2018 SEASON PROGRAM 05 ROBBINS: BALLET & BROADWAY PROGRAM 06 Special Guest Engagement THE NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA NIJINSKY A BALLET BY JOHN NEUMEIER Encore spread.indd 1 2/26/18 2:03 PM Encore spread.indd 1 2/26/18 2:03 PM City National is the bank built on client referrals. Top Ranked in Client Referrals.* Eddie Marks Bill Haber President & CEO, Owner, Western Costume Company Western Costume Company Referred Eddie to City National ® Call (866) 618-5242 to learn more or visit cnb.com. The way up. *Based on interviews conducted by Greenwich Associates in 2016 with more than 15,000 executives at mid-size businesses across the country with sales of $10-500 million. CNB results are compared to leading competitors on the following question: How likely are you to recommend (bank) to a friend or colleague? CNB MEMBER FDIC. ©2018 City National Bank. All Rights Reserved. City National Bank is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. EAP full-page template.indd 1 2/5/18 12:51 PM March 2018 Volume 95, No. 6 Paul Heppner Publisher 22 32 Susan Peterson Design & Production Director Ana Alvira, Robin Kessler, Stevie VanBronkhorst TABLE OF CONTENTS Production Artists and Graphic Design 7 Greetings from the Artistic Director 46 San Francisco Ballet Orchestra Mike Hathaway Sales Director & Principal Choreographer 48 San Francisco Ballet Staff Amelia Heppner, Marilyn Kallins, 8 San Francisco Ballet Leadership Terri Reed 50 Donor Events and News San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives 9 Board of Trustees Endowment Foundation Board 56 Season Sponsors Brieanna Bright, Joey Chapman, Ann Manning 1 0 For Your Information 58 Great Benefactors Seattle Area Account Executives Carol Yip 1 1 Timeline 59 Artistic Director's Council Sales Coordinator 1 2 Explore Ballet 60 The Chairman's Council 14 Artists of the Company 62 The Christensen Society EMG 22 Program 05 66 Corporate and Foundation Support CITY NTL BANK Robbins: Ballet & Broadway MASTHEAD Opus 19/The Dreamer 68 The Jocelyn Vollmar Legacy Circle The Cage Other Dances 70 San Francisco Ballet Paul Heppner President Fancy Free Endowment Foundation Mike Hathaway 32 Program 06 73 Thank You to Our Volunteers Vice President Nijinsky: A Ballet by John Neumeier Genay Genereux Special guest engagement by 74 San Francisco War Memorial Accounting & Office Manager The National Ballet of Canada and Performing Arts Center Shaun Swick Senior Designer & Digital Lead 40 About The National Ballet of Canada Barry Johnson Digital Engagement Specialist San Francisco Ballet | Program Book | Vol. 25, No. 6 2018 Repertory Season Ciara Caya All editorial material © San Francisco Ballet, 2018 Customer Service Representative & Chris Hellman Center for Dance Administrative Assistant 455 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 415 861 5600 | sfballet.org Cover: The National Ballet of Canada's Francesco Gabriele Frola in Corporate Office Nijinsky: A Ballet by John Neumeier // © Karolina Kuras th 425 North 85 Street Seattle, WA 98103 Above, left to right: San Francisco Ballet in Robbins' Fancy Free // © Erik Tomasson p 206.443.0445 f 206.443.1246 The National Ballet of Canada's Guillaume Côté in Nijinsky: A Ballet by John Neumeier // © Aleksandar Antonijevic [email protected] 800.308.2898 x105 www.encoremediagroup.com FOLLOW US BEFORE AND AFTER THE PERFORMANCE! facebook.com/sfballet twitter.com/sfballet Encore Arts Programs is published monthly by Encore Media Group to serve musical and theatrical events in the Puget youtube.com/sfballet instagram.com/sfballet Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. All rights reserved. ©2018 Encore Media Group. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited. PROGRAMS 05 & 06 | 415 865 2000 | 5 San Francisco Ballet School 2018 Student Showcase MAY 23 – 25, 2018 AN INVITATION TO DANCE San Francisco Ballet School 2018 Student Showcase May 23–25, 2018 Celebrating its 25th year, the San Francisco Ballet School Student Showcase PERFORMANCE AND DINNER demonstrates the School’s remarkable accomplishments throughout the DATE | Wednesday, May 23, 2018 year and gives audiences the rare opportunity to experience a performance TIME | Performance at 6 pm, followed by dinner by the next generation of ballet professionals. Following the opening night performance on May 23, the SF Ballet Auxiliary hosts An Invitation to Dance: VENUES | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater San Francisco Ballet School 2018 Student Showcase Dinner at Four Seasons and Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco Hotel San Francisco. The evening will celebrate the achievements of the students and faculty of SF Ballet School and raise funds to support the Ms. Donna Bachle, 2018 Student Showcase Chair School’s scholarship and financial aid programs. Full evening tickets to the Wednesday opening night dinner and performance begin at $500 for adults and $200 for children. PERFORMANCE DATES Performance-only tickets begin at $50. Wednesday, May 23 at 6 pm Thursday, May 24 at 7:30 pm Friday, May 25 at 7:30 pm BUY TICKETS NOW Event & Performance Tickets | sfballet.org/studentshowcase Performance-only Tickets | 415 865 2000 San Francisco Ballet School students in Tomasson’s Meistens Mozart // © Erik Tomasson 6 | SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | PROGRAMS 05 & 06 GREETINGS FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER San Francisco Ballet School I’m delighted you’ve joined us here in the Opera House for the fifth 2018 Student Showcase and sixth programs of our 2018 Repertory Season. From March 20 MAY 23 – 25, 2018 to 25, San Francisco Ballet performs four works by Jerome Robbins, and from April 3 to 8, our guest company The National Ballet of Canada will present John Neumeier’s Nijinsky. These programs both feature the work of cultural icons. Jerome Robbins, widely known for his award-winning work on West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, made an indelible mark on the field of ballet as well. I first met him as a young dancer in Iceland; he arranged a scholarship for me to study ballet in New York City. I later worked with him at New York City Ballet, and danced in many of his ballets, including two of the ballets on this program, Opus 19/The Dreamer and Other Dances. He was a mentor to me, and a friend. The four ballets on our Robbins program show his enormous range as a choreographer, from the nocturnal mystery of Opus 19/The Dreamer to the ferocity of The Cage and the charm of Other Dances. Both Robbins and his frequent collaborator Leonard Bernstein were born in 1918, a centennial we’re commemorating with Fancy Free, the high-spirited ballet Robbins created to Bernstein’s music, later expanded into the Broadway musical (and film) On the Town. I’m thrilled to welcome The National Ballet of Canada here to AN INVITATION TO DANCE San Francisco with John Neumeier’s Nijinsky. This company, led by Karen Kain, has extraordinary dancers, and I am looking forward to seeing them here in San Francisco for the first time in a decade. John Neumeier created an unconventional San Francisco Ballet School portrait of Vaslav Nijinsky, who himself was both unconventional and iconic. The National Ballet of Canada was the first 2018 Student Showcase company Neumeier allowed to perform this ballet outside of Hamburg Ballet, and these dancers bring a wonderful depth May 23–25, 2018 and authenticity to the work. Celebrating its 25th year, the San Francisco Ballet School Student Showcase PERFORMANCE AND DINNER While The National Ballet of Canada is onstage at the Opera House performing Nijinsky, SF Ballet dancers will be busy demonstrates the School’s remarkable accomplishments throughout the DATE | Wednesday, May 23, 2018 in our studios preparing for Unbound: A Festival of New Works. In the Unbound festival’s four programs, we’ll dance an year and gives audiences the rare opportunity to experience a performance TIME | Performance at 6 pm, followed by dinner unprecedented 12 world premieres by 12 international choreographers. Gathering this many artists to create new work by the next generation of ballet professionals. Following the opening night provides audiences a rare overview of the movement and ideas that a dozen of the most interesting minds in ballet are performance on May 23, the SF Ballet Auxiliary hosts An Invitation to Dance: VENUES | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater San Francisco Ballet School 2018 Student Showcase Dinner at Four Seasons and Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco exploring at this particular moment in time. I hope you’ll join us again for Unbound, April 20–May 6. Hotel San Francisco. The evening will celebrate the achievements of the students and faculty of SF Ballet School and raise funds to support the Ms. Donna Bachle, 2018 Student Showcase Chair School’s scholarship and financial aid programs. Sincerely, Full evening tickets to the Wednesday opening night dinner and performance begin at $500 for adults and $200 for children. PERFORMANCE DATES Performance-only tickets begin at $50. Wednesday, May 23 at 6 pm Thursday, May 24 at 7:30 pm Friday, May 25 at 7:30 pm Helgi Tomasson Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer BUY TICKETS NOW Event & Performance Tickets | sfballet.org/studentshowcase Performance-only Tickets | 415 865 2000 San Francisco Ballet School students in Tomasson’s Meistens Mozart // © Erik Tomasson PROGRAMS 05 & 06 | SFBALLET.ORG | 7 SAN FRANCISCO BALLET LEADERSHIP HELGI TOMASSON GLENN MCCOY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER Helgi Tomasson, one of the supreme Glenn McCoy’s career in the classical dancers of his generation, has performing arts spans more led San Francisco Ballet for 33 years than 30 years of operations and is the longest-serving sole artistic management and marketing. director of a major ballet company. Born in After working for San Francisco Iceland, he danced with Harkness Ballet, Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, The Joffrey Ballet, and New York City Ballet, where he distinguished he joined San Francisco Ballet in 1987.