELIZABETH MATEER LEILI RACKOW† Born in Boca Raton, Florida Born in Nanchang, China Joined in 2016 Named apprentice in 2018 Joined in 2019

ELLEN ROSE HUMMEL† KIMBERLY MARIE OLIVIER† Born in Greenville, South Carolina Born in New York, New York Named apprentice in 2011 Named apprentice in 2009 Joined in 2012 Joined in 2010

NORIKA MATSUYAMA† Born in Chiba, Japan Joined in 2014

†Received training at San Francisco Ballet School Dancer headshots // © Chris Hardy and David Allen

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 41 CORPS DE BALLET

NATHANIEL REMEZ† BIANCA TEIXEIRA Born in Washington, DC Born in São Paulo, Brazil Named apprentice in 2016 Joined in 2019 Joined in 2017

NATASHA SHEEHAN† JOSEPH WARTON† Born in San Francisco, California Born in Beaverton, Oregon Joined in 2016 Joined in 2017

ALEXANDER RENEFF-OLSON† MYLES THATCHER† Born in San Francisco, California Born in Atlanta, Georgia Named apprentice in 2012 Named apprentice in 2009 Joined in 2013 Joined in 2010

MIRANDA SILVEIRA† MAGGIE WEIRICH† Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Born in Portland, Oregon Named apprentice in 2013 Named apprentice in 2014 Joined in 2014 Joined in 2015

SKYLA SCHRETER MINGXUAN WANG† Born in Chappaqua, New York Born in Qingdao, China Joined in 2014 Named apprentice in 2013 Joined in 2014

JOHN-PAUL SIMOENS† AMI YUKI† Born in Omaha, Nebraska Born in Saitama, Japan Named apprentice in 2014 Named apprentice in 2014 Joined in 2015 Joined in 2015 APPRENTICES RUBÉN CÍTORES† SUNMIN LEE† ADRIAN ZEISEL† LLEYTON HO† TYLA STEINBACH†

JACOB SELTZER† Born in Washington, DC Named apprentice in 2018 Joined in 2019

†Received training at San Francisco Ballet School Dancer headshots // © Chris Hardy and David Allen

42 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ORCHESTRA

For more than 40 years, the Grammy Award–winning San Francisco Ballet Orchestra has made the music that propels our movement. With a core group of 49 regular members that expands to 65 players for certain productions, the Orchestra’s repertory extends from classics such as Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Nutcracker to the more abstract and contemporary of ballet and symphonic works. Our musicians are as brilliant as individual artists as the orchestra is as an ensemble. Please visit sfballet.org/orchestra for photos of SF Ballet Orchestra musicians.

MUSIC DIRECTOR & PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR Martin West

VIOLIN I CONTRABASS TRUMPET/CORNET Cordula Merks, Concertmaster Steve D’Amico, Principal* Adam Luftman, Principal Heeguen Song, Associate Concertmaster Jonathan Lancelle, Acting Principal Joseph Brown Beni Shinohara, Assistant Concertmaster Shinji Eshima, Associate Principal Heidi Wilcox Mark Wallace, Assistant Principal** Robin Hansen Mark Drury* TROMBONE Brian Lee Michael Minor** Jeffrey Budin, Principal Mariya Borozina Michael Cox Minsun Choi FLUTE Barbara Chaffe, Principal BASS TROMBONE VIOLIN II Julie McKenzie, 2nd & Piccolo Scott Thornton, Principal Ani Bukujian, Principal Craig Reiss, Associate Principal Jeanelle Meyer, Assistant Principal OBOE TUBA Marianne Wagner Laura Griffiths, Principal Peter Wahrhaftig, Principal Laura Keller Marilyn Coyne, 2nd & English Horn Jeremy Preston TIMPANI CLARINET James Gott, Principal* VIOLA Natalie Parker, Principal* John Burgardt, Principal** Yi Zhou, Principal Andrew O’Donnell, Principal** Anna Kruger, Associate Principal Andrew Sandwick, 2nd & Bass Clarinet* Joy Fellows, Assistant Principal Barret Ham, 2nd & Bass Clarinet** PERCUSSION Caroline Lee David Rosenthal, Principal Paul Ehrlich BASSOON Rufus Olivier, Principal HARP CELLO Patrick Johnson-Whitty, Annabelle Taubl, Principal Eric Sung, Principal 2nd & Contrabassoon Jonah Kim, Associate Principal Victor Fierro, Assistant Principal ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL MANAGER Thalia Moore HORN & MUSIC ADMINISTRATOR Ruth Lane** Kevin Rivard, Principal Tracy Davis Keith Green Brian McCarty, Associate Principal William Klingelhoffer MUSIC LIBRARIAN Matthew Naughtin

**Seasonal Substitute *Leave of Absence

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 43 SEE YOU AT SF BALLET

San Francisco Ballet Gala After Party // © Nikki Ritcher Photography

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET’S 2020 OPENING NIGHT GALA IS SPELLBOUND From the lyricism of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the joyfulness of Alexei Ratmansky’s The Seasons to the playfulness of Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella and the grand displays of Balanchine’s Jewels—the 2020 Season showcases the grace, technique, and athleticism of our dancers. Join us for cocktails, a lavish dinner, and a one-night-only performance as we embrace this magical, innovative, and unexpected spirit on Thursday, January 16. For more: sfballet.org/gala

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM OPENING NIGHT DINNER To mark the return of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to SF Ballet after more than 30 years, we are toasting the fairy realm with a pre-performance dinner at the Conservatory of Flowers on Friday, March 6. Proceeds benefit a wide range of SF Ballet artistic initiatives. For more: sfballet.org/midsummer-dinner

Left to right: © Kristen Loken, © Andrew Caulfield for Drew Altizer

44 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE San Francisco Ballet School Trainees // © Erik Tomasson

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH BREAKFAST Join us for this family-friendly event on Saturday, March 21 at the Fairmont San Francisco. Guests enjoy a meet-and-greet with special guests, followed by breakfast and conversation focusing on each of the special guests’ unique perspectives as women in the arts. Proceeds from this event support scholarships and financial aid programs for girls at San Francisco Ballet School. For more:sfballet.org/womenshistory

SILVER ANNIVERSARY DINNER Following the Sunday, April 19 matinee performance of Balanchine’s Jewels, come celebrate Principal Dancer Yuan Yuan Tan’s sparkling performance in the principal role in Diamonds and her incredible 25th anniversary with San Francisco Ballet. For details, contact Special Events Coordinator Meg Sullivan at [email protected] or 415-865-6625.

SF BALLET SCHOOL SPRING FESTIVAL See the next generation of professional dancers at the SF Ballet School Spring Festival, which includes three nights of performances, a dinner on opening night, and interactive activities pre-show and in the lobby. Performances are May 20–22 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. Following the May 20 performance, the SF Ballet Auxiliary hosts the SF Ballet School Spring Festival Dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco. For more: sfballet.org/schoolfestival

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 45 Private Ocean Ad

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San Francisco Ballet Donors are invited to join us behind the scenes for dress rehearsals, insider lectures, and other events designed to deepen their connection with the Company. To make your gift and receive exclusive benefits designed to enhance your SF Ballet experience, visit sfballet.org/donate or contact the Membership Office [email protected] or 415-865-6568. Throughout the 2020 Repertory Season, members of the Artistic Directors Council, Chairman’s Council, Christensen Society, Friends of SF Ballet, and The Jocelyn Vollmar Legacy Circle are invited to exclusive events outlined below. For more information on our donor benefits, contact the Christensen Society Office [email protected] or 415-865-6622.

JANUARY MARCH MAY On-Stage Rehearsal, Cinderella* ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL (PAT+/VLC) Pre-Curtain Dinner, Tuesday, January 21 Friday, March 20 at 11 am Romeo & Juliet (CHO+) War Memorial Opera House Taube Atrium Theater, Wilsey Center for Opera Friday, May 1 at 5:30 pm The Green Room, Veterans Building Pre-Curtain Dinner, Ballet Accelerator (CHO+) Tuesday, March 24 at 5 pm CS Cast Party , FEBRUARY The Green Room, Veterans Building Romeo & Juliet (ASO+) CS STUDIO REHEARSAL (DAN+) Friday, May 1 at 10:30 pm Wednesday, February 5 at 5:30 pm CS Cast Party, Ballet Accelerator (ASO+) The Green Room, Veterans Building Chris Hellman Center for Dance Tuesday, March 24 at 10 pm The Green Room, Veterans Building Ballet History Lecture (CON+) On-Stage Rehearsal , Classical (Re)Vision* Thursday, May 7 Tuesday, February 11 On-Stage Rehearsal, Present Perspectives* Location TBD War Memorial Opera House Thursday, March 26 War Memorial Opera House On-Stage Rehearsal, Dance Innovations* * Contributor Level and above members may Wednesday, February 12 use their allotted number of single-use passes War Memorial Opera House at the On-Stage Rehearsal(s) of their choice. APRIL Capacity is limited and tickets are required. Pre-Curtain Dinner, Dance Innovations (CHO+) ON-STAGE REHEARSAL, JEWELS* Thursday, February 13 at 5 pm Tuesday, April 14 EVENT DATES, TIMES, AND The Green Room, Veterans Building War Memorial Opera House LOCATIONS ARE SUBJECT CS Cast Party, Dance Innovations (ASO+) Company Class Observation TO CHANGE. Thursday, February 13 at 10 pm and Reception (SUP+) The Green Room, Veterans Building Saturday, April 18 Legacy Studio Rehearsal (VLC) War Memorial Opera House Thursday, February 27 at 5:30 pm LEGACY LUNCHEON & TECH REHEARSAL (VLC) Chris Hellman Center for Dance Thursday, April 30 at 11:30 am CS Studio Rehearsal (DAN+) War Memorial Opera House Friday, February 28 at 5:30 pm Chris Hellman Center for Dance

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS KEY ADC | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S COUNCIL ($100,000+) FRIENDS OF SF BALLET CHM | CHAIRMAN’S COUNCIL ($15,000–$99,999) PAT | PATRON ($1,000–$2,499)

SUP | SUPPORTER ($500–$999) CHRISTENSEN SOCIETY CON | CONTRIBUTOR ($200–$499) CHO | CHOREOGRAPHER’S COUNCIL ($7,500–$14,999) DAN | DANCER’S COUNCIL ($5,000–$7,499) VLC | JOCELYN VOLLMAR LEGACY CIRCLE ASO | ASSOCIATE’S COUNCIL ($2,500–$4,999)

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 47 OFF STAGE

MEET THE ARTIST INTERVIEWS (AND PODCASTS) One hour prior to curtain on opening nights, Fridays, and Sundays; immediately following select Thursday evening and Saturday matinee performances. Want to know more about what it’s like to dance at SF Ballet? Or about a particular ballet? Then join us for a Meet the Artist (MTA) interview. Perfect for newcomers, balletomanes, and everyone in between, MTAs feature a conversation with an artist who worked on the performance.

FREE and open to all ticket holders for selected performances An archive of previous MTAs is available on all podcast players and at sfballet.org/backstage.

POINTES OF VIEW LECTURES WEDNESDAYS, 6–6:45 PM Company artists and visiting scholars invite you to delve deeper into that evening’s performance. You don’t have to buy a ticket to attend—all ballet fans are welcome. Attendees should enter through the carriage entrance on the north side of the War Memorial Opera House, adjacent to the courtyard.

FREE and open to the public

PROGRAM 01 Cinderella January 22 Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella© is a spectacular display of dancing, but also of stunning sets, costumes, and props. Join SF Ballet’s Production Stage Manager Jane Green; Manager of Wardrobe, Wig, Makeup, and Costume Construction Kate Share; and Master of Properties Kenneth Ryan to discuss how these theatrical elements are constructed, cared for, and utilized in this elaborate production.

PROGRAM 02 Classical (Re)Vision February 12 Choreographer Mark Morris has created more works for San Francisco Ballet than for any other ballet company. Ballet Masters and former SF Ballet Principal Dancers Betsy Erickson and Tina LeBlanc discuss his life, works, and unique relationship to the West Coast.

PROGRAM 03 Dance Innovations February 19 Revered in the ballet world as a tribute to classical ballet training, Harald Lander’s Etudes begins with traditional exercises at the barre and ends with displays of virtuosity. San Francisco Ballet School Faculty put SF Ballet students through their paces in a demonstration of steps and combinations from the piece.

PROGRAM 04 A Midsummer Night’s Dream March 11 A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of George Balanchine’s masterpieces and SF Ballet’s Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson was one of the most celebrated interpreters of the central role of Oberon, King of the Fairies. Join Tomasson for a discussion of this ballet’s fiendishly difficult and sublimely beautiful choreography and why he is so excited to see this work back on the Opera House stage for the first time in more than 30 years.

PROGRAM 05 Ballet Accelerator March 25 From Isadora Duncan to Cathy Marston, San Francisco has long been a place where the future of dance has been created. Before an evening of three ballets created right here in San Francisco, join Wayne Hazzard, Executive Director of Dancers’ Group, and other members of San Francisco’s dance community for a lively discussion about the legacy of new work in the Bay Area.

PROGRAM 06 Present Perspectives April 1 First created in St. Petersburg, Russia in the early 20th century by Marius Petipa and then reimagined by Alexei Ratmansky in New York where it premiered at American Ballet Theatre in spring 2019, The Seasons is a ballet that has traveled great distances through both space and time. SF Ballet’s 2020 Scholar in Residence Carrie Gaiser Casey, PhD considers these ideas and others as she gives audiences a sneak peek into her upcoming project on how ballets are staged, restaged, and recreated.

PROGRAM 07 Jewels April 15 George Balanchine’s iconic Jewels is not only a fan favorite, but an opportunity for a company to explore his many artistic styles. Join Sandra Jennings, répétiteur for the Balanchine Trust, to learn about how this ballet is staged, taught, and preserved for the next generation of dancers and audiences.

PROGRAM 08 Romeo & Juliet May 6 Romeo and Juliet is one of composer Sergei Prokofiev’s most iconic scores and one of four Prokofiev scores featured on this San Francisco Ballet season. SF Ballet Visiting Scholar Simon Morrison, a professor of musicology at Princeton University, discusses this piece and its relationship to Prokofiev’s life and work.

48 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE Looking to deepen your knowledge of San Francisco Ballet and the art form in general? From classes to lectures to social events, we have a wide variety of opportunities to explore the method behind the magic you see onstage. Learn more: sfballet.org/events

NEW! CELEBRATING JEWELS OPERA HOUSE TOUR April 7, 6 pm–7:30 pm March 9, 3:30–5:30 pm and 6:30–8:30 pm Former New York City Ballet principal dancers Kay Mazzo, Patricia McBride, Go behind the scenes with Dennis Hudson, former SF Ballet master Mimi Paul, and join SF Ballet Artistic Director and Principal electrician. You’ll learn about the quirky secrets and unique technical Choreographer Helgi Tomasson to share their memories of and insights into and structural elements of this 1932 Beaux-Arts theater. Cost: $75 George Balanchine’s iconic ballet Jewels. Cost: $25 subscribers / $20 donors BALLET BASICS June 28, 2–5 pm BALLET BOOK CLUB Curious about life behind the curtain at SF Ballet? This three-hour Cinderella January 25, 5–6:30 pm: seminar will give you a deeper understanding of ballet, from its March 7, 5–6:30 pm: A Midsummer Night’s Dream classical roots to current practice. Take a ballet class, hear from an artist, and learn about the history of classical ballet. May 9, 5–6:30 pm: Romeo & Juliet Cost: $50 subscribers / $45 donors Delve a little deeper into everyone’s favorite story ballets. Join us as we read the story, compare it to the ballet, and, of course, have a glass of wine. Cost: $20 subscribers / $25 donors

EXPLORING BALLETS February 9, 2–5 pm: Exploring Sandpaper Ballet April 26, 2–5 pm: Exploring Romeo & Juliet Take a closer look at an iconic ballet from the 2020 Season. In these intensive one-day courses, you’ll learn more about these fan-favorite ballets and hear from the artists who perform in them. Cost: $50 subscribers / $45 donors

BALLET CHAT February 22, 4:30–6 pm: Classical (Re)Vision February 23, 4:30–6 pm: Dance Innovations March 28, 4:30–6 pm: Present Perspectives March 29, 4:30–6 pm: Ballet Accelerator April 18, 4:30–6 pm: Jewels April 19, 4:30–6 pm: Jewels You’ve just seen an inspiring performance. Now what? Rather than heading home, channel that insight and creative energy. Have a glass of wine, mingle with fellow ballet fans, and participate in an informal moderated conversation. Cost: $12

MASTER CLASSES February 23, 10 am–12 pm: Master Class with Sandra Jennings on Balanchine’s Jewels. For ages 10–14. February 23, 1–3 pm: Master Class with Sandra Jennings on Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For ages 14–18.

Learn from the masters of ballet in these single intensive sessions focused Misa Kuranaga rehearsing Ratmansky’s The Seasons // © Erik Tomasson on exploring the artistry of SF Ballet’s repertory. Classes consist of a traditional ballet class, then move to repertory. Cost: $50 participants / $25 observers. For more: sfballet.org/masterclasses Cinderella© by Christopher Wheeldon

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 49 01 CINDERELLA JAN 21—FEB 02

Frances Chung in Wheeldon’s Cinderella© // © Erik Tomasson

50 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE PROGRAM NOTES by Cheryl A. Ossola

The heart of the old, the spirit of the new. Christopher Wheeldon’s enticed him to create his own. Rudolf Nureyev, in his 1986 production Cinderella tells the same uplifting story people have heard for centuries, for Paris Opera Ballet, set the ballet in Hollywood and gave the but is a ballet full of innovations and modern twists. A co-production of beleaguered Cinderella an alcoholic father. And in SF Ballet Choreographer San Francisco Ballet and Dutch National Ballet, Cinderella premiered in in Residence Yuri Possokhov’s 2006 production for the , Amsterdam in 2012, then made its US premiere in San Francisco in 2013. the Storyteller (Prokofiev himself) replaced the Fairy Godmother.

“Each of Christopher’s works has something unique,” says Helgi Tomasson, Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella isn’t the first to find a home at SF Ballet’s artistic director and principal choreographer. Wheeldon is SF Ballet—that honor goes to a 1973 production by then co-artistic an acclaimed dancemaker, in demand at companies worldwide. Formerly directors Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin. Wheeldon’s version, with a resident choreographer at New York City Ballet and now an artistic all the technological advantages of the 21st century, began percolating associate at The Royal Ballet, he caused a sensation on Broadway with the when he and Tomasson discussed ideas for a new full-length ballet to be musical An American in Paris. And he’s a frequent presence at SF Ballet, co-produced with Dutch National Ballet. with 13 works in the repertory. Cinderella was his eighth commission and first full-length story ballet for the Company. As Wheeldon soon found, creating a production on two continents simultaneously isn’t easy. “It was my crazy idea,” he says. “I said, ‘I’ll do Tomasson’s words about originality ring true in Wheeldon’s Cinderella. some of it here and some of it there, and we’ll make it work.’” Several Dutch You’ll find no fairy godmother, no pumpkin coach, no clock striking National Ballet principal dancers rehearsed in San Francisco for a few midnight—but you won’t miss them a bit when a tree comes alive and weeks in 2012, and several from SF Ballet went to Amsterdam; that way the “dances,” or when Cinderella shows backbone and her Prince’s charm runs choreography could be created on both companies at once. “It promotes deep. And you won’t miss them when the dancing and the storytelling a nice cultural exchange,” says Wheeldon, “but it has its pluses and come from Wheeldon. “What I wanted to do,” the choreographer says, “was minuses. One dancer hasn’t necessarily followed it through from beginning echo the darkness in the music by taking some of the themes from the to end. On the other hand, more people have had the benefit of being Brothers Grimm version rather than the [Charles] Perrault version,” with its created on.” fairy godmother and pumpkin coach. “The Grimm version is more serious and a bit darker, centered around nature and the spirit of mother.” That’s In creating a world for his characters to inhabit, Wheeldon assembled where he got the idea of a tree that grows from the grave of Cinderella’s an artistic team with imaginations as big as his own. Step one was mother, “the deliverer of all things magic, which I think is more poetic [than brainstorming with playwright and librettist Craig Lucas, who describes a fairy godmother] and quite beautiful,” he says. “There are comic moments the early stages of Cinderella as “a constant back and forth, teasing out because there’s comedy written into the music, but it’s a more serious a shared understanding of what is exciting about the story. [We wanted] Cinderella in a way.” to burrow into possibilities we had never seen explored.” These included a substitute for the Fairy Godmother—an essential element, according to That music, written by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev in 1940 but Wheeldon. “We all toy with the idea that loved ones are always watching shelved for several years during World War II, made its first appearance over us in some way,” he says. He and Lucas settled on the tree that grows when the Bolshoi Ballet premiered Cinderella in November 1945, when Cinderella cries over her mother’s grave—in effect, a character, choreographed by Rostislav Zakharov. “I love it,” says Music Director and “a living thing that could embrace the action,” says Lucas—and four Fates Principal Conductor Martin West about the score. “It’s immediately striking, who offer guidance and protection. and astonishingly clever the way the themes come around, the way he could create an atmosphere out of something very simple.” Prokofiev’s Wheeldon also knew he wanted his Cinderella to be in charge of her Romeo and Juliet, West says, “came from the heart, but Cinderella is more destiny. Yes, she’s a servant in her own home, but “she knows she doesn’t cerebral. It takes longer to get into, but once you’ve lived with it, it starts to have to be there forever,” he says. “It is good versus evil; it is that if you’re eat at you. Some of it is so beautiful.” a good person things can come out right. But it’s not saying if you’re meek or subservient you’ll be rewarded.” Cinderella gains some of her strength As a ballet, Cinderella has a lengthy pedigree. It debuted in St. Petersburg, from the four Spirits (seasonal fairies in Prokofiev’s score), who, while Russia in 1893, choreographed by Marius Petipa with Enrico Cecchetti and teaching her to dance, imbue her with such gifts as elegance and lightness Lev Ivanov, famous “fathers” of classical ballet. (This was when ballerina of being. The steps she learns form the basis of her solo at the Prince’s ball. Pierina Legnani first whipped out an unheard-of 32 consecutive fouettés— pirouettes in which one leg repeatedly extends and whips in, foot to knee Cinderella’s Prince, too, is more complex than in traditional versions—more — a feat that is now a standard of virtuosity.) The West had to wait until 1938 than “just a handsome mug,” Wheeldon says. He and Lucas gave the Prince to see a Cinderella, and when the chance came, it was Michel Fokine’s a childhood—and a servant who happens to be his best friend. In a classic one-act version in London, which added the role of Cinderella’s cat. In 1948, mistaken-identity plot device, the Prince masquerades as the servant, so Sir Frederick Ashton made a Cinderella for Sadler’s Wells Ballet in London, “the Prince sees who Cinderella really is,” says Lucas. “She isn’t reacting and it was the first English full-length ballet done in the tradition of the to someone’s status; she is treating him [respectfully] as she would the 19th-century classics. He based it on the Perrault fairy tale and used the lowliest person, something he isn’t used to experiencing. He has no idea Prokofiev score. Ashton revived an old tradition by casting men—including that Cinderella is also hiding her identity.” himself—as the Ugly Sisters. Margot Fonteyn, his choice for Cinderella, was injured during rehearsals, and so it was Moira Shearer of The Red Shoes– But what’s a story without a setting? Wheeldon chose Julian Crouch to do fame who created the title role. the sets and costumes because of his “very fantastical approach to design. He always seems to embrace the darker side of the fairy tales he’s done,” Ashton’s Cinderella was followed by an onslaught of productions. he says. Crouch had designed for theater, opera, and musicals, but ballet Among them, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Peter Anastos made Cinderella for was a new world for him. And he discovered that “it needs to be fluid. American Ballet Theatre in 1984; like Fokine’s, it included Cinderella’s Cat. I think this Cinderella is more fluid than the traditional. It moves scene to Baryshnikov had never danced this ballet in Russia; it was the music that scene more rapidly; it has more locations. So for me it’s been an exercise

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 51 in suggestion, really—I’ve had to suggest a location and support the PERFORMANCE DATES atmosphere and then move fluidly to the next one.” As for the costumes, he says there’s “a looseness about them. Fairy tales are ‘once upon Tuesday 01/21 7:30 pm a time,’ not ‘once upon 1870.’” The period is the 1800s “but spread over Wednesday 01/22 7:30 pm the century,” he says. “Each character is allowed to drift a bit in time. Thursday 01/23 7:30 pm I’d say it’s timeless; in that sense it has a fluidity as well.” Friday 01/24 8:00 pm

Crouch describes his design method as “like a purifying process.” Set Saturday 01/25 2:00 pm designs come before those for costumes, and he starts by collecting Saturday 01/25 8:00 pm images that spark his imagination. “You collect these things and they Sunday 01/26 2:00 pm become the beginning of a conversation with yourself, but also with the Saturday 02/01 2:00 pm people you’re collaborating with.” The images lead to ideas, which then develop into a design concept. Saturday 02/01 8:00 pm Sunday 02/02 2:00 pm One of Crouch’s collaborators is award-winning puppeteer Basil Twist, whose primary role was to make the tree be more than scenery— CINDERELLA a character that would, in effect, dance. The mechanics aren’t that difficult, he says; it’s just like moving any piece of scenery. But then “you get to the Composer: Sergei Prokofiev moment when you’re choreographing for the tree, to the music, and you’re Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon saying, ‘Now it makes this shape; now it’s that shape.’ You feel the tree as you would a dancer. That’s when it comes alive.” Assistant to the Choreographer: Jacquelin Barrett Libretto: Craig Lucas Twist has done many productions involving dance and music, and his work Scenic and Costume Design: Julian Crouch spans continents. (His Obie Award–winning Symphonie Fantastique, an underwater puppetry and art extravaganza set to Hector Berlioz’ score, Lighting Design: Natasha Katz ran for two years and caught Wheeldon’s eye.) But of everything Twist has Tree and Carriage Sequence Direction/Design: Basil Twist created, what holds particular meaning for him is the tree in Cinderella. Projection Design: Daniel Brodie “This is maybe corny, but as a child I always used to go to [SF Ballet’s] Nutcracker,” he says. “And the tree growing onstage—it’s one of the Scenic Associate: Frank McCullough reasons I work in the theater. I so loved that moment.” So he’s thrilled, he says, to be “doing my own tree on the same stage.” Cinderella© by Christopher Wheeldon World Premiere: December 13, 2012—Dutch National Ballet, The tree’s foliage and movement are enhanced by projections—not in Het Muziektheater; Amsterdam, Netherlands a major way, Couch says, but to “support the atmosphere, like the lighting does.” And that’s where Lighting Designer Natasha Katz comes in. To her, U.S. Premiere: May 3, 2013—San Francisco Ballet, this ballet is “about transitions. Cinderella has moments of revelation and War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California transition, and they’re all tapered to a place of joy.” What that means in terms of lighting, she says, is that “you can’t have light without darkness. The 2013 San Francisco Ballet premiere of Cinderella was made possible The lighting really is the chiaroscuro of emotion. We’re going to have by New Productions Fund Lead Sponsors Mrs. Jeannik Méquet Littlefield, darkness when it’s emotionally dark, and we’re going to have joy when and Mr. and Mrs. John S. Osterweis; Major Sponsors Rudolf Nureyev Dance we’re supposed to have joy. And that is light and fluffy and beautiful and fun.” Foundation, and Larry and Joyce Stupski; and Sponsors Richard C. Barker, Christine H. Russell Fund of the Columbia Foundation, Suzy Kellems What’s most exciting about this Cinderella, says Katz, “is that it’s Dominik, Stephanie Barlage Ejabat, Gaia Fund, The William Randolph completely new, that we all started from the same place together.” She Hearst Foundation, Cecilia and Jim Herbert, and Diane B. Wilsey. wasn’t one of those little girls who dreamed of being Cinderella—but if she had been, she says, “this is the one I would have dreamed about.”

PRODUCTION CREDITS Music: Cinderella, Op. 87 by Sergei Prokofiev, used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. Masks constructed by Julian Crouch. Projection Programmer, Patrick Southern. Scenic construction by Het Muziektheater Scenic and Paint Shop. Special thanks to Oliver Haller, Head of Costume Department for Dutch National Ballet. Costume construction by Das Gewand, Maßschneiderei Rainer Schoppe, Lowland Tailors, Sacha Keir and Phil Reynolds, Kim Schouten, Esther Datema, Bert Nuhaan, and Klaus Schreck. Cinderella is a co-production of San Francisco Ballet and Dutch National Ballet.

San Francisco Ballet in Wheeldon’s Cinderella© // © Erik Tomasson

52 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE CLASSICAL (RE)VISION 02 FEB 11—FEB 22

Yuan Yuan Tan and Luke Ingham in Scarlett’s Hummingbird // © Erik Tomasson BESPOKE PROGRAM NOTES by Cheryl A. Ossola

In Stanton Welch’s ballet, Bespoke, expressions of love and gestures of a clock’s second hand. One dancer begins this movement, and the others caring abound. This piece, his seventh for San Francisco Ballet, is indeed join in—no one is spared the marking of time. With the central pas de deux, about love, but it’s not about romance. Instead, Welch explores the love of quiet and poignant, the next stage begins. There’s a struggle here—the dancers for their art form—the technique of ballet, the artistry, the rush of man is moving on and the woman can’t accept it. The last movement, live performance. It’s an intense relationship, and one that’s all too fleeting. dominated by walking (symbolizing togetherness) and rocking motifs, is about aging dancers being left behind as class and ballet companies That intensity, and the brevity of a dance career, occupy Welch’s thoughts go on, eternal. quite often these days. “It’s a deep love dancers have with ballet,” says Welch, artistic director of Houston Ballet. “I don’t think many professions At times the dancers race across the stage and disappear into the wings, have that commitment, where you love it and when you’re around age 30 to a device prompted in part by Welch’s memory of when he first came to 40, it leaves you.” With the realization that his dancing days are behind him, the United States from Australia and saw how much space the American Welch longed to turn back the clock. And so clock imagery, the idea of time dancers covered. “It’s thrilling to see,” he says. The other impetus behind passing, persists throughout this ballet. this sprinting is the idea that the ballet takes place in a universe we see only part of. “So when [the dancers] shoot across the stage, they’re just Bespoke begins with a solo man moving in silence. Welch hadn’t planned doing a pas de deux on another stage.” to start that way, but the idea emerged as he worked with Principal Dancer Angelo Greco. “He’s young and he’s fearless,” Welch says. “He’s This is all subtext, however. What’s on the surface are steps that delve exactly what we should be when we first fall in love with ballet.” In the deeply into the intricacies of two violin concertos from the early 1700s, first movement, the dancers are “vital and alive,” Welch says, with stellar the only two by Johann Sebastian Bach that have survived their own technique—a truth that’s gloriously apparent in the opening moments passage of time. For Welch, illuminating the music is part of the joy of of silence. choreographing. Bach has many layers, he says, and “the deeper you get into it, the richer it is.” Through movement, he points out melodies, Along with demonstrating brilliant technique, the brief solo introduces rhythms, accents, undertones. “Great choreographers like [Jiří] Kylián and some of the movement motifs that characterize Bespoke. One is the Balanchine . . . always teach me something about music,” he says. “You go “ticking” of straight arms; they snap into place, replicating the movement of home and re-listen to it and go, ‘Wow, that is how that’s phrased.’”

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 53 a tiny twisting movement, you’d swear you could see his intercostal muscles engage. This is an artist who knows, with minute specificity, what he wants.

And what Scarlett wants is movement that comes from deep in the body. When he makes a miniscule adjustment in how a dancer originates a movement, the nature of the movement changes completely. It’s like altering one pixel and having the effect go widescreen. What he’s seeking is “something that’s breathing, from the lungs and from the heart, from the back,” Scarlett says. “Like an earthquake epicenter, it ripples out. It’s using your breath; it’s using your natural body rhythm. It has a human quality because it’s using everything you have.”

Despite Scarlett’s attention to nuance, he works quickly, so much so that Principal Dancer Sasha De Sola says keeping up with him wasn’t easy. It was as if the choreography was “escaping from him,” she says, “and we were trying to catch it. He has a really good sense of dynamic and syncopation and things that make what could be simple steps much more interesting.”

For this commission, Scarlett chose what seems like, on casual listening, simple music, ’ 2000 Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra Mathilde Froustey and Carlo Di Lanno in Welch’s Bespoke // © Erik Tomasson (so called because it was partially supported by the Tirol Tourist Board). However, when you listen to Tirol Concerto with a choreographer’s ear, It’s phrasing, but it’s also texture, from the staccato “ticking” to an elastic it’s far from simple. “I think every choreographer should tackle a piece of push through flexed wrists, counterpointed by the flick of a pointed foot. Glass at some point,” Scarlett says. “It’s a complex, methodical, layered An arm motif that arcs in a swimming motion looks courtly when done piece [with] different counterpoint melodies from what you’d expect.” with one arm; with two, it’s contemporary. Welch’s “hands of a clock” motif came from wanting to “start with this sort of cross shape,” he says, crossing What drew Scarlett most was the second movement, which he describes his arms to demonstrate. “That was geometry, because I find that my first as “beautiful and touching,” he says. “It has kind of a Maurice Ravel’s reaction to Bach, often, is that it’s very metered and mathematical.” Other Bolero-style building and layering.” De Sola calls the choreography for embellishments are very human: a dancer runs her brow along her forearm; that movement “mesmerizing. I love how just the girls come out,” she says, a hand rebounds off a chest; a man “conducts” his partner’s turns. “and we do very simple [steps], not really dancing, but hands and weight changes, wrist flicks and things we don’t often do in ballets.” Welch calls these dancers “fantastically musical,” a trait he thinks is one of the Company’s strengths. “[Principal Dancer] Frances [Chung] is a great De Sola is talking about what Scarlett calls “heightened senses,” model of that—she could do the same step 50 times and just change an elevation of the ordinary to something less tangible and attainable. it by accent, and that’s great dancing, and clever. I wanted to make that In part of the second movement, “the dancers are just walking,” he says, [musicality] part of the work because I think that’s San Francisco.” “but somehow it’s transcended into something more; it’s gone past ballet technique. It’s the subtleties of the simplistic stuff that I find fun to hone in on. I can spend hours on a look, or how you can get there. In essence, it’s trying to make it as real as possible, so that you do have moments HUMMINGBIRD of forgetting it’s a dance piece you’re watching, because it’s so human.” PROGRAM NOTES by Cheryl A. Ossola

In today’s contemporary ballet–minded world, it’s not often that you find a young choreographer who unabashedly defends classicism. Enter 32-year- old Liam Scarlett, artist-in residence at The Royal Ballet since 2012. “The classical tradition is embedded in me,” says the choreographer, who trained at The Royal Ballet School. “I love working from where I’ve come from, using all the technique I’ve been taught and then trying to put a twist on it.”

In Hummingbird, his first ballet for the Company, Scarlett shows his roots (the tradition) and perspective (the twist). Clearly built on classicism, and set to music by Philip Glass, Hummingbird is three-dimensional not only in terms of space but in Scarlett’s approach to movement. On a macro scale, there’s depth in how he uses levels and fills the space, complexity in his groupings and movement on and off the stage—a sense of fullness that’s also there on a micro scale, in the body. When he demonstrates San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett’s Hummingbird // © Erik Tomasson

54 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE SANDPAPER BALLET limited by their conventions. The works he created reflected who he was; PROGRAM NOTES intensely musical and beautifully structured, they were also funny and by Caitlin Sims occasionally a bit outrageous, too. You felt like you came out of a MMDG performance knowing a little bit more about Morris, or at least how he felt Mark Morris loathes program notes. Or so we’ve read in his new about a range of different things, particularly music. autobiography Out Loud. So if you’d like to pop out to the bar for a drink or chat with a friend before the performance instead of reading this, you have When Helgi Tomasson commissioned the Company’s first Morris work in his blessing. All you know right now is enough to enjoy Sandpaper Ballet in 1994, he knew from the start that he didn’t want it to be a one-time thing. the way Morris intended it. And it wasn’t: Morris has created a total of eight new works for SF Ballet, including the full-length story ballet Sylvia. Still here? Great. Because Sandpaper Ballet, Mark Morris, and Morris’ relationship with San Francisco Ballet are fascinating, even beyond But back to Sandpaper Ballet. Morris is known as an intensely what you’ll see onstage in the Opera House. First, some context: Morris “musical” choreographer, someone who is both inspired by and deeply choreographed Sandpaper Ballet in 1999. It was the third work he had knowledgeable about music—a wide, eclectic range of music. After created for San Francisco Ballet after Maelstrom (1994) and Pacific (1995). having worked with SF Ballet dancers and, importantly, being suitably SF Ballet also performed his Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes in 1996. impressed by the SF Ballet Orchestra, Morris decided to choreograph Three commissions in five years is remarkable in any circumstances, a ballet that featured a big orchestral work—featuring 11 pieces by more so for a choreographer known for a modern dance aesthetic to be 20th-century American “pops” composer Leroy Anderson. Sandpaper commissioned by a classical ballet company. And yet Morris has always Ballet is bookended with Anderson hits, starting with “Sleigh Ride” and been an artist who defies easy categorization. ending with “Syncopated Clock.”

The vast majority of ballet choreographers come to the job through “Mark had always loved the music of Leroy Anderson,” says Tina Fehlandt, a similar path: they train in ballet, dance professionally with a large ballet who staged Sandpaper Ballet on San Francisco Ballet. “He really admires company, and start to create works for that same company (or company the orchestration. And he likes to introduce music to people. He loved this school) while still dancing. Morris spent his younger years as part of a folk piece called ‘The Sandpaper Ballet.’ It didn’t work as music for the ballet, dance collective in Seattle then moved to New York and started his own but he named the piece Sandpaper Ballet because he wanted people to modern dance troupe, Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG), in 1980. If his wonder about the song, then go listen to it.” NB: A tribute to vaudeville earliest years as a choreographer weren’t buoyed by the imprimatur of soft-shoe dancing, it features the sound of sandpaper sanding—and is well a large arts organization (although they quickly came calling), nor was he worth a listen.

San Francisco Ballet in Morris’ Sandpaper Ballet // © Erik Tomasson

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 55 Sandpaper Ballet incorporates 16 women and nine men, who start in and continually return to a five-by-five person grid. For all the light-heartedness in the music, the ballet is rigorous in its composition. “Mark is very mathematically and structurally inclined,” explains Fehlandt. “He has this incredible way of manipulating and maneuvering large groups to make formations that are architecturally satisfying.” For the “Syncopated Clock,” dancers are divided neatly into two cubes: an inner square of nine men and an outer cube of 16 women.

Beyond the steps and the complexities of the grid, Fehlandt shared the ideas behind Morris’ work with the SF Ballet dancers. “I was talking with them about motivations, ideas, musicality, rhythm, and group dynamics,” she says. “And I gave them a two-sentence history of the Mark Morris Dance Group, and the idea that it’s people dancing together and not people dancing at you. The dancers here had already realized that they had to work together to make this ballet happen.”

Which, Fehlandt says, was exactly what Morris intended when he created Sandpaper Ballet. “From my point of view, Mark was in the mood to do something big and celebratory and joyful—to say to these dancers, ‘let’s San Francisco Ballet in Morris’ Sandpaper Ballet // © Erik Tomasson all dance together.’ In rehearsal, at one part of ‘The Song of the Bells,’ all of these principal dancers were holding hands and laughing hysterically. And that unmitigated joy is really, really great.”

PERFORMANCE DATES HUMMINGBIRD

Tuesday 02/11 7:30 pm Composer: Philip Glass Wednesday 02/12 7:30 pm Choreographer: Liam Scarlett Friday 02/14 8:00 pm Scenic and Costume Design: John Macfarlane Sunday 02/16 2:00 pm Lighting Design: David Finn Thursday 02/20 7:30 pm Saturday 02/22 2:00 pm World Premiere: April 29, 2014—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California Saturday 02/22 8:00 pm The 2014 world premiere of Hummingbird was made possible by Lead Sponsor Yurie and Carl Pascarella. BESPOKE

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach SANDPAPER BALLET Choreographer: Stanton Welch Composer: Leroy Anderson Costume Design: Holly Hynes Choreography: Mark Morris Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls Costume Design: Isaac Mizrahi

World Premiere: April 24, 2018—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls Opera House; San Francisco, California Assistant to Mr. Morris: Tina Fehlandt The 2018 world premiere of Bespoke was made possible by possible by Unbound Festival Presenting Sponsor Diane B. Wilsey. World Premiere: April 27, 1999—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California The 1999 world premiere of Sandpaper Ballet was made possible by The Bernard Osher Foundation, the Phyllis C. Wattis New Works Fund, and Philip Morris Companies Inc.

PRODUCTION CREDITS Bespoke – Music: Violin Concerto in A Minor BWV 1041 and E Major BWV 1042 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Costumes constructed by Cygnet Studio Inc., New York, New York. Hummingbird – Music: Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Philip Glass, ©Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc., used by permission, and by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. Costumes constructed by Parkinson Gill Ltd., London, England. Scenic construction and painting by San Francisco Ballet Carpentry and Scenic Departments at the San Francisco Opera Studios. Sandpaper Ballet – Music: “Sleigh Ride,” “The Typewriter,” “A Trumpeter’s Lullaby,” “Saraband,” “Balladette,” “Jazz Pizzicato,” “Jazz Legato,” “Fiddle-Faddle,” “The Girl in Satin,” and “Song of the Bells” used by permission of Woodbury Music Company LLC of Woodbury, CT. (All Rights Reserved). Costumes constructed by Ann Beck Dance and Specialty Costumes, San Francisco. Fabric Screening by Dye-namix, New York, NY.

56 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE DANCE INNOVATIONS 03 FEB 13—FEB 23

THE INFINITE OCEAN PROGRAM NOTES by Cheryl A. Ossola

As a dancer, Edwaard Liang loved being in a company, being part of something bigger than himself, one player in the complex, mentally and physically challenging process of creating art. After a major career in ballet and on Broadway, he turned to choreographing, a role in which he not only participates in the creative process, he drives it. Today, as a longtime choreographer and artistic director of BalletMet since 2013, Liang is known for creating dramatic works, fueled by extreme emotions. His third work for San Francisco Ballet, The Infinite Ocean, created for the Unbound festival in 2018, hovers in the space between life and death, when spirits must let go of whatever ties them to the physical world. It’s a time he calls “the awakening.”

When Liang created The Infinite Ocean in 2018, his focus personally and professionally had been on spirituality and life and death. When Liang was 13, his father died of cancer; in recent years, many of his friends have grappled with terminal illnesses. The idea behind this ballet began to simmer when he got a Facebook message from one of those friends: “I will see you on the other side of the infinite ocean.”

Before coming to San Francisco, Liang had tackled the life-after-death theme with 13th Heaven at Singapore Dance Theatre, but he wanted to work more with the idea of the transition to death. It’s how that transition occurs that captivates him; he wanted to create something different from what most people might imagine. For his music, he turned to composer Oliver Davis, with whom he’d worked on 13th Heaven. “I like that he writes such a quirky, interesting blend of minimalist music but with this baroque feel,” says Liang. “And he loves to work with strings, and I really wanted a violin concerto [for this ballet]. So it was a natural fit.”

To prepare, Liang pondered what he wanted the dancers to think about. “These are the same questions I was going to ask myself,” he says. “Who would you like to see [before you go]? And it doesn’t have to be who—what would you like to see? What touches and moves and inspires you about the unknown? And whatever your belief is, what is it that makes your heart sing? We want to be heard, we want to be seen, we want to feel connected to something. What does that mean to you?” The dancers’ responses would inform and individualize their movement.

Yuan Yuan Tan in Liang’s The Infinite Ocean // © Erik Tomasson

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 57 When the ballet opens, the “transitioners” are struggling with these THE BIG HUNGER WORLD PREMIERE questions. “Everybody’s in silhouette,” Liang says, “and they’re walking PROGRAM NOTES toward the infinite ocean,” toward a light source inspired by a brilliant by Caitlin Sims orb in a 2003 light installation by Olafur Eliasson at the Tate Modern in London. As they walk, they should reveal themselves as individuals, with “If there’s something I’m puzzling over,” says choreographer Trey McIntyre, their own needs and desires, Liang says. “You want to walk like the pure “I tend to work it out in a dance.” Before coming to San Francisco to create essence of you, as energy.” The Big Hunger, McIntyre was examining the human burden of being seduced by all the things of life. “As a spiritual person, I’m always trying to At first, these transitioning souls resist leaving. “There’s a lot of refocus on the bigger picture,” he says, “and to get out of being tricked by reconnecting with each other, disconnecting,” Liang says. “But they’re the minutiae.” really not looking at each other, not until a little bit later, when they’re reliving their relationships.” In a duet created on Principal Dancers Sofiane It’s a feeling that McIntyre explores in his new work, the genesis of which Sylve and Tiit Helimets, the interaction is “soft, spiritual, romantic,” Liang is like a nesting doll, with each layer of inspiration opening to reveal yet says. Another couple is young, facing the loss of promise and potential another. While working in Australia in 2019, McIntyre encountered the when their lives are cut short. A men’s dance, “a choppy adventure,” shows Korean film Burning, itself based on a short story by Haruki Murakami. In the angst involved in letting go of life, he says. the film, a central character talks about the Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert and their philosophy of life’s two hungers: the little hunger (a physical need In a central duet, Liang plays with the idea of soulmates. Their relationship for sustenance) and the big hunger (an existential search for purpose). is tumultuous, “a constant circling and trying to find each other,” he says. For this couple, especially the woman, accepting that it’s time to leave This duality immediately resonated with McIntyre, and so he brought it to bodily life is more difficult than it is for the others. “Obviously there’s some his choreography. “Within the context of the ballet, I take the little hunger unresolved thing,” Liang says. to mean all the things we create to make our reality more manifest . . . to justify and support our human-ness,” he says. “Whereas the big hunger is One day, during a rehearsal break, Liang turned on the music and started the need for meaning and why we’re doing all these things.” Conflict arises dancing. He began slowly, moving with concentration and obvious emotion. “when we assign big-hunger value to little-hunger pursuits,” he adds, “and Maybe it was then that he got the first inkling of what he realized when because all the physical things in this life eventually crumble and fail us the rough draft of the ballet was done—that it is “a love letter to my father,” in the end.” he says. “It’s been so long since his death that I didn’t realize how desperate I am to reconnect with him. That was my journey through this process.” Another layer emerged when McIntyre met with designer Thomas Mika in a bar last summer to discuss sets and costumes. In trying to explain his ideas for The Big Hunger, McIntyre scanned the room, looking for a concrete example that could illuminate the ballet’s conceptual framework. He seized upon the “exit man,” the widely recognizable graphic of a green man striding toward a doorway. “It has a meaning that we all take for granted,” McIntyre explains. “It’s how you keep yourself safe if there’s an emergency. The piece is about people overattributing significance to tangible things. For instance, a bomb could go off and the stairs wouldn’t be there anymore, or in two hundred years the stairs will have crumbled, and that sign’s light will be out.” The ballet’s design features a series of rooms that decay and crumble, one by one. The symbol of the exit sign starts small, breaks, grows to dominate the space—then crumbles as well.

McIntyre also found the music for The Big Hunger while working in Australia, when he asked Queensland Ballet music director Nigel Gaynor what music he’d most like to see danced. Gaynor’s response, Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, is dramatic, elaborate, and notoriously difficult to play. “It’s so complex and original, and somehow melodic and danceable,” says McIntyre, “but also discordant and strange, and off-putting and embracing and lovely.”

A prodigiously talented pianist, Prokofiev often wrote his piano concertos to perform himself. With this piece, he set out to compose with greater emotional depth. He wrote in his autobiography that this second piano concerto, created in his early 20s in St Petersburg, was a reaction to critics saying his first piano concerto had “showy brilliance and certain ‘acrobatic’ tendencies.” The music that premiered in 1913 is not exactly what we hear today—Prokofiev left the score behind when he left Russia (arriving in the U.S. via Angel Island in 1918) and it was destroyed in a fire. He reconstructed the work for a 1924 performance in Paris, with significant revisions. “It almost has a jazziness to it,” says McIntyre. “And there’s certainly a sense of doom and grandeur. There are also just moments of pure joy and goofiness at the same time.” Divided into four movements, the work is monumentally challenging, with extended cadenzas and San Francisco Ballet in Liang’s The Infinite Ocean // © Erik Tomasson non-stop virtuosity—even Prokofiev was nervous to play it.

58 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE McIntyre took time to get to know the music, to absorb its nuances and Etudes was a departure for the Royal Danish Ballet, which at the time of the internalize its concepts, before starting to choreograph. “Because it’s premiere, performed mostly narrative works. By 1948, George Balanchine complex, I sat with the score for weeks and weeks. It’s in me for sure,” he had introduced American audiences to abstract ballet, but it wasn’t yet says. “Particularly with this piece of music, I’ve got to make sure that I’ve as common in Denmark. As artistic director, Lander revitalized the Royal got something to add. Why merely illustrate this Prokofiev score? So I Danish Ballet. He both created new work and restored its heritage—the make conscious choices to be counter, to exist alongside, even to ignore it work of August Bournonville, its longtime director during the mid-1800s. sometimes, but I’m still always inspired by this music.” Bournonville established the company’s characteristic style of seemingly effortless jumps, quick footwork, and simple rounded arms. Although McIntyre arrived in San Francisco to create the piece last summer with Etudes is a more abstract work, Bournonville’s style infuses parts of a suitcase, the music, a few concepts, and a willingness to experiment. Lander’s ballet like a soft perfume. “When I enter the studio, I have this treasure chest of research and inspiration that I can draw from,” he explains. “I’m very exacting with the Lander continued to update Etudes after the premiere, revising it for dancers, but I’m also very, very improvisational myself in the moment. performances in Denmark in 1951, and again in 1952 for Paris Opera Ballet, when he was directing that company. He added increasingly challenging “In terms of a phrase of choreography, I’ll see what I’m telling them come steps as well as expanded roles for three lead dancers. Lander revised the out differently in how their body approaches it, and that will change what ballet a final time for a Danish television recording in 1969. Dancing in the happens next. That’s why I don’t work out choreography ahead of time. corps de ballet for that recording was Johnny Eliasen, who came to I know it sounds kind of ‘woo woo’—but if you just take a cosmic perspective SF Ballet to stage the work. on it, we all came to be in this place, at this moment, for a reason. My only focus is to be in that moment.” The opening moment of Etudes features a single dancer, who stretches her foot into a few tendus, then bends her knees into a deep plié. In pointe Structurally, the ballet is made up of three couples and a mechanistic male shoes, balancing is more difficult than it looks. “It’s luck,” says Eliasen with corps de ballet, dressed as exit men. The first pas de deux, created on a laugh, “like buying a lottery ticket, if you’ll make it or not.” dancers Dores André and Benjamin Freemantle, is intense and volatile. “It’s built to show that, as hard as we may try to prove otherwise, there has The curtain rises on dancers doing traditional exercises at the barre, to be an end to it,” says McIntyre. “Eventually all those things just crumble with a twist. Only the lower half of the dancers are illuminated, the rest into a pile.” The second duet builds, filling the space with showiness of the stage is black. The effect is a kaleidoscopic vision of two dozen and bravura steps, and the third, when much has crumbled away, is a more disembodied limbs moving crisply through ballet steps. The “black meditative duet between two men. barre” exercises may be simple, but the exacting coordination required to synchronize them is anything but. “It’s a beautiful nightmare,” says Eliasen. In coaching the dancers, McIntyre prioritizes momentum over perfectly “It has to be so precise. There’s only one way [to learn it]—just repeat formed positions and human relationships over the actual steps. “Beyond and repeat.” the obvious extreme talent of the dancers, I was definitely developing this ballet for this company because they’re also quite smart and can operate The ballet progresses to more and more expansive steps as the dancers on a lot of different levels at once,” says McIntyre. “This piece has many leave the barre. It then shifts gears with an homage to the sylphs layers that I’m trying to hold onto. I need collaborators who can also hold (mythological air spirits) of 19th-century Romantic ballet. The Bournonville onto all those different levels.” ballet is central to the Royal Danish Ballet’s heritage, and this

With all those levels, does McIntyre mind that The Big Hunger is enjoyed for its beauty, as a little-hunger pleasure? He laughs. “We can’t reject the little hungers—we’re here to have this experience as people. And if there’s a reason that we’ve all just converged here in this moment, let’s see where it goes.”

ETUDES PROGRAM NOTES by Caitlin Sims

Etudes, French for “studies,” takes dancers’ prosaic daily ritual—ballet class—and transforms it for the stage. Designed to gradually warm up muscles and get the body aligned for the day, most ballet classes follow a standard order of exercises that start small and gradually get bigger and more complex. These same movements, even the smallest pliés and tendus, are the building blocks from which classical ballets are constructed. Etudes illuminates these classroom exercises, then illustrates how these simple steps can become art.

Etudes was choreographed in 1948 by Harald Lander, a Danish-born dancer and artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet. The initial inspiration came from composer Knudåge Riisager. On an autumn afternoon in Copenhagen, as he watched a swirl of fall leaves, Riisager heard through a window someone practicing a Carl Czerny piano exercise. He decided to orchestrate the music for a ballet, brought the score to Lander, and the

concept for Etudes was born. San Francisco Ballet in Lander’s Etudes // © Erik Tomasson

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 59 section of Etudes draws from the same well. “How we use our arm, how we use our hands—it can be difficult for companies that haven’t done Bournonville [ballets],” says Eliasen. While he tries to help dancers become fluent in the Danish style (particularly by taking time to teach that same daily ritual of company class), Eliasen also appreciates a regional accent. “It’s important they know the steps and the musicality and hopefully the right arms,” he says. “But each company should have its own identity.”

To perform Etudes requires a deep bench; in addition to three leading roles, there’s a 36-member corps de ballet that’s essential to the ballet’s success. “It’s like a watch,” says Eliasen. “There are three hands. But the hands only work if what’s behind them works.”

Lander packed an enormous amount of dancing into the 40 minutes of Etudes, much of it for the corps de ballet. Part of what has made the ballet such an enduring audience favorite is the irresistible thrill of seeing so many dancers moving at full velocity completely in sync. Etudes culminates with one of the most thrilling displays of turns and jumps in ballet. “It’s brilliantly constructed,” says Eliasen. “The buildup of music at the end is so exciting. People everywhere love it.”

Sasha De Sola and Carlo Di Lanno in Lander’s Etudes // © Erik Tomasson

PERFORMANCE DATES THE BIG HUNGER WORLD PREMIERE

Thursday 02/13 7:30 pm Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Saturday 02/15 2:00 pm Choreographer: Trey McIntyre Saturday 02/15 8:00 pm Scenic and Costume Design: Thomas Mika Tuesday 02/18 7:30 pm Lighting Design: Jim French Wednesday 02/19 7:30 pm World Premiere: February 13, 2020—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Friday 02/21 8:00 pm Opera House; San Francisco, California Sunday 02/23 2:00 pm ETUDES

THE INFINITE OCEAN Ballet by Harald Lander Composer: Oliver Davis Choreography: Harald Lander Choreographer: Edwaard Liang Composer: Knudåge Rilsager, after Carl Czerny Scenic Design: Alexander V. Nichols Staged by: Johnny Eliasen Costume Design: Mark Zappone Artistic Advisor: Lise Lander Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls Lighting Design: Harald Lander, Craig J. Miller World Premiere: April 26, 2018—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial World Premiere: January 15, 1948—Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Theater; Opera House; San Francisco, California Copenhagen, Denmark The 2018 world premiere of The Infinite Oceanwas made possible San Francisco Ballet Premiere: February 3, 1998—War Memorial Opera by Unbound Festival Presenting Sponsor Diane B. Wilsey and Grand House; San Francisco, California Benefactor Sponsor Denise Littlefield Sobel.

PRODUCTION CREDITS The Infinite Ocean – Music: Original composition by Oliver Davis used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. Costumes constructed by Mark Zappone et Co., Seattle, Washington. Scenic construction and painting by San Francisco Ballet Carpentry and Scenic Departments. The Big Hunger – Music: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16, used by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. Costumes constructed by Parkinson Gill Ltd. London, United Kingdom. Scenic construction and painting by San Francisco Ballet Carpentry and Scenic Departments. Etudes – Music: Knudåge Riisager’s Etudes after themes of Carl Czerny, used by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. Costumes courtesy of Boston Ballet.

60 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE A MIDSUMMER 04 NIGHT’S DREAM MAR 06—MAR 15

Esteban Hernandez as Puck in Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream // Choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust // © Erik Tomasson // Photoshop Composite by Sky Alsgaard

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 61 PROGRAM NOTES by Caitlin Sims

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” laments Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Shakespeare’s comedy, an evening of mischief, merriment, and mismatched couples reaches a pinnacle when the fairy queen Titania falls madly in love—with an actor with the head of a donkey. It’s enchantment as revenge by the fairy king Oberon. The mishaps accelerate when the realms of fairies and mortals intersect in the forest after dark. Oberon and his servant Puck’s attempts to simplify the tangled relationships of two human couples only creates more misunderstanding.

As a child, George Balanchine played the role of an elf in a production of the play at the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The text stayed with him; decades later he would recite in Russian, “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows.” Balanchine considered creating a production of Midsummer for years before he actually created his two-act ballet in 1962. It was his second full-length story ballet (Nutcracker was first) and the first wholly original full-length ballet he had choreographed in America.

For Balanchine, the biggest inspiration for—and obstacle to—a full-length Midsummer Night’s Dream had been the score. He adored Mendelssohn’s Midsummer music, but there wasn’t enough of it. Mendelssohn had composed music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream in two parts. After reading the play at age 17, he wrote a concert overture, a shimmering work capturing the magic and whimsy of the play in music. Sixteen years later, King Frederick William IV of Prussia commissioned Mendelssohn to expand upon this for Ludwig Tieck’s production of the play. Mendelssohn wrote Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Lesley Rausch and Ezra Thomson in Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream // © Angela Sterling incidental music that included songs (“Ye spotted snakes”), melodramas (text spoken over music), and purely orchestral music such as the well- known Wedding March. In Balanchine’s creation, Shakespeare’s five-act play is condensed into two acts, the first of which contains all of the narrative. The second act “Balanchine took time to find all the perfect pieces of music that would effectively replaces the “play within a play” with a “ballet within a ballet” weave the ballet together musically,” explains Balanchine Trust répétiteur in the court of the Duke of Athens. It’s a triple wedding celebration (for Sandra Jennings, who staged Midsummer on San Francisco Ballet. the two sets of lovers; plus Theseus, the Duke of Athens; and his bride His knowledge of music was exceptional for a choreographer: the son Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons), a display of pure dance. The first of a composer, he grew up playing the piano and studied music theory act illuminates the many ways love can be distorted and derailed, while the and piano at the Petrograd Conservatory of Music while dancing in the second act pays tribute—particularly in a tender, sublime pas de deux— . In assembling a score for Midsummer, Balanchine drew to the vision of an ideal partnership. from several other Mendelssohn works: overtures to Athalie, The Fair Mesuline, The First Walpurgis Night for the first act, and Symphony No. 9 and the overture to Son and Stranger in the second act. MIDSUMMER IN SAN FRANCISCO

Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was last danced by San Francisco Ballet 35 years ago, just as Helgi Tomasson was arriving in MANIFESTING MIDSUMMER THROUGH MOVEMENT San Francisco as the Company’s new artistic director. The ensuing gap Balanchine believed that when the curtain goes up, audience members in performances was due to a practical rather than an artistic constraint: should be able to easily grasp both narrative and character relationships. SF Ballet didn’t have a suitable production. When Martin Pakledinaz, who With this mindset, a play with four different plots and almost a dozen central designed SF Ballet’s Nutcracker and Don Quixote, designed a Midsummer characters would seem monumentally challenging to tell in movement alone, production for Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB), incorporating Northwest particularly for a choreographer who had won widespread acclaim for his flora and fauna, Tomasson took note and requested to rent the production abstract, plotless ballets. And yet, the genius of Balanchine’s Midsummer from PNB. “It’s very, very beautiful,” he says. “Marty’s work, as always, is is that he makes entirely clear a complex tangle of relationships among of wonderful quality. That’s another one of the many reasons I’m delighted feuding fairies and mismatched mortals crossing paths in a moonlit forest. that Midsummer will be back this upcoming season.” “I think Balanchine did such a superb job with Midsummer,” says Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson, who danced in When a ballet hasn’t been danced in 35 years, it means that none of the Midsummer with New York City Ballet. “It has humor. It has suspense. current dancers have performed it on the Opera House stage. And yet, It has love. And even if you are not a ballet aficionado, you immediately like so many things in ballet that are passed from generation to generation, understand what’s going on.” it exists in the minds and muscle memory of SF Ballet’s artistic staff in

62 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE a myriad of different ways. Most notably, Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson Jennings balances her own experience and knowledge of the characters was known for his portrayal of Oberon when he danced with New York with allowing dancers to add their own imprint to the roles. The character City Ballet. Oberon’s variation, danced to a scherzo, is one of the most of Puck, mischievous and enigmatic, is particularly reflective of the dancer challenging male roles in the Balanchine repertory. “I loved dancing the inhabiting the part. The original Puck, as danced by Arthur Mitchell, was role,” says Tomasson, “and there were things that I remember Balanchine otherworldly and ethereal. “When a dancer really commits to it, I try to let telling me. So I pass those ideas along so we can incorporate them.” them find it themselves,” says Jennings. “Arthur Mitchell was an amazing Puck, light like a fairy and mysterious. I feel like Lonnie [Weeks], who Ballet Master Ricardo Bustamante danced the role of Oberon with SF Ballet has an amazing imagination, is a little like Arthur; whereas Lucas [Erni] is in 1985. Before he departed to join American Ballet Theatre, Bustamante creating a bit of a funnier character, and Esteban [Hernandez] is so cute had just one rehearsal with the newly arrived Tomasson. “It’s in his DNA and mischievous. All of these characterizations are completely acceptable in a way that’s just wonderful,” says Bustamante. “In that one rehearsal, and wonderful.” he changed the dynamics in my body, from the quickness of the footwork to my approach to dancing.” And the role of Hippolyta, the Queen of the Jennings also stresses that within the confusion among the mismatched Amazons, was created on Gloria Govrin, who later became director of love rectangle of Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, there SF Ballet School. One of her students, Principal Dancer Jennifer Stahl, is innocent disregard, instead of any malice. “When we first started will dance the role this season. rehearsing, I felt like the Demetrius-es were a little too rough. And that didn’t feel right in this era,” she says. “So then they toned it down, but they toned it down too much so that it wasn’t funny. It’s a balance.” A SERIOUS BALLET WITH A COMEDIC TWIST The children who dance as bugs have some of the ballet’s sweetest Balanchine Trust répétiteur Sandra Jennings says that one of the most and most magical moments: introducing the fairy realm; consoling the challenging elements of setting the ballet is helping the dancers embody heartbroken Helena, then falling asleep in a tiny heap; zipping across the Shakespeare’s characters in a way that both propels the story forward and floor as Oberon skims just above it; and reclaiming the fairy realm at the captures its humor. “A lot of dancers are good at acting in serious roles. end of the ballet. There are 25 students from San Francisco Ballet School This is a serious ballet with a comedic twist,” she says. “It shouldn’t be over in the ballet: one as the changeling fought over by Titania and Oberon and the top, but it does need to be funny.”

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Laura Tisserand and Kyle Davis, with PNB School students, in Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream // © Angela Sterling

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 63 24 bugs who form a corps de ballet. “In my experience, it’s a life-changing this is a magical place to go to. I wondered if the dancers would go there, experience for kids to do this ballet,” says Jennings. “Balanchine was it they could find it,” she says. “But I’m so impressed with this company. so great with children. He treats them as if they are part of the company. These dancers have been really committed to it.” They’re out there dancing with the leading dancers, in a magical world.”

It’s a magical world Jennings hopes we can all inhabit, at least for a few hours. “I was thinking, the first week I started working on the ballet here in San Francisco, that in this day and age, when it’s a rough time in the world,

San Francisco Ballet rehearsing Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream // Choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust // © Erik Tomasson

PERFORMANCE DATES A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Friday 03/06 8:00 pm Ballet in Two Acts and Six Scenes Saturday 03/07 2:00 pm Composer: Felix Mendelssohn Saturday 03/07 8:00 pm Choreographer: George Balanchine Sunday 03/08 2:00 pm Staged by: Sandra Jennings Tuesday 03/10 7:30 pm Scenic & Costume Design: Martin Pakledinaz Wednesday 03/11 7:30 pm Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli Thursday 03/12 7:30 pm

Saturday 03/14 2:00 pm World Premiere: January 17, 1962—New York City Ballet, City Center of Saturday 03/14 8:00 pm Music and Drama; New York, New York Sunday 03/15 2:00 pm San Francisco Ballet Premiere: March 12, 1985—War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California © The George Balanchine Trust

PRODUCTION CREDITS Music: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op. 21; selections from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Incidental Music, Op. 61; Overture to Athalie, Op. 74; The Fair Melusine Overture, Op. 32; Overture to The First Walpurgis Night, Op. 60; Allegro and Andante from Symphony No. 9 for Strings; Son and Stranger Overture, Op. 89. This performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a Balanchine© Ballet, is presented by arrangement with the George Balanchine Trust and has been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style© and Balanchine Technique© service standards established and provided by the Trust. Scenery, Properties, and Costumes Courtesy of PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET, Peter Boal, Artistic Director.

64 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE BALLET ACCELERATOR 05 MAR 24—APR 04

Mathilde Froustey and Tiit Helimets in Tomasson’s 7 For Eight // © Erik Tomasson

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 65 7 FOR EIGHT PROGRAM NOTES by Cheryl A. Ossola

“Bach is timeless.” So says San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Finn nods his agreement. “Helgi has a quiet fortitude about what he’s Tomasson about his 7 for Eight, an elegant, black-on-black construction doing—and being so strong about what he wants to do, he can remain set to four keyboard concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. He says he open to so many ideas. You get the sense that he expects you to bring the wanted to make a ballet to the revered composer’s music because of its full gamut of your creativity to the process. He looks at everything and then “complexity and beautiful melodies.” he shapes it.”

This work isn’t the artistic director’s first foray into Bach (he made Aurora Clothed in elegant black and dancing on a minimalist stage, the eight Polaris in 1991), but it took until 2004 for him to feel truly ready to take on a dancers in 7 for Eight cycle through a complex series of theme and composer who arguably represents the pinnacle of Baroque music. “I think variations fitted neatly into seven musical movements. Repeated in some ways, consciously or unconsciously, having done Concerto Grosso motifs accent its cyclical nature. “My intent was to have it be seamless, [which premiered at the 2003 Gala and was set to the music of Francesco continuous,” says Tomasson. That sense of flow is pervasive, surviving Geminiani] was steering me in the direction of Baroque music. Bach is even pronounced tempo changes. We see it when the couple who dance the best—why not take the challenge? I love this music and I feel it’s very the opening movement return in their second adagio, entering as if they’ve danceable; it has a lot of motion. George Balanchine gave me advice about never stopped dancing. The choreographer describes this dance as choreographing: You have to love the music—that’s half the battle. If you “a continuation of the first, very contained pas de deux. I started with an don’t love it, it’s going to be very, very difficult. This music is so pure; it was adagio because I felt it immediately set the stage for what Bach is all about, a challenge for me to come up to that. It doesn’t need anything from me.” and the way I envisioned it was very confined—it’s within a perimeter, inside a pool of light. The second one is more expanded and challenging— Bach composed these keyboard concertos between 1729 and 1741, during bigger, with more daring lifts. Even though they are different, there’s his years as director of the college of music in Leipzig established by a connection.” Then, in a pas de deux that begins as a counterpoint, the composer Georg Philipp Telemann. In those days, of course, “keyboard” steps of the two men fleetingly become more similar before returning to meant the harpsichord, which until then had been relegated to its their contrast in phrasing. And we see it in the solo: “It begins majestic and traditional station as a continuo instrument. Nobody else had seen fit to strong,” Tomasson says, “and in the middle it becomes very fast, then goes feature the harpsichord in concerto form, so Bach used earlier concertos back to the opening theme.” (for violin and orchestra, for example) as models. For 7 for Eight, Tomasson chose to use the piano, a more dynamically versatile instrument that he In a way, 7 for Eight seems like a love letter to Bach. The dancers yield believes “breathes more, from an audience’s point of view,” for all but one and flow, drape and arc, turn and wrap, revealing layer after layer of these of the concertos. Concerto in C Minor for Four Harpsichords (BWV 1065), complex compositions as they foray out to explore the work’s physical and to which a male solo is set, here is arranged for two harpsichords. “I felt emotional terrain, then circle back to center and each other. that by keeping it for harpsichord it makes the connection back to the Baroque,” says the choreographer. “I want to let the audience hear how some of these keyboard concertos were played, what the sound would be like. I wasn’t sure in the beginning that this was going to be a solo; it just became one. And then I thought that was best: keep it a solo because the MRS. ROBINSON WORLD PREMIERE sound is different.” PROGRAM NOTES by Caitlin Sims Say the words “Bach” and “ballet” and Balanchine’s may spring to mind; to many ballet enthusiasts it’s the ultimate juxtaposition of Choreographer Cathy Marston was reminded of Charles Webb’s novel the two. Tomasson agrees: In creating 7 for Eight, he says he tried to “block The Graduate—on which the 1967 film is based—while browsing in it out. Before I started I thought, ‘OK, there’s Concerto Barocco up here,” a bookstore in the summer of 2018. Her ballet Snowblind had recently he says as he holds his hand up high. “You know it’s there, but let’s draw premiered at San Francisco Ballet and her mind quickly flitted to dancers the curtain.” who could embody the central characters of Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin. Glancing at the book jacket, she learned that the book had been written In drawing the curtain on what Balanchine did, he melded these Bach in San Francisco, and something clicked. “I immediately thought—this is it,” masterpieces into a ballet that has a distinctly Tomasson point of view. says Marston. “This is the piece that I need to make for San Francisco Ballet.” “This piece has a very strong emotional quality—bubbling, raw emotions— and a lot of meaning and strength,” says Lighting Designer David Finn. Marston has become known for her skill in re-envisioning literary works “Helgi is a man of few but very strong words, and I think he relies on a sense through dance; in addition to her Jane Eyre, which premiered at Northern of the music and what he likes about it. There’s a lot about partnership, Ballet in 2016, she’s drawn inspiration from Wuthering Heights, A Tale of about relationships. It’s very elegant, very formal, but there’s this Two Cities, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Dangerous Liaisons, Lolita, and, underlying turmoil that’s very modern in some ways.” for SF Ballet’s 2018 Unbound festival, Ethan Frome. In choosing source material, she is often drawn to complex female protagonists such as Finn and Scenic and Costume Designer Sandra Woodall found themselves Mrs. Robinson. “I like characters that aren’t straightforward,” she says. in sync after seeing a rehearsal; both were immediately drawn to the “I like stories where you can’t say who’s the good one and who’s the bad formality of a simple black space with a strong focus in the center. Together, one, who’s guilty and who’s innocent.” they brought their black-on-black, light-and-shadow design concept to Tomasson. “We wanted it to have a little freshness but also have that The character of Mrs. Robinson is so embedded in American pop culture classical look,” says Woodall. “Helgi had this delightful surprise when we that calling someone a “Mrs. Robinson” conjures an immediate mental said we wanted black—he said, ‘I wasn’t thinking of that, but if it works, picture: a sophisticated, cool, calculating older woman who seduces a great.’ It’s so lovely working in this open, collaborative way.” younger man. But who really is Mrs. Robinson? “In the film, Anne Bancroft

66 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE is impenetrable,” says Marston. “And that’s genius, because it means you In addition to the central characters, Marston enlists a corps de ballet of project your own feelings onto hers. I suppose that was the inspiration for women, who move with the crisp efficiency of ideal mid-century femininity— the ballet. I wanted to get underneath the surface and find out why Mrs. and express the crippling impact of maintaining it. As the piece unfolds, the Robinson is as she is, why she does the things that she does, and make domestic goddesses are swept into the feminist movement in waves. Does specific choices based on those answers.” Mrs. Robinson join them? Marston demurs. “I like that the film is ambiguous at the end,” she says. “And I’d quite like to echo that and leave it up to the The characters of The Graduate walk a tightrope between the buttoned- audience as to the destiny of Mrs. Robinson.” up world of post-war American values and a just-emerging youth counterculture. In researching America in the 1960s, Marston realized that Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique was written the same year as The Graduate. Friedan’s watershed book introduced “the problem that has no name”—the widespread unhappiness of housewives expected to focus ANIMA ANIMUS exclusively on cultivating domestic perfection. That Mrs. Robinson herself PROGRAM NOTES has no name other than her husband’s was not lost on Marston, and the by Cheryl A. Ossola correlation of the timing of the publication of the two books gave her an idea. “Wouldn’t it be lovely to rehabilitate Mrs. Robinson, so her destiny is David Dawson’s Anima Animus, created for the 2018 Unbound festival, is, not one of the lonely alcoholic? To give her a chance to have a new life, like as he puts it, “physically emotional virtuosity combined to make something some of the women of that era went on to find?” human.” It is indeed physical, emotional, virtuosic, and human—but there’s something transcendent about this combination. It’s most tangible in the Marston has a tried-and-true method of creating narrative works, one that section Dawson calls “Angels,” when the dancers seem to move beyond involves significant planning long before she arrives in the studio to work their mortal selves into a state of throat-clenching beauty. “Don’t do with dancers. Since 2002, she has worked with dramaturg Edward Kemp, what you know,” he tells his dancers in rehearsal, “do something beyond. director of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, to map out the stories she Unbound.” creates onstage. It’s a rare collaboration in the dance field. “When I met Ed, he had systems that you don’t learn about in dance, in terms of structures, Anima Animus offers a rich mix of contrasts, most meaningful among them hooks, and just a sense of pacing and timing,” says Marston. Carl Jung’s concept of animus (the male aspect of the female psyche) and anima (the female aspect of the male psyche). Another contrast can be In reconsidering Mrs. Robinson, Marston and Kemp went through scenes found in the music by Italian composer Ezio Bosso. “It felt to me like music step by step to anchor the story in her perspective. In the film, “the camera that looks to the past and the future at the same time, much how I like to follows Benjamin very, very effectively,” Marston notes dryly. In the ballet, make dance,” Dawson says. “we’ve tried to follow Mrs. Robinson. What does she want? Need? How does she feel? Where does she want to go?” In making this ballet, Dawson found himself responding to the polarized present-day world. He understands the world’s opposites—light and dark, When she came to SF Ballet’s studios last summer, Marston worked on individual and group—“but between those opposites, there’s so much room the nuances of each character with the dancers, coloring in the details within the overarching scaffolding. She set the characters of Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson on three different pairs of dancers, embracing the distinct interpretations they brought to the characters. “They’ve all got such interesting ways to bring emotion, physicality, and themselves to the roles,” she says. “I want to celebrate that. I don’t want to make them the same.”

In reframing the story, it was important to Marston to give Mrs. Robinson some sense of agency. When viewed through Mrs. Robinson’s eyes, the story “becomes much more about a woman who’s trapped in a situation that she didn’t plan,” says Marston. “We know that she got pregnant as a student. Like so many women at that time, she fell into a life that is not what she imagined and not what satisfies her.” In a final duet with his wife, Mr. Robinson puts his arms in a circle, a protective gesture that creates a symbolic shelter. Mrs. Robinson goes under the circle, explores it, then emerges, closing his arms gently but firmly, leaving him and the protection the marriage has provided.

The film The Graduate is also, of course, known for the iconic song Mrs. Robinson, written for the film by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Because she was shifting perspectives, Marston asked composer Terry Davis to create a new score. “I was after music that was not as much about youth culture as about a woman who is in middle age,” says Marston. Davis incorporated saxophone and guitar into two distinct voices: the saxophone—with a sultry, late-night sound that references an earlier era—represents Mrs. Robinson, while the guitar adds a sense of the

simmering counterculture. Elizabeth Powell in Dawson’s Anima Animus // © Erik Tomasson

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 67 where people can have choice without judgment,” he says. Historically, To get there, he starts with an internal process—which leads us back to this some ballet steps are for women or men only; Dawson shifts this by giving idea of physically emotional virtuosity. In choreographing, “I feel my way “the opposing energy as a starting point”—in other words, giving animus through the movement,” he says. “Because for me, physicality is driven by choreography to a dancer who seems more anima, and vice versa. emotion. If someone’s angry or sad, it becomes physical—it’s expressed through the body.” In the “Angels” part of the second movement, “we go to archetype,” Dawson says. “In Jung’s philosophy, the female is the nurturer, the mother, In Bosso’s music, Dawson hears both hope and doom. “You are here to the angel, the pure. And the man is the warrior, the strong, the hero.” Even tell us something,” he tells the dancers. “You’re saying to the public, in these archetypes, the theme of contrasts shows. When the female ‘Be careful. It’s not going to end well if you keep going this way.’” Though dancers float high above the stage, “that’s when they show their form as his message acknowledges doom, it keeps reverting to hope. “I believe angels,” Dawson says. “That’s when they touch the sky and they show in the universe,” he says. “We’re energy and carbon and atomic; creation who they really are.” Dawson sends his dancers skyward, but he wants is happening all the time. That’s why I love what we do, because we’re them grounded too. In rehearsals, Dawson constantly asks the dancers embodying what life is all about.” to let their classicism go, asking for movement that is “deeper, squashed, crunched. I want it odd.”

But don’t think for a minute that Anima Animus is odd or ugly. Dawson compares traditional ballet to Rembrandt or Leonardo da Vinci, “and of course I’m not that. I don’t want to be that; I want to be [graffiti artist] Banksy. I want to take history and show somebody my view on it.”

PERFORMANCE DATES MRS. ROBINSON WORLD PREMIERE Tuesday 03/24 7:30 pm Music Composed by: Terry Davies Wednesday 03/25 7:30 pm Choreographer: Cathy Marston Friday 03/27 8:00 pm Scenic and Costume Design: Patrick Kinmonth Sunday 03/29 2:00 pm Scenario: Cathy Marston and Edward Kemp Thursday 04/02 7:30 pm Lighting Design: Jim French Saturday 04/04 2:00 pm Dramaturg: Edward Kemp Saturday 04/04 8:00 pm Choreographic Collaborator: Jenny Tattersall

7 FOR EIGHT World Premiere: March 24, 2020—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson ANIMA ANIMUS Costume Design: Sandra Woodall Composer: Lighting Design: David Finn Ezio Bosso Choreographer: David Dawson World Premiere : February 26, 2004—San Francisco Ballet, Scenic Design: John Otto War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California Costume Design: Yumiko Takeshima The 2004 world premiere of 7 for Eight was made possible by Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls

Mr. Thomas J. Perkins and The Edward E. Hills Fund. Assistant to the Choreographer: Rebecca Gladstone

World Premiere: April 21, 2018—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California

The 2018 world premiere of Anima Animus was made possible by Unbound Festival Presenting Sponsor Diane B. Wilsey and Grand Benefactor Sponsor Yurie and Carl Pascarella.

PRODUCTION CREDITS 7 for Eight – Music: Keyboard Concerto No. 5, BWV 1056 (2nd & 3rd movements); Keyboard Concerto No. 4, BWV 1055 (1st & 2nd movements); Concerto for 4 Harpsichords, BWV 1065 (2nd movement) arranged for one harpsichord; Keyboard Concerto No. 1 BWV 1052 (2nd and 1st movements). Costumes constructed by Birgit Pfeffer, Palo Alto, California. Mrs. Robinson World Premiere – Costumes constructed by Parkinson Gill Ltd. London, United Kingdom. Scenic construction and painting by San Francisco Ballet Carpentry and Scenic Departments. Anima Animus – Music: Violin Concerto #1 “Esoconcerto” by Ezio Bosso. Costumes constructed by S-Curve Apparel & Design, San Francisco, California. Scenic construction and painting by San Francisco Ballet Carpentry and Scenic Departments.

68 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE 06 PRESENT PRESPECTIVES MAR 26—APR 05

Dores André and Ulrik Birkkjaer in Millepied’s Appassionata // © Erik Tomasson CLASSICAL SYMPHONY PROGRAM NOTES by Cheryl A. Ossola

For Classical Symphony, Choreographer-in-Residence Yuri Possokhov “someday, somehow. It was on the shelf.” Then, around 2005, the idea tapped into his reservoirs of emotion and memories of his boyhood in took root. “It’s like I had to do this ballet to this music and dedicate it to Moscow, as he did for Diving Into the Lilacs. But the result couldn’t be more my teacher,” the choreographer says. The time seemed right when Artistic different. Though he described it as “just dance” during rehearsals, this Director Helgi Tomasson, after seeing a Gala performance of Possokhov’s ballet bears a dedication to Peter Pestov, the most beloved and respected Pas de Deux, suggested that his next ballet be classical. “That’s of Possokhov’s ballet teachers. Classical Symphony, the choreographer kind of rare now on the contemporary stage,” Possokhov says, “so I liked says, is a “dedication to my school, to my teacher, my background.” The the idea.” Immediately, he thought of Sergei Prokofiev’s first symphony. strong emotions driving its creation in the studio have translated into what looks like joy on the stage. Prokofiev, born in Russia in 1891 and considered one of the major composers of the 20th century, studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The school was the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, where for the last Bored by his training and critical of current practices, he began three years of his training Possokhov worked with Pestov. A teacher at experimenting with dissonance and unusual time signatures, quickly Stuttgart Ballet’s John Cranko School since 1996, Pestov has trained earning a reputation as the music world’s enfant terrible. He modeled his dozens of notable ballet dancers, including Alexei Ratmansky (former “Classical Symphony” on the style of Franz Joseph Haydn (called “the father Bolshoi Ballet artistic director and current resident choreographer of of the symphony” in the classical period of music), but with the idea to American Ballet Theatre), Vladimir Malakhov (artistic director of Berlin State write it as Haydn might have, had he lived into the 20th century. (He died in Opera Ballet and former principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre), and 1809.) Writing for a classical orchestra (two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, Nikolay Tsiskaridze (principal dancer at the Bolshoi). “Our teacher is not just bassoons, horns, trumpets, plus tympani and strings), Prokofiev paid a coach in the studio,” says Possokhov. “For us, he is like a father. He always homage to the classical form but added new ideas, making his symphony fed us if we had nothing to eat; he always educated us; he brought us to neoclassical in style. He began it in 1916, completed it the following year museums. That’s why we love him—because it was a special time for us.” during the Russian Revolution, and conducted its premiere in 1918 in Petrograd (as St. Petersburg was then called under the Bolsheviks’ regime). Possokhov links Classical Symphony, his ninth piece for San Francisco He was 26 at the time and would go on to compose hundreds of works, Ballet, to his school years and to Pestov in small, personal ways. He first including operas, ballets, piano compositions, and chamber works. heard the music, Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Classical Among his best-known ballets are Prodigal Son, choreographed by Symphony,” when Pestov gave it to him. Years later, after he began George Balanchine for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and the full-length choreographing, Possokhov thought he would create a ballet to this music Romeo and Juliet.

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 69 Just as Prokofiev pushed the classical form in new directions, Possokhov often use the extent of the dancers’ ability. Too often, he says, “you have edges into neoclassicism with Classical Symphony, particularly in the to wait for a full-length ballet to see if [someone is a] good classical dancer. second musical movement. Traditional ballet steps don’t include torso I love contemporary dancers, but dancing classical ballet is the hardest undulations and floor work, but in Possokhov’s hands they seem as natural thing. It’s not just movement,” he adds, pointing out that to attain the and organic as if a 19th-century choreographer had thought of them. proper shapes and line, dancers must hone their bodies over many years. And shades of the neoclassical influences of Balanchine can be seen in “So this ballet is also a dedication to artists who should be seen in what they Possokhov’s changeable patterns, flow of dancers on and off the stage, learned for many, many years.” and use of space. Along with its surprises for the audience, Classical Symphony held one for In his treatment of the third movement, a gavotte (a medium-paced French its creator. Whereas in the past Possokhov had often struggled to make an dance, popular in the 18th century) that Prokofiev used later in his Romeo idea work even when it seemed destined not to, he found creative choices and Juliet, Possokhov again moves in an unexpected direction. It’s precisely in Prokofiev’s music. “Sometimes I came to the studio with one idea and it because of the gavotte’s familiarity to listeners that he chose to approach was easy for me to change to another. It happened a lot; I was surprised,” it in a way that might surprise. Planning it for the men only, he first thought he says. “After making this ballet, I thought that it won’t be my last ballet of “a kind of medieval dance, like a sarabande—or because it’s a gavotte, with a classical vision.” maybe a kind of court dance.” Then, once again, memories of his childhood fueled his imagination. “I always liked to watch birds, swallows, I think,” the choreographer says. “Sometimes they are together, changing directions, plunging.” Drawing on the flight patterns of the swallows, he sends the men leaping and banking in distinctly birdlike fashion. APPASSIONATA PROGRAM NOTES Pestov, Prokofiev’s music, the swallows—for Possokhov, all of these by Caitlin Sims memories come into play in Classical Symphony. And there’s yet another connection to his boyhood. Near the end of his training, he and his Elegant precision becomes passionate abandon over the course of one classmates danced Leonid Lavrovsky’s ballet of the same name, also to this tempestuous evening in Benjamin Millepied’s Appassionata. Set to score. Drawing on that distant memory, he has incorporated the only three Beethoven’s Piano Sonata #23 (also known as the Appassionata), the steps he remembers from it. “I didn’t put exactly the steps in my ballet, but ballet follows the music’s structure, with two dramatic movements for three if people know the old ballet, they will see that they came from Lavrovsky,” couples and an intimate duet. The ballet starts with formality and decorum; Possokhov says. And his black-and-mustard color scheme, too, is a nod to as the hour gets late the costumes become less structured, pointe shoes that long-ago school production. are swapped for ballet slippers, and the women’s hair comes down. “It does get a little more wild as it goes on,” says Janie Taylor who, with Sebastien All of these tributes boil down to one feeling: respect, not only for Pestov Marcovici, staged the work on San Francisco Ballet. but also for classical ballet training. Possokhov wanted to give Classical Symphony a feeling of nobility, he says, because to him, those who are This aesthetic journey of disciplined perfection to creative spontaneity trained in classical ballet are “rare dancers. It’s like opera—many people happens also to echo the progression of Millepied’s career. After more sing, but opera singing is unique.” He laments the lack of “ballets that show than a decade as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, Millepied the beauty of classical dancers,” saying that today’s choreographers don’t shifted into choreography, working for ballet companies worldwide as well as on the film Black Swan. When he choreographed Appassionata in 2016, he was the director of Paris Opera Ballet—one of the most prestigious jobs in the field. The day before the ballet’s premiere, Millepied announced his resignation, frustrated by the slow pace of change at the venerable institution. With his wife, actor Natalie Portman, Millepied returned to Los Angeles, where he currently directs LA Dance Project, a contemporary dance company he founded in 2012, and collaborates on film and digital projects.

Appassionata is less a reflection of that turbulent time than a response to one of Beethoven’s most beloved piano sonatas, says Taylor, who danced with Millepied at New York City Ballet and now works for LA Dance Project: “Benjamin is definitely a music-driven choreographer,” she notes. Beethoven’s Appassionata, complex and mysterious, notoriously difficult to play, has been massively popular since it was published in 1807. He wrote the music during his “middle” period when, aware of his impending deafness, he had a surge of creativity, bursting away from conventional classicism (sound familiar?) into new realms of imagination so profound they helped to usher in the Romantic Era of music.

Appassionata tested the limit of the five-octave pianoforte of Beethoven’s time with storms of notes that crash up and down the keyboard like a hurricane. Millepied’s choreography, fast and expansive with ever-shifting groups of dancers, matches Beethoven’s fervor. But there are also moments of stillness in the ballet. A recurring musical motif is both familiar San Francisco Ballet in Possokhov’s Classical Symphony // © Chris Hardy and ominous—the Da-Da-Da-DUM later made famous in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. As a dancer pauses, this “knocking” motif brings another onstage, then repeats, hanging in the air between them like a question.

70 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE Ratmansky is in-demand worldwide as a choreographer who is breathing new life into the art form through his fascination with its roots and his facility with making classicism seem fresh and vibrant. His own artistic roots are in Russia. Born in St. Petersburg, Ratmansky trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow and danced with National Ballet of Ukraine before joining Royal Winnipeg Ballet, followed by Royal Danish Ballet. He then returned to Moscow to direct the Bolshoi Ballet from 2004–08 and joined ABT the following year as a choreographer.

Ratmansky also has a long history with San Francisco Ballet, the first company in the United States to commission one of his ballets, Le Carnaval des animaux, in 2003. He returned to San Francisco in 2013 to choreograph From Foreign Lands. Recent San Francisco audiences are familiar with Ratmansky’s work through his Shostakovich Trilogy, performed here in 2019 and, like The Seasons, a co-commission between SF Ballet and ABT.

“When you’re in the studio rehearsing with Alexei, you don’t feel time going by,” says Nancy Raffa, who works closely with him as a ballet master at ABT and staged his The Seasons for SF Ballet. “He’s brilliant, and his creative energy moves so quickly that you just get absorbed by it.”

Last spring, Ratmansky focused that creative energy on The Seasons, based conceptually on a ballet choreographed by Marius Petipa in 1900. Petipa (1818–1910) created many of the ballets now considered classics, such as The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, and La Bayadère. Petipa’s Madison Keesler and Steven Morse in Millepied’s Appassionata // © Erik Tomasson ballets have been passed down from person to person for more than 100 years and, in the process, have been either changed or lost. The Seasons In rehearsal Millepied urges the dancers to be more spontaneous—and to fell into the latter category: while Glazunov’s music became a concert hall focus on phrasing the movement to illuminate the subtleties of the music. favorite, Petipa’s ballet was performed only for a few years in Russia. “It needs to make more of a statement,” he says. “Just do one thing at a time. You’re in your pirouette and you’re running late—so what? I’d rather you be Ratmansky has delved deeply into the work of Petipa, starting in 2014 late. Then you have to accelerate, and then you’re alive.” with a new production of for Bayerisches Staatsballets in Munich. He referenced a collection of historical documents kept at Harvard And, of course, it’s about relationships. “Benjamin likes there to be a human University, teaching himself how to read Stepanov notation, an obsolete aspect in his pieces,” explains Taylor. “He wants dancers to interact with 19th-century notation system, in order to bring the ballet back to life as each other onstage in a very human way.” Nowhere is this more evident closely as possible to the original. Ratmansky has since reconstructed than in the second movement. Millepied watches closely as Principal Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Harlequinade, and La Bayadère Dancers Dores André and Ulrik Birkkjaer work through the ballet’s tender for companies around the world. In restoring these lost pieces of ballet and playful central duet. It’s beautifully balanced between serenity and history to the stage, he’s also become an expert in the nuances and details ecstasy, intimacy and playfulness. As they finish, he smiles. “Honestly, it of Petipa’s work. didn’t look like anyone else who has done it,” he says. “And at certain moments I almost didn’t recognize my pas de deux! But I loved it. I don’t Petipa’s The Seasons premiered at the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, want to change anything. It’s beautiful.” with a cast that included the stars of turn-of-the-century : Anna Pavlova, Nikolai Legat, Olga Probrazhenskaya, Alexander Gorsky, It’s this same expressiveness he asks all of the dancers to cultivate. “It’s and Mathilde Kschessinska. Unlike the story ballets Sleeping Beauty important that you feel free,” he explains. “You’re dancing somebody’s or Swan Lake, The Seasons had only the faintest traces of a narrative, choreography, so that’s structure that’s not yours. But within it, you have to and instead was considered an “allegorical” ballet that represented the be yourself. It should be different with every single dancer. seasons through movement.

“We want to see you,” he says emphatically. “It’s all about expression. Don’t With his new work, Ratmansky has created a completely new ballet that forget that. That’s why we dance.” draws upon his knowledge of Petipa and is inspired by Petipa’s structure and classicism. This isn’t a reconstruction—choreographic notation does not exist for The Seasons. Ratmansky did refer to Petipa’s layout for the ballet, which includes a libretto and cast of characters such as Hail, Zephyr, and the Spirit of the Corn. “He wanted to do a homage to Petipa, and THE SEASONS SF BALLET PREMIERE The Seasons is that,” says Raffa. “It’s using the structure of a Petipa ballet PROGRAM NOTES in a contemporary way.” by Caitlin Sims Each season, starting with Winter, is inspired by a force of nature. “In the What’s old is made new again in the West Coast premiere of The Seasons, very opening scene, Alexei told the dancers they should feel as if they’ve choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. Set to the Alexander Glazunov been frozen for five hundred years, and then they’re slowly unraveling into score, The Seasons is both a celebration of Ratmansky’s decade as this kind of romantic, ethereal world of different qualities of winter,” explains artist-in-residence at American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and an homage to Raffa. The female characters of Frost, Hail, Ice, and Snow dance with the choreographer Marius Petipa, the “father of classical ballet.” male Winter, until a pair of gnomes bring fire and chase away the cold.

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 71 Beyond the (multiple) leading roles, The Seasons offers a wealth of and ease of a summer day. It was created to celebrate the friendship of ABT opportunities for the corps de ballet. Winter in particular prominently Principal Dancers Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside.“Alexei wanted to features the corps; every part of the stage seems to be in constant motion. do something special for their friendship,” says Raffa. “That’s a pas de deux Raffa spent time working with some of SF Ballet’s newer dancers who are about two people that have this really deep human connection.” less familiar with Ratmansky’s work to help them embody his style. “I tried to give as much information to them as possible,” she says, “about the Fall is a lively celebration, with Bacchantes, Bacchus, and Satyrs, that freedom of the torso, the breath when they’re moving, the syncopation, leads into a finale that incorporates all four seasons. There’s an enormous and the musicality.” amount of dancing packed into one 40-minute piece. “It’s a demanding ballet on every level,” says Raffa. “That’s part of the reason why this ballet Spring arrives with a Zephyr (warm wind) dancing with a Rose and was so successful in New York. Alexei wanted it to be a showcase for the a Sparrow. “Spring is jubilant,” says Raffa. “They come out flying and dancers’ talents. joyous like birds, as all of nature is waking up.” While the structure of a corps de ballet supporting principals is that of a Petipa ballet, there’s an “It will be a different ballet on this company,” she continues, beaming. “It will effervescence to the movement that’s all Ratmansky. “Alexei has a vision feature the qualities of these dancers, who are fantastic. There’s so much of how things should move and coordinate musically,” explains Raffa. talent in San Francisco Ballet.” “He’s extremely musical, and he plays a lot with nuances and phrasing.” In Summer, in addition to a Faun and the Spirit of the Corn, there are six “families,” of Cornflowers, Water Men, and Poppies (danced by SF Ballet School students). “Summer has more fire in it,” says Raffa. A tender, gentle duet with the Zephyr and the Spirit of the Corn unfolds with the warmth

PERFORMANCE DATES APPASSIONATA

Thursday 03/26 7:30 pm Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Saturday 03/28 2:00 pm Choreographer: Benjamin Millepied Saturday 03/28 8:00 pm Staged by: Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici Tuesday 03/31 7:30 pm Scenic Design: Camille Dugas Wednesday 04/01 7:30 pm Costume Design: Alessandro Sartori Friday 04/03 8:00 pm Lighting Design: Jim French Sunday 04/05 2:00 pm World Premiere: February 5, 2016—Paris Opera Ballet (originally titled CLASSICAL SYMPHONY La Nuit S’Achève), Palais Garnier; Paris, France San Francisco Ballet Premiere: February 12, 2019—War Memorial Opera House; Composer: Sergei Prokofiev San Francisco, California Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov

Costume Design: Sandra Woodall THE SEASONS SF BALLET PREMIERE Lighting Design: David Finn Composer: Alexander Glazunov Video Concept by: Yuri Zhukov Choreographer: Alexei Ratmansky

Staged by: Nancy Raffa World Premiere: April 9, 2010—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California Costume Design: Robert Perdziola The 2010 world premiere of Classical Symphony was made possible Costume Design Assistant: Caitlin Rain by Lead Sponsor Athena and Timothy Blackburn. Lighting Design: Mark Stanley

World Premiere: May 20, 2019—American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House; New York, New York

San Francisco Ballet Premiere: March 26, 2020—War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California The Seasons is a co-production with American Ballet Theatre.

PRODUCTION CREDITS Classical Symphony – Music: Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25 “Classical Symphony” by Sergei Prokofiev. Costumes constructed by Birgit Pfeffer, Groveland, CA. Appassionata – Music: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (“Appassionata”). Scenery courtesy of Paris Opera Ballet. The Seasons – Music: The Seasons, Op. 67. Costumes by Colin Davis Jones Studios; Euro Co Costumes; Krostyne Studio; Tricorne, Inc. Millinery by Lynne Mackey Studio; Rodney Gordon, Inc. Fabric Printing and Dyeing by Dyenamix Inc.

72 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE JEWELS 07 APR 15—APR 21

San Francisco Ballet in Balanchine’s Rubies // Choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust // © Erik Tomasson

PROGRAM NOTES by Cheryl A. Ossola

George Balanchine’s Jewels, created for New York City Ballet and widely Although Diamonds and Rubies are often performed as discrete ballets performed by companies worldwide, is a choreographic triptych, (Emeralds tends not to be), it is when these three gems are performed a unique combination of styles and music that forms a contrasting, yet together that they leave their most dramatic impression. The unifying complementary, whole. Each segment of what dance critic Arlene Croce elements of Balanchine’s musicality, the simple backdrop-and-chandelier has called a “Balanchine primer” reveals a facet of the choreographer’s design for each segment, and the contrasting nationalism of their spirits creativity and evokes a particular time and style of ballet. Seen together, the work together to create a scintillating performance of complementary three mini-ballets produce an evening of dance that builds from the reverie contrasts. Set to portions of Gabriel Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande and of Emeralds through the jazzy dynamism of Rubies to the sense of the glory Shylock, Emeralds is French and Romantic; Rubies, set to ’s of imperial Russia that is Diamonds. Unlike most full-length ballets that tell Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, is American and fiery; and Diamonds, a story, Jewels’ raison d’être consists of only one thing: dancing. the grandest of the ballets, set to Symphony No. 3 in D Major, is pure Tchaikovsky: Russian and utterly classical. Jewels entered San Francisco Ballet’s repertory during the 2002 Repertory Season and reappeared the following year. Though the Company has “They were meant to be different; [Balanchine] gave each one its own danced both Rubies and Diamonds as stand-alone ballets, it has been 11 personality,” says Borne. “To me they reflect the people that he made them years since Jewels appeared in its entirety on the War Memorial Opera for. Rubies wouldn’t have been the same without Edward Villella; Emeralds House stage. When it opens on April 15, 2020, it will have been 53 years to would not have been the same without Violette [Verdy] and Mimi [Paul].” the month since the ballet’s premiere on April 13, 1967. And no one thinks of Diamonds without associating it with Suzanne Farrell and Jacques d’Amboise. “They really do look like those people,” adds Balanchine said that his gemstone-themed ballet with jeweled costumes Borne, “not that you have to imitate them. But I love showing videos of all was inspired, in part, by his introduction to jeweler Claude Arpels, of those people because that was the point of departure; that’s where it whose collection of precious stones he admired. For a time it seemed came from. You want to preserve the flavor as much as possible.” that the trio of Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds might have become a quartet, but, as a triptych, is dynamic. (Balanchine considered including Emeralds literally unfolds as it begins, with a principal couple and a corps sapphires but decided against it because he thought the color too difficult of 10 women onstage, and much of its beauty comes from its expressive to render onstage.) According to Balanchine repetiteur Elyse Borne, who port de bras. As it moves through two contrasting pas de deux, a buoyant along with Sandra Jennings, staged Jewels on San Francisco Ballet, trio, and lovely tableaux, its mood changes. A joyful beginning yields to an the triptych “is like a nice meal. You’ve got your appetizer, you’ve got elegiac tone toward the end. “Later [in 1976] Balanchine added the extra your main course, and you’ve got your big dessert at the end, which pas de deux [to music from Shylock] and that very sad ending, [a pas de sept, is Diamonds.” Yuan Yuan Tan // © Erik Tomasson

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 73 to music from Pelléas et Mélisande],” says Borne. “It used to end on an up note and then he changed it.” The choreographer also revised the first pas de deux and the second ballerina’s variation.

For this soft, elegant ballet’s music, Balanchine chose one of the foremost French composers of the late 1880s, Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924), a composer, organist, and pianist known for his art songs. First a professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, Fauré was named its director in 1905, where he served for 15 years. His incidental music for Shylock, a play by Edmond Haraucourt, premiered in 1889; a year later, he adapted it for stage in the form of a symphonic suite. In 1898, he composed the music for a production of Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1893 play Pelléas et Mélisande at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, stepping in for Claude Debussy, who turned down the opportunity. Emeralds shows us a side of Balanchine that we, perhaps unfairly, don’t typically associate with him, one that’s softer and drenched in feelings of reminiscence. And rarely did he put his women in Romantic tutus. “People always say that Emeralds is so quiet, and it’s meant to be like that,” says Borne. “It works in the context.

You have to start somewhere—if the whole evening were smash and splash, San Francisco Ballet in Balanchine’s Rubies // there’d be nowhere to go.” Choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust // © Erik Tomasson

Of the three ballets, Rubies is the most contemporary, with music that Spacing is also important when you’re the tall woman, whom Jennings makes it a dissonant, edgy counterpoint to Emeralds and Diamonds. describes as the master of ceremonies. “We talk about spacing because For the score, Balanchine turned to his longtime collaborator, Russian [she] comes down the center in the beginning of the ballet, and she composer Igor Stravinsky (1881–1971), who first made his mark on the worries that she’s going to get too far downstage. We work on some of ballet world with his compositions for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. the footwork to get her back upstage so she can take big steps, because Stravinsky wrote Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra in 1929, during a period if she has no room she has to take little steps and then it looks very in which he was performing widely as a concert pianist, and revised it 20 different. Her legs should be like daggers in the floor. Pow! We talk about years later. how she should dance big but also have the contrast of something sharp and something soft.” Fueled by Stravinsky, Rubies is flashy, sexy, and fun. San Francisco Ballet first performed it in 1987, long before the Company danced the full-length Jennings danced in Rubies “unofficially,” she says. “I was what was known Jewels. When she stages Rubies as a stand-alone ballet, Sandra Jennings, as a swing girl; I did many parts. I was never officially in it, but I never a former New York City Ballet dancer who sets works for The Balanchine missed a performance.” She remembers the choreographer’s precise Trust, approaches it with several priorities in mind. “I work on the counts finessing of every detail in rehearsals. “Balanchine taught us certain ways and the style, which is very sophisticated, jazzy, witty,” she said, when to approach each step, a very specific way of doing it. And if it’s done the she set the ballet on the Company in 2006. “I also talk to the corps about right way, the step looks really different,” she says. “He would take a step having a sense of community, especially in the third movement. The corps and break it down for us, and that made it important to us— and when all women have a lot of movements they do together, and if they do the whole these little steps become important they give the ballet a different look.” thing to the audience it doesn’t make sense. Mr. B [Balanchine] used to tell us, ‘My dear, look at your neighbor.’ So I talk to them a lot about that. It also The brilliant reds of Rubies give way to the purity of white tutus and helps with the spacing.” rhinestones in Diamonds, which glitters with the power of a large corps de ballet and eight demi-soloists backing a principal couple. If you’ve ever tried to imagine what ballet was like in imperial Russia, you need look no further than Diamonds. Yet its impact and power are derived from its softness. Diamonds is elegant in an understated way, with fleeting nods to Russian folk dance and ballet’s origins as a court dance, emphasized by heavy drapes masking wings and crystal chandeliers that sparkle against a blue background.

Unlike the angularity often seen in Balanchine’s neoclassical ballets, Diamonds has floaty, sometimes swanlike port de bras and extensions that unfold as if there’s all the time in the world. The principal ballerina prances delicately on pointe, moving through passé with airy speed. Many of the jumps are small, quick, and light, but even when they soar higher, as the principal male does in the scherzo, the landings are soft and fluid. The pas de deux is a gentle, shared exchange rather than a fiery contest of virtuoso variations with a “can you top this?” coda. According to Suzanne Farrell in her description of the pas de deux in her book Holding On to the Air, “It is a dance full of the paradoxical tensions between a man and a woman, but its beauty lies, not in rivalry, but in submission. Diamonds is about the majesty

San Francisco Ballet in Balanchine’s Emeralds // Choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust // © Erik Tomasson

74 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE of service and the glory of humility.” We see that enacted at the end of the pas de deux, when the man kneels to kiss his ballerina’s hand.

Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) wrote his third symphony in only a few months during the summer of 1875. As he did in the finale of his second symphony, he develops a theme by continually changing its background, perhaps incorporating a technique used by Mikhail Glinka into his own. The composition begins with a measured pace which builds to an allegro section. Then a haunting theme begins the slow pas de deux. The tempo picks up with the scherzo and then, in the finale, the music becomes more expansive as it moves into a polonaise, a dignified court dance that was introduced in Russia in the late 18th century.

Farrell wrote, “There is very little in the way of excitement and glamour that can equal Balanchine and Tchaikovsky in a polonaise.” With the full ensemble moving with precision, their upper bodies upright and formal, the pageantry transports us to that long-ago Russian court. At the end, the principal couple slowly promenades, framed by the corps in ever-changing formations—a moment, Farrell writes, that made she and Jacques d’Amboise feel like “the central stone in a mammoth setting . . . one of Balanchine’s choreographic jewels.”

Jewels is unique in the ballet lexicon, a dance of emotions and contrasts, and it remains one of Balanchine’s best-loved works. Lasting “just two hours and five minutes,” says Borne, “it’s very full—there are a lot of steps in those two hours!”

“It’s beautiful,” says Borne, “a feel-good evening.”

San Francisco Ballet in Balanchine’s Diamonds // Choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust // © Erik Tomasson

PERFORMANCE DATES JEWELS (A Ballet in Three Parts)

Wednesday 04/15 7:30 pm Composers: Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Thursday 04/16 7:30 pm Choreographer: George Balanchine Friday 04/17 8:00 pm Staged by: Elyse Borne and Sandra Jennings Saturday 04/18 2:00 pm Costume Design: Karinska Saturday 04/18 8:00 pm Lighting Design: Ronald Bates Sunday 04/19 2:00 pm Tuesday 04/21 7:30 pm World Premiere: April 13, 1967—New York City Ballet, New York State Theater; New York, New York San Francisco Ballet Premiere: March 12, 2002—War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California © The George Balanchine Trust

PRODUCTION CREDITS Music: Emeralds: Fauré—Extracts from Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, Op. 29 and incidental music to Shylock, Op. 57; Rubies: Stravinsky—Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (1949 version) used by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner; Diamonds: Tchaikovsky—Symphony No. 3 in D major, Op. 29, movements 2, 3, 4, & 5. This performance of Jewels, a Balanchine© Ballet, is presented by arrangement with the George Balanchine Trust and has been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style© and Balanchine Technique© service standards established and provided by the Trust. Emeralds and Diamonds costumes courtesy of Miami City Ballet. Rubies costumes constructed by Barbara Matera, Ltd., New York, New York, and by San Francisco Ballet Wardrobe Department. Diamonds scenery courtesy of Sarasota Ballet.

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 75 08 ROMEO & JULIET MAY 01—MAY 10

The 1994 world premiere of Romeo & Juliet was made possible by the E. L. Wiegand Foundation.

Mathilde Froustey and Carlo Di Lanno in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet // © Erik Tomasson

76 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE PROGRAM NOTES by Cheryl A. Ossola

In 1994, when San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson What Tomasson wanted to do was create characters that were drawn created a new production of Romeo & Juliet, he poured his heart in detail; in his ballet, all the characters, from Romeo and Juliet down into it. Romeo was the dream role Tomasson never got to dance. But to the smallest walk-on roles, are as clearly etched in movement as he delivers every emotion he would have brought to that role to the they are depicted in words in the play. Tomasson explains, “I thought stage, via one character or another, in his own version of William it was necessary to convey that [depth of character] because it’s not Shakespeare’s tale of “star-cross’d lovers.” Perhaps that’s the reason just Romeo and Juliet—it’s the people around them that make the story this production is so deep in character, so vibrantly human. Then happen the way it does. Tybalt has to be a hothead; he has to be a bully again, as Tomasson says with a smile, it could be because he’s in many ways, to everybody outside his clan. There were things I thought “a hopeless romantic.” had to come through so that the whole thing makes sense. It’s a human story, so that has to come across. It’s not an abstract, make-believe story Shakespeare’s tragedy has been brought to the stage in every or fairy tale—this could be today, anywhere.” possible art form: theater, film, opera, music, and dance. Why? In his book Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom Adding to the sense of realism are the detailed fight scenes. Poorly done proposes one theory: “Romeo and Juliet is unmatched, in Shakespeare sword fighting can break a suspenseful mood quickly, so Tomasson and in the world’s literature, as a vision of an uncompromising mutual sought the talents of Martino Pistone, an experienced movie stunt man love that perishes of its own idealism and intensity.” In this play and stunt coordinator, swordsman, choreographer, and actor. Together Shakespeare created characters of such complexity and placed them they created complex sword-fighting passages that require careful in circumstances of such extreme emotion that his audiences have timing and hours of rehearsal with each combination of dancers. “Most been forever fascinated. It is a story that transcends time, race, class, productions have lots of this kind of action.” Tomasson mimes thrashing and gender, guaranteeing its universal appeal. a sword about. “Ours is all choreographed, and if you miss [a step]—it’s not that you’ll get killed, but you could really hurt yourself. And people Ballet versions of Romeo and Juliet, in both one-act and full-length run through the fighting at certain times, because I thought that was forms, made their way onstage in the late 1700s, in Italian productions realistic. But they have to know exactly when they can run and where the set in Venice and Milan by Eusebio Luzzi and Filippo Beretti, guys are placed.” respectively. The ballet next appeared in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1809, in a five-act form by Ivan Ivanovitch Valberkh. The first dancer SF Ballet’s production is set in the Italian Renaissance; true to the period, of renown to stage Romeo and Juliet, Vincenzo Galleoti, did so in the men fight with rapiers (straight, double-edged swords with narrow 1811, for Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Ballet. Jumping ahead, in Monte blades), daggers, bucklers (small, round shields), and capes. Step one Carlo in 1926 Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes presented Bronislava in teaching dancers how to fight was as basic as the proper way to hold Nijinska’s version about two dancers who elope during rehearsals for the weapons. From that point on, safety was the priority. Pairing the a Romeo and Juliet-themed ballet. Then, in 1938, Willam Christensen, dancers for battle presents a rehearsal-time challenge along with safety ballet master of San Francisco Opera Ballet (an early incarnation of SF Ballet), choreographed a new production, with himself as Romeo. And in 1943, Ballet Theatre presented ’s meditative one-act version, with Alicia Markova and Hugh Laing in the title roles and Tudor as Tybalt.

The best-known productions are those set to the full-length ballet score by Sergei Prokofiev, written in 1935; though they vary in their emphasis on story, character, and theatrics, they share an emotional depth yielded by the music. The first major staging of the score came in 1940, with the Kirov Ballet’s production of Ivo Váña-Psota’s Romeo and Juliet, which had premiered in Brno, Czechoslovakia, two years earlier. Frederick Ashton created his version for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1955 without being influenced by Lavrovsky’s production, which had not yet been seen in the West. But in 1956 John Cranko and Kenneth MacMillan saw Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet in London, danced by the Bolshoi; both men’s versions of this ballet (Cranko’s in Milan in 1958, then at Stuttgart Ballet in 1962; MacMillan’s at The Royal Ballet in 1965) show Lavrovsky’s influence.

Tomasson, too, decided on the Prokofiev score, but not without some deliberation. “I can’t deny I had thought of using something else, and the reason for it goes back a long time, when I went to Moscow for the International Ballet Competition in 1969,” he says. “Norman Walker had choreographed a solo for me, which was to Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet. It was a beautiful solo, seven minutes long, and the music is beautiful, too. But I just felt the music for this production had to be Prokofiev—for me it was more emotional, and it suited what I wanted to do more than any other composer.”

San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet // © Erik Tomasson

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 77 concerns. “If you rehearse this Tybalt and this Romeo together, because Like most choreographers, Tomasson can do only so much preparation casting-wise you see them work well together, and then one of them with story and score; most of what ends up on the stage evolves as he gets sick or injured, you have to put someone else in,” says Tomasson. works with the dancers. Referring to the balcony scene, he explains, “It’s “The choreography of the fighting is the same, but the timing might be an enormous thing in people’s expectations and minds, but on top of slightly different, so you have to find the time to rehearse. But sometimes that, the dancers I work with influence me. Just who they are, how they casting changes happen at the last minute—and then I’m sitting there react to that music, and to each other—there has to be a connection hoping that nothing’s going to happen.” He would recast the fighting between those two dancers. And there are times when you see roles if he felt that a dancer was too timid or too aggressive; either something and think, ‘Yes, that would suit them very well if I did that.’ I behavior could lead to injuries. Years ago, Tomasson recalls, a personal see them as being part of the creative process and I use their approach feud nearly caused a dancer to lose a major role. “The dancers playing to it and their willingness to do anything I want them to do.” Well-known Tybalt and Romeo truly hated each other, one of them more than the moments like the balcony scene, he says, require him to block out the other, and in the fight scene it was just scary,” says Tomasson. “I had to expectations that accompany them and turn inward for direction. “Do tell that dancer to cool it down or he’d be out.” I remember when I was a teenager? The first time I kissed a girl? What would I say, what did I feel? What was the insecurity, the attraction?” Working with the score before rehearsals began, Tomasson plotted out each scene. Always one to seek out a logical flow, he added action that The same complexities of characterization that give this story its weight helps drive the plot, referring to the play to ensure that he was being make the ballet, particularly the role of Juliet, appealing to dancers at true to Shakespeare’s intent. For example, in the opening scene, Romeo any stage in their career. Those who dance Juliet in their teens come and Juliet are both onstage, but they don’t see each other. “They live in to the role with the immediacy of youth and tenderness of first love the same village, and everybody else is there. The Nurse is taking Juliet fresh in their minds; those who dance it later in their careers might to the market,” Tomasson says. “Who’s to say that they haven’t been in offer more nuanced performances, layered with wisdom and a mature the same place without being aware of one another?” The multilevel understanding of what it means to love someone—and sometimes, to set by Jens-Jacob Worsaae expanded the choreographer’s options. make sacrifices for that love. Tomasson has Juliet and the Nurse run onto the bridge as Romeo kills Tybalt; they look down on the scene below and see Romeo’s agony. If a role like Juliet can be a turning point in a dancer’s life, so too is the Giving Juliet that knowledge made dramatic sense to the choreographer. creation of a full-length ballet in a choreographer’s. Tomasson regards “For me, that brought on the desperation of the bedroom scene,” he says. each classical story ballet he’s done as a significant step in his career. “This is what’s happened, and they both know.” But Romeo & Juliet is especially close to his heart, and not only because

Sean Bennett and Carlo Di Lanno in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet // © Erik Tomasson

78 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE it’s the ballet he never got to dance. It was the last production that the designer and he did together. “Worsaae passed away,” says Tomasson. “I was in Copenhagen rehearsing Sleeping Beauty and had to fly back here for 10 days to do the costume fittings for Romeo. He was not well enough to come, so I had to stand in for him and say, ‘I know he would like that’—be his spokesperson. And he designed those wonderful sets. We spent a week together in Italy—to Verona, just to let everything sink in. I think it was the most beautiful work he’d ever done, and yet he did not see it. That’s another reason why this production is very, very special to me.”

Misa Kuranaga and Angelo Greco in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet // © Erik Tomasson

PERFORMANCE DATES ROMEO & JULIET

Friday 05/01 8:00 pm Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Saturday 05/02 2:00 pm Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson Saturday 05/02 8:00 pm Scenery and Costume Design: Jens-Jacob Worsaae Sunday 05/03 2:00 pm Lighting Design: Thomas R. Skelton Tuesday 05/05 7:30 pm Fight Scene Choreography: Martino Pistone in collaboration Wednesday 05/06 7:30 pm with Helgi Tomasson Thursday 05/07 7:30 pm Saturday 05/09 2:00 pm World Premiere: March 8, 1994—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, California Saturday 05/09 8:00 pm Sunday 05/10 2:00 pm The 1994 world premiere of Romeo & Juliet was made possible by the E. L. Wiegand Foundation. Additional support was provided by Lucy and Fritz Jewett, Chris and Warren Hellman, Mr. Rudolph W. Driscoll, The Bernard Osher Foundation, Franklin Templeton Group, and Deloitte.

PRODUCTION CREDITS Music: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. Fight Director, Marty Pistone; Assistant to the Fight Director, Dexter Fidler. Costume Supervisor, Anna Watkins, London, England; Fabric painting and dying, Mathilde Sandberg; Costume construction, Edith and Henrietta Webb, Sue Smith, Barbara Jane, Margaret Lamb, Fran Bristow, Nigel West, Ba Higgins, Jane Johnson, Lal d’Abo; Jewelry and Headdresses, Jean Gates; Hats, Mark Wheeler; Masks, Naomi Jefferies; Embroidery, Camée Broderie; Beading, James Hunting and Karen Spurgin. Additional costumes constructed by San Francisco Opera Shop. Boots by Pluma, Inc. Scenic construction and painting by San Francisco Ballet Carpentry and Scenic Departments, at the San Francisco Opera Scenic Studios.

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 79 SAN FRANCISCO BALLET STAFF

HELGI TOMASSON ADMINISTRATION MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DARIN CONLEY-BUCHSIEB, JULIE BEGLEY, Chief Marketing Officer & PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER Human Resources Director You You Xia, Director of Communications KELLY TWEEDDALE Carmen Creel, Board Relations Manager Mary Goto, Associate Director, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Angela Gonzalez, Analytics & Relationship Marketing

Human Resources Generalist Valerie Megas, Senior Manager, Retail Operations Katharine Chambers, Assistant to Senior Executive Staff Caitlin Sims, Senior Manager, ARTISTIC Content & Editorial , Ricardo Bustamante, Felipe Diaz, Sebastian Adrian Human Resources Associate Jane Ann Chien, Web & Digital Ballet Masters & Assistants Platforms Manager to the Artistic Director Jillian Vasquez, Marketing & Promotions Betsy Erickson, Tina LeBlanc, Anita Paciotti, Manager Katita Waldo, Ballet Masters DEVELOPMENT Abby Masters, Marketing Operations Manager Yuri Possokhov, Choreographer in Residence DANIELLE ST.GERMAIN-GORDON, Kate McKinney, PR & Communications Amelia Bear, Artistic Administrator Chief Development Officer Manager Alan Takata-Villareal, Logistics Manager Elizabeth Lani, Deputy Director Elspeth Sweatman, Publications & Digital Mateo Santos Perry, Assistant to the of Development/Planned Giving Media Manager Artistic Staff Nannette Mickle, Group Sales Representative

Operations & Membership Emily Munoz, Relationship Marketing

Laurel Skehen, Senior Manager, Coordinator Membership & Operations Rachel Bauer, Media Asset Administrator OPERATIONS Hannah Young, Donor Communications Francis Zhou, Graphic Design Specialist DEBRA BERNARD, General Manager Manager Sky Alsgaard, Visual Designer Juliette LeBlanc, Company Manager Ashley Rits, Development Operations Manager Michelle Symons, Operations Manager Juanita Lam, Development Coordinator

Jim Sohm, Research Manager

TICKET SERVICES Institutional Giving BETSY LINDSEY, Director of Ticket PRODUCTION Elizabeth Luu, Associate Director & Patron Services CHRISTOPHER DENNIS, Production Director of Development, Institutional Giving Mark Holleman, Sales & Service Manager Daniel Thomas, Technical Manager Colette Whitney, Corporate Giving Manager Elena Ratto, Patron Services Specialist Kate Share, Manager of Wardrobe, Wig, Megan Quintal, Ticket Services Make-up & Costume Construction Database Specialist Jim French, Lighting Supervisor Special Events Associate Director Arielle Hazan, Jericho Lindsey, Jane Green, Production Stage Manager Ingrid Roman, of Development, Events Patricia Pearson, Cherryl Usi, Kathryn Orr, Stage Manager Ticket Services Associates Emma Lundberg, Special Events Manager Nixon Bracisco, Master Carpenter Meg Sullivan, Special Events Coordinator Kelly Corter Kelly, Master Electrician Niki Naftzger, Events Associate Kenneth M. Ryan, Master of Properties & Auxiliary Liaison Zachary Tomcich, Interim Head of Audio FINANCE John O’Donnell, Flyman KEVIN MOHR, Chief Financial Officer Individual Giving Megan Gulla, Head of Women’s Wardrobe Kristin Klingvall, Controller Sarah Warner, Associate Director Valerie Ruban, Accounting Supervisor Paige Howie, Head of Men’s Wardrobe of Development, Individual Giving Evangelina Maravilla, Payroll Manager Thomas Richards-Keyes, Brent Radeke, Major Gifts Officer Head of Hair & Make-up Matthew Czarnecki, Senior Accountant Tilly Chiles, Individual Giving Officer Maurisa Rondeau, Assistant Head Caroline Lee, Leanna Wright, Haley O’Neil, Donor Relations Manager of Hair & Make-up Staff Accountants Julianne Blunt, Donor Relations Associate

MUSIC MARTIN WEST, Music Director & Principal Conductor Mungunchimeg Buriad, Natal’ya Feygina, Nina Pinzarrone, Company Pianists Tracy Davis, Orchestra Personnel Manager & Music Administrator Matthew Naughtin, Music Librarian

80 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE FACILITIES Jamie Narushchen, Daniel Sullivan, Dance in Schools & Communities NATHAN BRITO, Facilities Manager Music Teaching Artists Scott Christenson, Facilities Supervisor Jennie Scholick, PhD., Dance History Alisa Clayton Adrian Rodriguez, Facilities Coordinator Cecelia Beam, Adult Ballet & Dance for Sammay Dizon Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease Todd Martin, Neil Miller, Stanley Wong, Phoenicia Pettyjohn Facilities Assistants Lisa Giannone, Jessica Recinos Conditioning Class Consultant Andreana Banks, Tamara de la Cruz, Joti Singh Principal Guest Faculty Yana Vincent, Receptionists Jacquelin Barrett, Genoa Sperske Guest Faculty Sofiane Sylve, Maura Whelehan

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY School Pianists Dance in Schools & Communities , Director of MURRAY BOGNOVITZ Jamie Narushchen, School Pianist Supervisor, Accompanists Information Technology Lee R. Crews Endowed Pianist Manolo Davila IT Operations Stacy Desimini, Ella Belilovskaya, Ritsuko Micky Kubo, David Frazier & Project Manager Geoffrey Lee, Astghik Sakanyan, Omar Ledezma Karen Irvin, Application Administrator Daniel Sullivan, Katelyn Tan, Sky Tan, Zeke Nealy & Help Desk Coordinator Galina Umanskaya, Linli Wang, Billy Wolfe, Wade Peterson Josh Marshall, Web Administrator School Pianists Bongo Sidibe Jiapeng Jiang, IT Specialist

Education & Training Administration ANDREA YANNONE, Director of Education COMPANY PHYSICIANS EDUCATION & TRAINING & Training Richard Gibbs, M.D. & Rowan Paul, M.D., San Francisco Ballet School Jennie Scholick, PhD., Associate Director Supervising Physicians HELGI TOMASSON, Artistic Director of Audience Development Michael Leslie, PT, PATRICK ARMAND, Director Christina Gray Rutter, Associate Director Director, Dancer Wellness Center of School Administration Kristin Wingfield, M.D., School Faculty Jasmine Yep Huynh, Associate Director Primary Care Sports Medicine Patrick Armand of Youth and Community Programs Frederic Bost, M.D., On-site Orthopedist Sandrine Cassini Tai Vogel, School Registrar and Summer Session Coordinator Peter Callander, M.D., Keith Donatto, M.D., Kristi DeCaminada Jon Dickinson, M.D., Orthopedic Advisors Karen Maloney, School Programs Coordinator Karen Gabay to the Company Aurelia Moulin, School Logistics Coordinator Jeffrey Lyons Karl Schmetz, Consulting Physical Therapist Amanda Alef, Education Coordinator Ilona McHugh Active Care, Lisa Giannone, Audience Engagement Pascal Molat, Ballet & Trainee Program Cecelia Beam, Director, Off-site Physical Therapy Assistant, Lee R. Crews Endowed Coordinator & Conditioning Classes Community Programs Faculty Member Pamela Sieck, Leonard Stein, D.C., Chiropractic Care Coordinator Alyssa Puleo Henry Berg, Rehabilitation Class Instructor Miles Petty, Administrative Assistant, Lauren Richter Gabrielle Shuman, Wellness Program Manager Education & Training Anne-Sophie Rodriguez Kyra Katagi, Emma Yee, School Assistants Berg, Conditioning John Hanpadungvongs, Manager of Brian Fisher, Dexandro Montalvo, Residential Life Contemporary Dance Matt McCourt, Kayla Murkison, Dana Genshaft, Ballet, Choreography Resident Assistants Workshop & Conditioning Leslie Donohue, Chris Fitzsimons, School Physical Therapists

The artists employed by San Francisco Ballet are members of the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO, the Union of professional dancers, singers, and staging personnel in the United States. The San Francisco Ballet Association is a member of Dance/USA; American Arts Alliance; the Greater San Francisco Chamber of Commerce; and the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. Legal Services provided by Adler & Colvin; Fallon Bixby Cheng & Lee; Fettmann Ginsburg, PC; Blue Skies Immigration Services; Epstein Becker & Green, PC; Littler Mendelson, PC; Miller Law Group; and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Audit services provided by Grant Thornton LLP. Insurance brokerage services provided by DeWitt Stern Group.

The Centers for Sports and Dance Medicine at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital are the official health care providers for San Francisco Ballet School. Special thanks to Dr. Susan Lewis, Dr. Jane Denton, Dr. Rémy Aridizzone, Christine Corpus, and the Physical Therapy Department for generously providing their services.

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 81 For those on a journey

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Luxury Renovated Estate Home Modern Tudor Tree House SAUSALITO | 94SANCARLOS.COM | $4,795,000 MONTEREY HEIGHTS | MODERNTUDORTREEHOUSE.COM | $3,320,000 Light-filled, designer home with 3 en-suite bedrooms with dedicated baths, natural Brilliant re-birth of a historic home. Inherited grandeur meets the rigor of its light, tranquil garden, and pent room with iconic, panoramic views. modernist architect creator resulting in a home of distinction, grace and livability. Jeffrey V. Castaldo 415.272.0962 Wendy Storch 415.519.6091

SAN FRANCISCO BROKERAGE | 117 GREENWICH STREET, SAN FRANCISCO | SOTHEBYSHOMES.COM/SANFRANCISCO Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. Real estate agents affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. DRE License Numbers for All Featured Agents: Gregg Lynn DRE: 01467774 | Janet Schindler DRE: 00859528 | Wendy Storch DRE: 01355516 | Jeffrey V. Castaldo DRE: 01280661 SAN FRANCISCO BALLET SEASON SPONSORS 2020 REPERTORY SEASON

PROGRAM O1 The Big Hunger­ World Premiere Anima Animus

Cinderella LEAD SPONSORS MAJOR SPONSORS LEAD SPONSORS Christine Russell and Mark Schlesinger Kathleen Grant, M.D. and Mary Jo and Dick Kovacevich Randee Seiger Thomas Jackson, M.D.

Mrs. Henry I. Prien SPONSORS SF Ballet Auxiliary Etudes Dr. Timothy Marten and Ms. Mary Heylin MAJOR SPONSORS ENCORE! LEAD SPONSOR Lydia and Steven Bergman Dr. Sunnie Evers Stephen and Margaret Gill Jim and Cecilia Herbert SPONSOR BRAVO Elaine Kartalis PROGRAM O6

SPONSORS Classical Symphony Brian and Rene Hollins SPONSOR Christine and Pierre Lamond PROGRAM O4 Joan and Alan Henricks Mr. and Mrs. Norman C. Pease A Midsummer Night’s Dream Barbara and Stephan Vermut LEAD SPONSORS Appassionata

Kelsey and David Lamond SPONSOR Yurie and Carl Pascarella Kara and Charles Roell Diane B. Wilsey PROGRAM O2 Almaden Hummingbird MAJOR SPONSORS Nancy A. Kukacka MAJOR SPONSORS The Seasons SF Ballet Premiere Beth and Brian Grossman Marie and Barry Lipman MAJOR SPONSOR Michael and Mary Schuh Robert and Diedre Shaw Catherine and Mark Slavonia Mrs. Joyce L. Stupski SPONSOR Innovation Global Capital SPONSOR Kacie and Michael Renc Denise Littlefield Sobel SPONSORS Sandpaper Ballet John G. Capo and Orlando Diaz-Azcuy

Ms. Laura Clifford LEAD SPONSOR Joseph and Marianne Geagea Shelby and Frederick Gans PROGRAM O7 SPONSORS Jewels

O.J. and Gary Shansby Emeralds Paul A. Violich PROGRAM O5 MAJOR SPONSORS PROGRAM SPONSOR Marissa Mayer and Zachary Bogue

The Bernard Osher Foundation John and Amy Palmer

Rubies PROGRAM O3 7 for Eight The Infinite Ocean SPONSORS LEAD SPONSORS James C. Gries MAJOR SPONSOR Fang and Gary Bridge James C. Hormel and Brenda and Alexander Leff Teri and Andy Goodman Michael P. Nguyen-Hormel SPONSORS MAJOR SPONSORS Diamonds Karen S. Bergman David and Vicki Cox MAJOR SPONSORS Larissa Roesch and Calder Roesch Kathleen Scutchfield Sue and John Diekman SF Ballet Allegro Circle Mr. and Mrs. James C. Katzman

Mrs. Robinson World Premiere

LEAD SPONSORS Thomas E. Horn Mr. and Mrs. John S. Osterweis

Cinderella© by Christopher Wheeldon 2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 83 SAN FRANCISCO BALLET SEASON SPONSORS CONTINUED

PROGRAM O8 SPELLBOUND TOURING Romeo & Juliet 2020 OPENING NIGHT GALA London, Sadler’s Wells Theatre,

LEAD SPONSORS PRESENTING SPONSOR May–June 2019 Mr. Richard C. Barker Osterweis Capital Management LEAD SPONSOR Diane B. Wilsey Mr. James D. Marver BENEFACTOR DINNER SPONSOR MAJOR SPONSORS KPMG Copenhagen, The Royal Danish Anonymous PATRON DINNER SPONSOR Opera House, October–November 2019 Alison and Michael Mauzé JPMorgan Chase & Co. GRAND BENEFACTOR SPONSOR Judy C. Swanson Denise Littlefield Sobel COCKTAIL RECEPTION SPONSOR Richard Thalheimer Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP LEAD SPONSORS SPONSORS Jim and Cecilia Herbert WINE SPONSOR Katherine and Gregg Crawford Rodney Strong Vineyards Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation Alex and Carolyn Mehran SPARKLING WINE SPONSOR MAJOR SPONSOR Scharffenberger Cellars Mr. and Mrs. John S. Osterweis SATURDAY NIGHT SUBSCRIPTION SERIES Lucy and Fritz Jewett Saturday Night Series

GENERAL

San Francisco Ballet gratefully acknowledges San Francisco Grants for the Arts, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts for their support.

Official Gym of San Francisco Ballet Media Sponsor

EDUCATION & TRAINING

Lead Sponsors of San Francisco Ballet’s Education Programs

Additional support is provided by Gap Foundation, U.S. Bank Foundation, and Zellerbach Family Foundation.

The Dance in Schools and Communities program is supported by The Charles Henry Leach, II Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

84 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE “First Republic takes extraordinary care of our accounts and those of the San Francisco Ballet.”

HELGI TOMASSON, Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer, San Francisco Ballet MARLENE TOMASSON, Former Dancer, Wife and Mother

(855) 886-4824 | fi rstrepublic.com | New York Stock Exchange symbol: FRC MEMBER FDIC AND EQUAL HOUSING LENDER

EncoreSFBallet Guide 2019_2020 Tomasson3 ND2017.indd 1 10/29/19 11:28 AM EMPORIO ARMANI Boatneck dress, jersey, graphic red. $575 JENNIFER BEHR Soraya earrings, Swarovski pearl. $198 GREAT BENEFACTORS

Our most loyal donors are dedicated to supporting ballet as an art form and realize that an investment in San Francisco Ballet makes a difference in the cultural life of the Bay Area. SF Ballet has pushed boundaries in dance and changed lives over the years due in large part to those donors whose cumulative giving to SF Ballet is $1 million or more. For more information about investing in SF Ballet, please contact Chief Development OfficerDanielle St.Germain-Gordon at [email protected] or 415-865-6615.

$10,000,000 AND ABOVE $1,000,000–$2,499,999 Grants for the Arts American Airlines Estate of Diana Dollar Knowles The Hellman Family Estate of Helen Anderton Mary Jo and Dick Kovacevich William and Flora Hewlett Foundation AT&T Kelsey and David Lamond Lucy and Fritz Jewett Bank of America Foundation The Charles Henry Leach, II Foundation, Bingham McCutchen LLP Jennifer Jordan McCall, Foundation Trustee Athena and Timothy Blackburn Catherine Lego $5,000,000–$9,999,999 BRAVO Paul Lego Estate of Dora Donner Ide Fang and Gary Bridge Marie and Barry Lipman The James Irvine Foundation Jennifer Caldwell and John H. N. Fisher The Marver Family Mrs. Jeannik Méquet Littlefield The State of California Stephanie and James Marver National Endowment for the Arts Estate of Lewis and Emily Callaghan Alison and Michael Mauzé The Bernard Osher Foundation Mrs. Daniel H. Case III Marissa Mayer and Zachary Bogue John Osterweis and Barbara Ravizza Chevron Corporation Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Diane B. Wilsey Estate of Barbara A. Daily Nicola Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson Deloitte Pacific Gas and Electric Company Susan and John Diekman The Thomas J. and Gerd Perkins Foundation $2,500,000–$4,999,999 Suzy Kellems Dominik Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Richard C. Barker Rudolph W. Driscoll Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock California Arts Council Kate and Bill Duhamel Bob Ross First Republic Bank Sonia H. Evers Gordon Russell Ford Foundation Ann and Robert S. Fisher San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary Diana Stark and J. Stuart Francis Estate of Georg L. Frierson The San Francisco Foundation Gaia Fund Stephen and Margaret Gill Family Foundation Randee Seiger Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund O.J. and Gary Shansby Estate of Richard B. Gump Colleen and Robert D. Haas Shubert Foundation, Inc. Mimi Haas Walter & Elise Haas Fund The Smelick Family Estate of Katharine Hanrahan Estate of Lillian Hastings Denise Littlefield Sobel The Hellman Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey P. Hays Estate of Norma Stanberry The Herbert Family William Randolph Hearst Foundation Estate of Natalie H. Stotz Donald F. Houghton The Edward E. Hills Fund Joyce Stupski G. William Jewell James C. Hormel and Michael P. Nguyen Estate of Arlene H. Sullivan Koret Foundation The William G. Irwin Charity Foundation Richard J. Thalheimer Yurie and Carl Pascarella George F. Jewett Foundation Ms. Susan A. Van Wagner Kenneth Rainin George F. Jewett, Jr. 1965 Trust Visa Inc. Mr. George R. Roberts Estate of Mildred Johnson Wallis Foundation Kathleen Scutchfield JPMorgan Chase & Co. Estate of Mason B. Wells The Swanson Foundation Maurice Kanbar The E. L. Wiegand Foundation Phyllis C. Wattis Dr. and Mrs. Jerome Ormond Kirschbaum Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Wells Fargo Diana Dollar Knowles The Zellerbach Family

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 87 Your future is created by what you do today.

Make it exceptional.

VANGUARD PROPERTIES | LOCALLY OWNED. GLOBALLY CONNECTED.

415.321.7000 | 2501 MISSION STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94110 DRE# 01486075

88 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE ANNUAL SUPPORT

San Francisco Ballet gratefully acknowledges our Grand Benefactors, Artistic Director’s Council, Producer’s Council, and Presenter’s Council. Their generous support of the annual fund is instrumental to the success of SF Ballet, SF Ballet School, and SF Ballet’s education programs. This list as of December 20, 2019 does not include gifts made in support of special events or special projects, as they are recognized separately. To learn more about these special donor groups, please contact Chief Development OfficerDanielle St.Germain-Gordon at [email protected] or 415-865-6615.

GRAND BENEFACTORS $250,000 and above Mr. James D. Marver Drs. Richard D. and Patricia Gibbs The James Family Trust Mr. and Mrs. John S. Osterweis Margaret and Stephen Gill Mrs. Henry I. Prien Yurie and Carl Pascarella Kathleen Grant, M.D. and Thomas Jackson, M.D. Denise Littlefield Sobel Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Lucy Jewett Diane B. Wilsey Christine Russell and Mark Schlesinger Elaine Kartalis Randee Seiger Mr. and Mrs. James C. Katzman ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S COUNCIL Richard Thalheimer Nancy A. Kukacka $100,000–$249,999 Brenda and Alexander Leff Mr. Richard C. Barker PRODUCER’S COUNCIL Marissa Mayer and Zachary Bogue Anne T. and Robert M. Bass $75,000–$99,999 John and Amy Palmer Fang and Gary Bridge Beth and Brian Grossman Mrs. Henry I. Prien Cui Lihong and Wang Wei Alison and Michael Mauzé Kara and Charles Roell Dr. Sunnie Evers Michael and Mary Schuh Shelby and Frederick Gans PRESENTER’S COUNCIL Kathleen Scutchfield Teri and Andy Goodman $50,000–$74,999 Robert and Diedre Shaw Jim and Cecilia Herbert Anonymous Catherine and Mark Slavonia Thomas E. Horn Lydia and Steven Bergman David H. Spencer Mary Jo and Dick Kovacevich Ms. Laura Clifford Mrs. Joyce L. Stupski Kelsey and David Lamond David and Vicki Cox Judy C. Swanson Marie and Barry Lipman Sue and John Diekman Ms. Zhenya Yoder

Visit Every Season

2020 Events Calendar WINTER SUMMER FALL Ballroom Cultural Series: Jan 5 - Mar 1 Summer Nights: Thursdays, May 28 - Sep 3 Harvest Festival: Sep 26 Orchid Show: Jan 4 - Feb 24 Pride Days: Jun 6 & 7 Orchard Day: Oct 10 Lunar New Year Celebration: Jan 25 Summer Tea: Jun 6 Fall Tea: Oct 21 & 24 Art & Wine Festival: Jul 25 & 26 Bluegrass at the Barn: Oct 4, 11, 18 & 25 SPRING Jazz Festival: Aug 15 & 16 Weekend Member Hours: Feb 29 - May 31 Gala in the Garden: Sep 18 HOLIDAYS AT FILOLI: NOV 20 - DEC 30 Cherry Blossom Twilight: Hours, Dates TBD Opening Night Soirée: Nov 20 Spring Tulip Tea: Apr 22 & 25 Holiday Teas: every Tuesday & Sunday Mother’s Day Tea: May 9 Winter Solstice Celebration: Dec 23

86 Cañada Road, Woodside, CA 94062 | www.filoli.org | 650-364-8300 | [email protected]

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 89 INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

San Francisco Ballet gratefully acknowledges the following foundation, government, and corporate partners, whose support helps the Ballet to sustain excellence on stage, in San Francisco Ballet School, and in our community programs. To learn more about Foundation giving, contact Associate Director of Development, Institutional Giving Elizabeth Luu at [email protected] or 415-865-6616. To learn more about the benefits afforded our Corporate donors, including exceptional client engagement opportunities and impactful recognition, contact Corporate Giving Manager Colette Whitney at [email protected] or 415-865-6651.

FOUNDATION & GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

GRAND BENEFACTORS PRESENTER’S COUNCIL SPONSOR’S COUNCIL $250,000 and above $50,000–$99,999 $25,000–$49,999 San Francisco Grants for the Arts Flora Family Foundation The Charles Henry Leach, II Fund Koret Foundation George F. Jewett Foundation National Endowment for the Arts The Diana Dollar Knowles Foundation ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S COUNCIL Bob Ross Foundation CHAIRMAN’S COUNCIL $100,000–$249,999 The Shubert Foundation, Inc. $15,000–$24,999 The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation The Guzik Foundation Hellman Foundation Mimi and Peter Haas Fund Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation Hurlbut-Johnson Charitable Trusts The Bernard Osher Foundation Foundation

CORPORATE SUPPORT

GRAND BENEFACTORS PRESENTER’S COUNCIL CHAIRMAN’S COUNCIL $250,000 and above $50,000–$74,999 $15,000–$24,999 Bank of America Foundation Almaden Chevron Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Innovation Global Capital Freed of London JPMorgan Chase & Co. Gibson Dunn ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’ S COUNCIL Kaiser Permanente U.S. Bank Foundation $100,000–$249,999 KPMG Osterweis Capital Management

IN-KIND SUPPORT

GRAND BENEFACTORS PRESENTER’S COUNCIL CHAIRMAN’S COUNCIL $250,000 and above $50,000–$99,999 $15,000–$24,999 Bay Area Rapid Transit Immersive Allegra Entertainment & Events Rodney Strong Vineyards Caldwell Sutter Capital, Inc. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S COUNCIL Ernest Vineyards $100,000–$249,999 SPONSOR’S COUNCIL Miette FITNESS SF $25,000–$49,999 Piedmont Piano J Riccardo Benavides Q. Digital Media McCalls Catering & Events Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

90 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE The location that connects you to the best of San Francisco.

San Francisco is known for its rich intellectual and creative culture, progressive spirit, and global outlook — and that’s just what you’ll find at San Francisco Towers, a sophisticated Life Plan Community in the heart of the city.

Everything you love is within walking distance, making it easy to stay connected to the culture and diversity San Francisco is known for plus convenient services, wonderful comforts, and security for the future.

Join the waiting list! For information, or to schedule a visit, call 415.447.5526.

covia.org/san-francisco-towers 1661 Pine Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

A not-for-profit community owned and operated by Covia. License No. 380540292 COA# 325

Engaging and eclectic in the East Bay.

Oakland is the gateway to the East Bay with a little bit of everything to offer, and St. Paul’s Towers gives you easy access to it all. An artistic, activist, and intellectual Life Plan Community, St. Paul’s Towers is known for convenient services, welcome comforts and security for the future.

With classes, exhibits, lectures, restaurants, shops and public transportation within walking distance, St. Paul’s Towers is urban community living at its best.

Get to know us! For information, or to schedule a visit, call 510.891.8542.

covia.org/saint-pauls-towers 100 Bay Place, Oakland, CA 94610

A not-for-profit community owned and operated by Covia. License No. 011400627 COA# 327

SFB season guide fp template.indd 1 11/5/19 11:54 AM SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION

The San Francisco Ballet Endowment Foundation is a separate nonprofit public benefit corporation that holds and manages endowment funds. It is the third largest source of revenue for SF Ballet after ticket sales and contributions and supports creating new ballets, touring, scholarships and financial aid for SF Ballet School students, and community education and outreach programs. Donors who make gifts of $50,000 or more to the endowment may establish a fund created in their name that provides general support or support designated for specific uses at SF Ballet, SF Ballet School, and SF Ballet’s education programs. We’re honored to list the following named funds that have been created as of November 30, 2019. Those highlighted with an asterisk (*) were fully or primarily funded through bequests and other planned gifts. For more information, please contact Deputy Director of Development/Planned Giving Elizabeth Lani at [email protected] or 415-865-6623.

Anonymous (9) Barbara A. Daily Scholarship Fund* Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund Michael C. Abramson Fund Barbara A. Daily Fund* Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. New Works Fund Lois and David Anderson Fund Timothy Dattels and Kristine Johnson Fund Mimi Haas Fund Mr. and Mrs. Walter M. Baird Fund* Sue and John Diekman Fund Mimi Haas New Works Fund Rosemary and Edward D. Baker III Earl Diskin Fund* Mimi & Peter Haas Fund Foundation Fund Suzy Kellems Dominik New Works Fund Mimi & Peter Haas New Works Fund Richard C. Barker Fund Suzy Kellems Dominik School Walter & Elise Haas Fund William Bason Fund* and Education Fund Walter & Elise Haas Education Fund Ernest A. Bates New Works Fund Phyllis and Bill Draper Fund Walter & Elise Haas New Works Fund Nancy and Joachim Bechtle Fund Rudolph W. Driscoll Fund Kathryn A. Hall and Thomas C. Knutsen Fund Philip P. Berelson Scholarship Fund* Kate and Bill Duhamel Fund Sally and William Hambrecht Fund The Bertelsen Family Fund Joseph B. Durra Fund Sally and William Hambrecht New Works Fund Davidson Bidwell-Waite and Edwin A. Waite Jacqueline and Christian P. Erdman Fund Philip and Alicia Hammarskjold Fund Touring Fund Sarah C. Evans Fund* Edith Hammerslough Fund* Wendy and W. Richard Bingham Fund Sonia H. Evers Fund Katharine Hanrahan Fund* Blum Family Foundation Fund Sonia H. Evers New Works Fund The Lloyd Harper Patron Fund Christopher Boatwright Memorial Endowed Sonia H. Evers School Fund Lillian Hastings Fund* Scholarship Fund Concepción S. and Irwin Federman Fund Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey P. Hays Fund Deborah and Richard A. Bocci Fund Mr. and Mrs. Elliott Felson Fund The William Randolph Hearst Foundation Ron and Susan Briggs Fund The Fifth Age of Man Foundation Building Fund Eva Benson Buck Charitable Trusts Fund Scholarship Fund The William Randolph Hearst Foundation Edith Bundy Fund* Jason M. Fish and Courtney Benoist Fund Scholarship Fund Burnett Family New Works Fund Ann and Robert Fisher Fund Libby and Craig Heimark Fund S. E. Bush, Jr. School Fund* Doris and Donald Fisher Fund Eric Hellman Scholarship Fund Peter Byram Fund* Elizabeth and Robert Fisher Fund The Hellman Family Fund* Jennifer Caldwell and John H. N. Fisher Fund Kirby Ward Fitzpatrick Fund* The Hellman Family New Works Fund Lewis and Emily Callaghan Fund* Frannie and Mort Fleishhacker Touring Fund The Hellman Family Touring Fund Dr. and Mrs. John N. Callander Dancer Thomas W. Flynn Music Fund Chris and Warren Hellman Endowed Wellness Fund Ford Foundation New Works Fund Scholarship Fund Margaret Carver Fund Diana Stark and J. Stuart Francis Fund Rosalie G. Hellman Fund Dan and Stacey Case Fund Diana Stark and J. Stuart Francis Rosalie G. Hellman Memorial Scholarship Fund Dan and Stacey Case New Works Fund New Works Fund Mrs. Louis E. Hendricks Fund* Dr. and Mrs. George Cassady Student Gaia Fund Cecilia and James Herbert Fund Scholarship Fund Frances and Theodore Geballe Fund Cecilia and James Herbert New Works Fund Harold and Ruby Christensen Tricia and Richard Gibbs Philanthropic Fund The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Scholarship Fund Stephen and Margaret Gill New Works Fund New Works Fund Robert Clegg New Works Fund Stephen and Margaret Gill Family Foundation Richard S. Hirsch Fund* Angelina and Christopher Cohan Fund Touring Fund Hank J. Holland Fund Columbia Foundation Music Fund Teri and Andy Goodman Touring Fund Brian and Rene Hollins Fund Columbia Foundation New Works Fund Margaret Stuart Graupner Fund* Mr. James C. Hormel and Ruth A. Copley Endowed Scholarship Fund* Eugene H. and Stephanie Gray Fund* Mr. Michael P. Nguyen Fund David and Vicki Cox Fund James Gries Fund Thomas E. Horn Fund Mary B. Cranston New Works Fund Richard B. Gump Fund* Donald F. Houghton Fund* Lee R. Crews School Fund* Rita A. Gustafson Scholarship Fund* Donald F. Houghton Touring Fund*

92 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE Donald F. Houghton Innovation Fund* Glenn McCoy Executive Director’s Fund Gail and Robert M. Smelick Fund Donald F. Houghton New Works Fund* Glenn McCoy Touring Fund Gail and Robert M. Smelick New Works Fund William S. Howe, Jr. Fund* Alexander Mehran Fund Cherida Collins Smith Fund Dr. Samuel C. Hughes Fund* Julia O. Merriman Fund* K. Hart Smith Fund* Hurlbut-Johnson Charitable Trusts Introduction Byron R. Meyer Choreographers Fund Michael Smuin Memorial Fund to Ballet Scholarship Fund* Vinie and J. Sanford Miller Touring Fund Mr. Scott C. Sollers Fund Dora Donner Ide Fund* Natalie Lauterstein Miller Memorial Fund Donald G. Speakman Fund* Joan J. Jacobs Fund* James E. Milligan Fund Jeanette Sperry Fund* The James Family Endowed Scholarship Fund Tamra and Kurt Mobley Fund David Stanton and Shanna McBurney Fund George B. James New Works Fund C. Kenneth and Maureen M. More Fund* Natalie H. Stotz Fund* Dorothy and Bradford Jeffries Milton J. Mosk and Thomas Foutch Fund Maureen and Craig Sullivan Family Fund Scholarship Fund Berit and Robert A. Muh New Works Fund The Swanson Foundation Fund G. William Jewell Dance in Schools Elizabeth H. and Bradford G. Murphey Fund* Joyce Taylor Education Fund Endowed Scholarship Fund* National Endowment for the Arts Gretchen and L. Jay Tenenbaum Fund G. William Jewell Fund* New Works Fund TeRoller Fund for New Productions* G. William Jewell Touring Fund* Phyllis W. Nelson Fund Richard J. Thalheimer Fund Lucy and Fritz Jewett Fund Phyllis W. Nelson Scholarship Fund* Richard J. Thalheimer New Works Fund Lucy and Fritz Jewett New Works Fund Phyllis W. Nelson Touring Fund* Olivia Thebus Fund* Grace Eleanor Johnson Fund* Melvin Novikoff Trust Fund* Carmen S. Thornton Fund* Mildred Maureen Johnson Fund* The Bernard Osher Foundation Touring Fund Helgi Tomasson Innovation Fund Ruby Rae Pinochi-Johnson Fund* Osher New Work Fund Helgi Tomasson School Fund for New Work Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida Dancer John Osterweis and Barbara Ravizza Fund Charlotte and Harry A. Turner DISC Wellness Fund John Osterweis Fund Family Fund Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida Barbara Ravizza and John Osterweis Marion Ury Fund* Touring Fund New Works Fund Susan A. Van Wagner Fund Katzman Family Fund Shirley Black Palmer Scholarship Fund Mrs. S. W. Veitch Fund Heinrich J. Killian Fund* Yurie and Carl Pascarella Fund Helen Von Ammon New Works Fund Dr. and Mrs. Jerome Ormond Kirschbaum Greta R. Pofcher Fund Trainee Fellowship Fund Harry J. Wagner Fund* Marie-Louise and David L. Pratt Fund The Diana Dollar Knowles Fund* The Lonna Wais Endowment Fund Melinda and Paul Pressler Fund Mr. and Mrs. Gorham B. Knowles Fund* Gene Walker Fund* Virginia and Walter Price Fund Mary Jo and Dick Kovacevich Family Elizabeth F. Wallace Fund* Foundation Fund Jessica M. Putney Fund* The Walske Foundation Fund KPMG Fund Janet L. Pynch Fund* Mr. and Mrs. Paul L. Wattis III Fund The Charles Henry Leach, II Fund for Kenneth Rainin Fund Phyllis C. Wattis Fund* DISC Scholarships Kenneth Rainin New Works Fund* Karen and David Wegmann New Works Fund The Charles Henry Leach, II Fund for George R. Roberts Fund Keith White Scholarship Fund School Scholarships Mr. and Mrs. Claude N. Rosenberg, Jr. Fund Diane B. Wilsey Tutu Fund Richard LeBlond Fund* Bob Ross New Works Fund Diane B. Wilsey Fund Catherine P. Lego New Works Fund Bob Ross Scholarship Fund Laureen and Wayne R. Woodruff Fund* Paul G. Lego New Works Fund Bob Ross Foundation Touring Fund Timothy C. Wu Fund Mark and Debra Leslie Education and Kate and George W. Rowe Fund Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Outreach Fund Kate and George W. Rowe New Works Fund New Works Fund Susan B. Levine and James W. Lauer Fund W. David Rozkuszka Fund* Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Touring Fund The Debra Leylegian Adagio Fund Leontine Sassell Fund* Janice and Jonathan Zakin Fund Irv H. Lichtenwald and Stephen R. Ripple Marjorie K. Sawyer Fund* CiCi and Stephen Zellerbach Fund New Works Fund Franca Schilt Fund* William Zoller Fund* The Marie O’Gara Lipman Endowment for Delores M. Schweizer Fund* Dance Education in the Public Schools Kathleen Scutchfield Fund George W. Lord Fund* Randee and Joseph Seiger Education and Carol Lovell Fund, in memory of Outreach Fund Kenneth Hynes* The Seiger Family Foundation Fund James J. Ludwig Fund O.J. and J. Gary Shansby Fund Daniel E. Malkin Fund* Anne and Michelle Shonk Touring Fund The Marver Family Fund Dr. Lawrence Loy Shrader and The Marver Family New Works Fund Hisako B. Shrader Fund* Alison and Michael Mauzé Fund The Honorable and Mrs. George P. Shultz Fund Russell J. Mays Fund* The Smelick Family New Works Fund

2020 SEASON GUIDE | 415-865-2000 | 93 THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUNTEERS

The San Francisco Ballet “family” extends beyond the stage to include a large community of dedicated and generous volunteers who are personally involved in the Company’s success. The tireless efforts of these volunteers contribute greatly to SF Ballet’s accomplishments.

AUXILIARY Vibrant, energetic, and passionately committed to the success of each ballet season, SF Ballet Auxiliary members comprise an exclusive group of women who leverage their talents in fundraising events that raise more than $4 million for SF Ballet each year.

LEADERSHIP Ms. Ann Kathryn Baer, President Mrs. Ally Sievers, Recording Secretary Mrs. Robert W. Wood, Treasurer Mrs. Michelle Gilman Jasen, Vice President Miss Carla Wytmar, Corresponding Secretary Mrs. Rada Brooks, Events Treasurer

ACTIVE MEMBERS Mrs. Wendy Armstrong Ms. Hemalee K. Patel Ms. Christine Leong Connors* Ms. Sandra Mandel* Ms. Deborah Barrera Mrs. Jack Preston Ms. Rebecca Cooper Mrs. Michael L. Mauzé* Mrs. Kevin W. Bartlett Ms. Virginia Leung Price Mrs. Daniel P. Cronan* Mrs. Lynn McGowin Ms. Louisa Basarrate Ms. Kacie Renc Ms. Patricia I. Dassios* Mrs. Mark A. Medearis* Betina Baumgarten Mrs. Patricia D. Roberts Ms. Gail De Martini* Mrs. James J. Messemer Ms. Carol Benz Ms. Patricia Rock Ms. Carleen Hawn DeLay Ms. Laura V. Miller Ms. Catherine Bergstrom Ms. Tiffany Loren Rowe Ms. Christine DeSanze* Ms. Margaret Mitchell* Ms. Karen Bodnaruk Ms. Meg Ruxton Mrs. Theodore S. Dobos* Mrs. Timothy Michael Monahan Ms. Beverley Siri Borelli Mrs. James D. Seltsam, Jr. Mrs. David Dossetter* Mrs. Dennis Mooradian Mrs. William S. Brandenburg Ms. Grace Nicolson Sorg Mrs. Happy Dumas* Mrs. Jane S. Mudge Mrs. Rada Brooks Mrs. Christy Swartz Dr. DiAnn Ellis* Ms. Vickie Nelson* Mrs. Alston Calabrese Ms. Holli P. Thier Mrs. Douglas J. Engmann* Mrs. Robert L. Newman* Mrs. Kathleen Coffino Mrs. Andrea Valo-Espina Mrs. Christian P. Erdman* Mrs. Peggy L. Newton* Ms. Katie Colendich Mrs. Patrick Walravens Ms. Patricia Ferrin* Ms. Carole A. Obley* Mrs. Maria Grace Conley Ms. Michelle Warner Ms. Dixie D. Furlong* Ms. Margrit Paul Mrs. Courtney Dallaire Amy Wender-Hoch Mrs. Alison Morr Gemperle* Mrs. Edward Plant* Mrs. René Rodman Diamond Mrs. Freddi Wilkinson Mrs. Vincent Golde Mrs. Nick Podell* Ms. Jane Gazzola Mrs. Eric Wold Mrs. William E. Grayson Dame Tanya Marietta Powell* Ms. Diane Goetz Mrs. Helgi Tomasson, Honorary Member Ms. Nonie H. Greene* Ms. Merrill Randol* Ms. Shelley Gordon Ms. Barbara S. Hager Mrs. Todd G. Regenold* Mrs. David Grove SUSTAINING MEMBERS Ms. Catherine D. Hargrave* Ms. Katherine Robertson* Ms. Lori Harmon Jola Anderson* Ms. Constance Harvey Mrs. Jay Ryder* Mrs. Joseph Harris, Jr. Mrs. Judy Anderson* Mrs. Michael R. Haswell* Ms. Lita Sam-Vargas* Mrs. Ronald R. Heckmann Mrs. James P. Anthony* Mrs. Terrence M. Hazlewood* Mrs. Elaine Wong Shen* Mrs. Christopher Hemphill Mrs. Thomas G. Austin* Ms. Terry Hynes Helm* Mrs. John P. Shuhda Ms. Corey Hyde Ms. Rosemary B. Baker* Ms. Mindy Henderson* Ms. V’Anne Singleton* Mrs. Jonathan Kaufman Ms. Katherine Banks* Ms. Kelli Hill* Ms. Karen L. Skidmore* Mrs. Rebecca Kaykas-Wolff Mrs. Patrick V. Barber* Mrs. Kurt Hoefer Mrs. Susan Solinsky* Mrs. Trecia Knapp Mrs. Kent T. Baum* Mrs. Mavin Howley Mrs. Mathew Spolin* Ms. Maureen Knoll Ms. Alletta Bayer Ms. Marie Louise Hurabiell* Mrs. Jerome J. Suich II Mrs. Carolyn Koenig Mrs. Barbara Bechelli Mrs. Michael F. Jackson* Mrs. Judy Swanson* Ms. Claire Stewart Kostic Mrs. Lydia Bergman* Ms. Daru H. Kawalkowski* Ms. Jody K. Thelander* Ms. Rochelle Lacey Mrs. Peter Berliner* Ms. Lisa A. Keith* Mrs. Charles V. Thornton* Ms. Brenda Leff Ms. L’Ann Bingham Mrs. James C. Kelly Ms. Elizabeth W. Vobach* Ms. Betsy A. Linder Mrs. John W. Bitoff* Mrs. Robert D. Kroll Mrs. Gregg von Thaden* Mrs. Carol Louie Mrs. Athena Blackburn Mrs. William D. Lamm* Ms. Barbara Waldman* Mrs. Rhonda Mahendroo Mrs. Richard A. Bocci* Ms. Jean Larette Mrs. Wallace Wertsch* Mrs. Heather Cassady Martin Ms. Caroline Krawiec Brownstone* Miss Elizabeth Leep* Ms. Patricia Wyrod Mrs. Emily Millman Mrs. David John Byers Mrs. Christopher E. Lenzo Dr. Shokooh Miry Ms. Alison Fogg Carlson* Ms. Debra A. Leylegian* Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson Mitchell Mrs. Walter Carpeneti Mrs. Barry R. Lipman* Ms. Monika Moscoso-Riddle Dr. Carolyn C. Chang Ms. Sheila M. Lippman* Ms. Momoko Kato Myre Mrs. Allen Chozen Mrs. John C. Lund* Mrs. Sarah Newmarker Mrs. Charles E. Clemens* Mrs. Robert W. Maier* Mrs. Michael O’Sullivan Miss Robin Collins* Ms. Susan A. Malecki*

* Denotes 2020 subscriber Listing as of November 13, 2019

94 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE ALLEGRO CIRCLE Allegro Circle is a group of donors who also volunteer their networks and their professional expertise to SF Ballet. Learn more at sfballet.org/allegrocircle.

LEADERSHIP Patrice Lovato and Stewart McDowell Brady Rosalyn Chen Isaac Hall Gregg Mattner Co-Chairs Paula Elmore Susan Marsch

ENCORE! If you’re a young professional who loves dance and a great party, join our 300 plus ENCORE! members at a wide variety of social, educational, and networking events. Learn more at sfballet.org/encore.

LEADERSHIP Daniel Cassell, President Christopher Correa Brittany Whitmer Elizabeth Sgarrella, Vice President Jacqueline Barrett Gary Williams, Jr. Jamie Lee Taylor, Secretary Jeannie Gill Maggie Winterfeldt Clark Susan Lin, Treasurer Alana Naber Angela Zhang

BRAVO Each year BRAVO members contribute a collective total of more than 16,000 hours of volunteer assistance to SF Ballet. In the process they get a personal close encounter with the inner workings of the world of SF Ballet. Learn more at sfballet.org/bravo.

LEADERSHIP Steve Merlo, President Paulette Cauthorn Julie Hawkins Pirkko Lucchesi, Vice President Martha Debs Giovanna Jackson Patricia Knight, Secretary Joan Green Kathryn Roberts

We are pleased to recognize BRAVO members who contributed 40 hours or more during the 2018–19 Season.

250+ HOURS Corine Assouline* Roger Green Julie Brown-Modenos* Daphne Wray Paulette Cauthorn Jim Gries* Mary Davi May Yasui Martha Debs Carolyn Hutchinson Sharon Dougherty Sara Young Joan Green Susanne Johnson Linda Drake Eve Znang Julie Hawkins Carrie Kost Doris Duncan Giovanna Jackson* Elmira Lagundi* Janet Gamble 40– 54 HOURS Kathy Judd Lucy Lo Jenny Huang Jenny Au-Yeung Patricia Knight John Mazurski Ken Kitch Lynn Barbaria Suzanne Knott* Roberta McMullan Christine Lasher Kiyoshi Kimura Sabrina Leonng Patrick Moglia Cyndy Lee* Robin Kinoshita Pirkko Lucchesi Erin Noble David Liang Maria Lawrence Dosia Matthews Deric Patrick Aldona Lidji Betsy Lim Steve Merlo Blaine Shirk Sharon London Sara Osaba Twyla Powers Herm Sinoy Alicia McClung-Hetz Sara Pope Sherri Relerford Eileen Soden Keiko Moore* Claire Sheridan Kathryn Roberts Lacy Steffens Pat Nelson Anne Snowball* Pauline Roothman Karen Wiel* Gale Niess Steve Trenam Michael Williams Deborrah Ortego Audrey Tse Treanor 100–249 HOURS Steve Wong Johanna Payne Sylvia Walker* Carolyn Balsley Susan Sakai-McClure Marilyn Breen 55–99 HOURS Tracy Stoehr Mary Jo Campbell Margaret Anderson Brad Stokes Hao Do Monique Bouskos Erika Stuart Philip Fukuda* Bill Brockett Sherrie Szalay* Vicente Garcia Tom Brown Susan Warble

*Denotes 25 or more years of BRAVO membership

2020 SEASON GUIDE | SFBALLET.ORG | 95 A CONVERSATION WITH KELLY TWEEDDALE

In September, San Francisco Ballet welcomed new Executive Director Kelly Tweeddale to the helm. Kelly has held leadership positions at The Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Opera, and the Vancouver Symphony and VSO School of Music. But it was at an improvisational dance company that she began her administrative arts career. “Even though I’ve spent most of my career in the fields of orchestra and opera, I discovered the world of performing arts through dance,” she says. We caught up with Kelly to hear her thoughts about leadership, SF Ballet’s role in the community, and the ever-present pendulum of preserving tradition while fostering innovation.

Excellence transcends all art forms, be it music, opera, or ballet. In your opinion, how does leadership set the tone for an organization? Leadership is about giving back and being accessible. You never know where the next set of leaders will come from. When I was at Seattle Opera, General Director Speight Jenkins asked me to step into the executive director role. He saw something in me before I saw it in myself and gave me a chance. That is what leaders do—they know when to step forward and when to step aside.

Great organizations attract great leaders, and great leaders can create great organizations; but it’s not a given. Building a great company takes curation. The DNA of an organization starts with knowing who you are and why you exist. If you focus on the “why” of what you are doing rather than the “what,” Kelly Tweeddale // © Brandon Patoc you connect with each other, the art form, and ultimately, the audience.

You have said that a thriving arts community is the bellwether of a great city. Can you elaborate on that? The progress of a city can be measured by how it celebrates culture—its indigenous culture, the classical cultures of the world, and the cultural expression of the future. A thriving city invests in keeping that cultural community healthy and relevant. One of the values that a ballet company brings to this ecosystem is that we are humans with physical bodies. Ballet reminds us of the miraculous things that humans are capable of when creativity is harnessed through our bodies. It tells stories, passes on traditions, and expresses the complexity of emotions that we face in our daily lives. That expression connects us all, and that connection builds community.

You are a passionate advocate of using technology to enhance audience engagement. How can technology and ballet work together? The way that ballet seems to defy physics and how movement connects music with emotion is something that we all need in an era where our world has become as small as the devices we hold in our hands. Dance gives us peripheral vision; it is three-dimensional and forces us to look up, take notice, and see what happens beyond our screens and ourselves. New technologies, such as streamed performances, will never replace or be able to deliver the impact of a live performance, but they provide exposure and the ability to capture memorable moments. In today’s world, we need to do both.

Much of what we do is preserving the traditions of the classical art form. How does that fit into today’s insatiable demand for new content? I often ask people to tell me what would happen if a family tradition that they have simply faded away. The response is always emotional and an expression of loss. Traditions have a way of making us feel connected to the past and those who came before us. But traditions also evolve and are kept fresh by succeeding generations through adaptation and invention, revealing something new to ourselves and our audiences. Creating new work is also essential to what we do. We don’t know who the next Balanchine will be, but we have an obligation to give the composers, choreographers, and dancers the chance to put their mark on the art form and tell us what ballet has to say in the 21st century.

We have a role to play for our communities now, but what about the future? Often, a music or drawing class at school or a community center is the first exposure a child has to the arts. I discovered dance when I enrolled in a community program where we learned what a choreographer was and how to make a dance. I still remember how powerful it felt to put our ideas into action. That is the power of what we do. We put ideas into action, using the body and mind to make a statement.

To me, ballet has always been way ahead of other art forms in its commitment to investing in the next generation of artists—future dancers, but also choreographers, audience members, and advocates. The impact of San Francisco Ballet School is seen not only on our stages, but on stages around the world. It reminds us that we as a Company exist to keep the art form alive and evolving. Seeing how we can expand our reach and impact to better represent our diverse communities will be an exciting challenge, but one that is essential to making ballet more inclusive and accessible.

For more about Kelly Tweeddale, see page 11.

96 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | 2020 SEASON GUIDE YOUR LEGACY, THE FUTURE OF BALLET

Jocelyn Vollmar dedicated her life to dance and to San Francisco Ballet. A San Francisco native, she started as a student at San Francisco Ballet School, had a distinguished career as a dancer with the Company, and later became an influential instructor in the School, teaching generations of dancers. Her extraordinary career included milestones from the organization: she performed in the American premieres of the now universally loved ballets Swan Lake and Nutcracker, in which she was our first Snow Queen. Her personal story reflects the development of San Francisco Ballet, an organization that strives to achieve great art, with the highest standards of excellence.

The Jocelyn Vollmar Legacy Circle is comprised of thoughtful individuals who have made a commitment to our work by including SF Ballet in their will or other estate plans. For information about bequests and other legacy gifts, contact SF Ballet’s Deputy Director of Development/Planned Giving Elizabeth Lani at 415-865-6623 or [email protected]. Patrons who make provisions for the Ballet through their estate plans are invited to join The Legacy Circle and are celebrated as essential members of the SF Ballet family.

Jocelyn Vollmar posing in costume, circa 1950s