The San Francisco Ballet (SFB) is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as part of San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, California, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States. It is among the world's leading dance companies, along with American Ballet Theatre, and the New York City Ballet, has been described as the "triumvirate of great classical companies defining the American style on the world stage today."^[1]

Contents 1 History 1.1 1938-1950 1.2 1951-1985 2 Timeline of productions 3 Present company 3.1 Artistic Director 3.2 Ballet Master / Assistant to the Artistic Director 3.3 Ballet Masters 3.4 Company Teachers 3.5 Choreographer in Residence 3.6 Principal Dancers 3.7 Principal Character Dancers 3.8 Soloists 3.9 Corps de Ballet 3.9.1 Apprentices 4 San Francisco Ballet at 75: The American Tour, 2008 4.1 Program A 4.1.1 Divertimento No. 15 4.1.2 Friday, October 10 4.1.3 Wednesday, October 15 4.1.4 Saturday, October 18, evening 4.2 Program B 4.2.1 The Fifth Season 4.2.2 Concerto Grosso 4.2.3 Joyride 4.2.4 The Four Temperaments 4.3 Program C 5 References 6 Further reading 7 Articles 8 External links

[edit] History

[edit] 1938-1950

The first major production which the company engineered was Coppélia in 1938, choreographed by Willam Christensen.^[2] In 1940, Swan Lake was produced in its entirety for the first time by Americans. The company also started the tradition of showing The Nutcracker during the holiday season, the first of which premiered Christmas Eve, 1944. This too was choreographed by Willam Christensen and was touted as the first complete production of Tchaikovsky's most popular piece in the United States.

In 1942 San Francisco Opera Ballet split in two, forming independent ballet and opera companies. The ballet half was sold to Willam and Harold Christensen, who became artistic director and appointed director of the San Francisco Ballet School, respectively.^[2] The San Francisco Ballet Guild was also formed during this time as a support organization for San Francisco Ballet.^[3]

[edit] 1951-1985

1951 saw the next significant shift in administration of San Francisco Ballet. In this year, Lew Christensen—the premier danseur at the time—partnered with Willam Christensen as co-directors. One year later, Lew took over entirely. With this new administration SFB began to broaden its horizons, travel, and establish itself as a significant American ballet company. Until 1956, San Francisco Ballet had remained on the West Coast, but Lew pushed the company into the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. In 1957 SFB was the first American ballet company to tour the Far East, performing in eleven Asian nations.^[2] On New Year's Day in 1965, ABC-TV televised a one-hour abridgement of the Lew Christensen-choreographed production of "The Nutcracker", featuring San Francisco Ballet.

In 1972 Lew brought the company closer to its original home, the War Memorial Opera House, by officially naming the theatre as its official residence.

[edit] Timeline of productions

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

[edit] Present company

[edit] Artistic Director

Helgi Tomasson

[edit] Ballet Master / Assistant to the Artistic Director

Ashley Wheater

[edit] Ballet Masters

Ricardo Bustamante

Betsy Erickson

Anita Paciotti

[edit] Company Teachers

Helgi Tomasson

Lola de Avila

Ricardo Bustamante

Jean-Yves Esquerre

Ashley Wheater

[edit] Choreographer in Residence

Yuri Possokhov

[edit] Principal Dancers

Nicolas Blanc Joan Boada Taras Domitro Lorena Feijóo

Jaime Garcia Castilla Tiit Helimets Davit Karapetyan Maria Kochetkova

Tina LeBlanc Kristin Long Ruben Martin Pascal Molat

Gennadi Nedvigin Ivan Popov Damian Smith Sofiane Sylve Yuan Yuan Tan

Sarah Van Patten Pierre-François Vilanoba Rachel Viselli Katita Waldo Vanessa Zahorian

[edit] Principal Character Dancers

Ricardo Bustamante

Val Caniparoli

Jorge Esquivel

Anita Paciotti

[edit] Soloists

Elana Altman Frances Chung

Dana Genshaft Julianne Kepley

Mateo Klemmayer Pauli Magierek

Elizabeth Miner Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun Garen Scribner

James Sofranko Anthony Spaulding Hansuke Yamamoto

[edit] Corps de Ballet

Gaetano Amico III Dores Andre David Arce Brett Bauer Clara Blanco Ludmila Campos Courtney Clarkson

Charlene Cohen Diego Cruz Sasha De Sola Daniel Deivison-Oliveira Courtney Elizabeth Martyn Garside Nicole Grand Isaac Hernández

Adeline Kaiser Kristina Lind Alexandra McCullagh Erin McNulty Alexandra Meyer-Lorey Christopher Mondoux Ashley Muangmaithong Mariellen Olson

Aaron Orza Sean Orza Patricia Perez Shannon Marie Roberts Lily Rogers Miriam Rowan Jeremy Rucker Danielle Santos

Jennifer Stahl Benjamin Stewart Matthew Stewart Kendall Teague Quinn Wharton Luke Willis

[edit] Apprentices

Sylvie Volosov

Kimberley Braylock

[edit] San Francisco Ballet at 75: The American Tour, 2008

The San Francisco Ballet, as part of its 75th anniversary season in 2008, made a national tour through four major cities: Chicago, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Millennium Park, September 16-21; New York City Center, October 10-18; Costa Mesa, California, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, November 11-16; and Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, November 25-30. The tour featured ballets from SFB's New Works Festival, the finalé of their Spring 2008 season, which featured over the course of three consecutive nights premieres of ten new ballets by ten major choreographers.

[edit] Program A

New York City Center, October 2008

[edit] Divertimento No. 15

George Balanchine's choreography to W.A. Mozart's music, staged by Elyse Borne with costumes after Karinska and Mark Stanley's lighting

[edit] Friday, October 10

dancers

Frances Chung Tina LeBlanc Elizabeth Miner Rachel Viselli Vanessa Zahorian

Taras Domitro Ruben Martin Gennadi Nedvigin

[edit] Wednesday, October 15

dancers

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

Davit Karapetyan Mateo Klemmayer Hansuke Yamamoto

[edit] Saturday, October 18, evening

dancers

Frances Chung Dana Genshaft Maria Kochetkova Rachel Viselli Vanessa Zahorian

Taras Domitro Ruben Martin Gennadi Nedvigin

[edit] Program B

New York City Center, October 2008

Thursday, October 16

Sunday, October 12>

Saturday, October 11, evening

[edit] The Fifth Season

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

[edit] Concerto Grosso

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

[edit] Joyride

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

[edit] The Four Temperaments

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

[edit] Program C

New York City Center, October 2008

Friday, October 17

[edit] References

v • d • e Ballet General information History of ballet · Ballet timeline · Glossary of ballet · List of ballets · Ballet music · Ballet company · Ballet Portal Ballet by genre Classical ballet · Contemporary ballet · Neoclassical ballet · Character dance Ballet by region British ballet  · French ballet  · Italian ballet  · Russian ballet Ballet technique Balanchine method · Cecchetti method · Vaganova method · En pointe  · Royal Academy of Dance Ballet apparel Ballet shoes · Pointe shoes · Tutu

[edit] Further reading

• LeBlond, Jr., Richard E.; Madden, Meg (1988). From Chaos to Fragility: My Years at the San Francisco Ballet Association. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. ISBN 0840350139. 
• Sowell, Debra Hickenlooper (1998). The Christensen Brothers: An American Dance Epic. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. ISBN 9057550288. 

[edit] Articles

Sunday NY Times article by John Martin, July 6, 1947

Sunday NY Times article by Allen Hughes, May 5, 1963

[edit] External links

• San Francisco Ballet website

v • d • e Dance Companies in the United States Ballet American Ballet Theatre · Ballet Arizona · Ballet Austin · Aspen Santa Fe Ballet · Boston Ballet · Cedar Lake · Complexions · Dayton Ballet · Suzanne Farrell Ballet · Houston Ballet · Joffrey Ballet · Alonzo King's LINES · Miami City Ballet · Mystic Ballet · Morphoses · New York City Ballet · Oregon Ballet Theatre · Pacific Northwest Ballet · Pennsylvania Ballet · San Francisco Ballet · Washington Ballet · Ballet West Contemporary Alvin Ailey · Martha Graham · Hubbard Street · Lar Lubovitch · Momix · Mystic Ballet · Pilobolus · Ririe-Woodbury · Paul Taylor · Urban Bush Women Other Ice Theatre of New York · The Rockettes

v • d • e Schools of Professional Ballet Europe Ballet School of the Royal Danish Theatre · Elmhurst School for Dance · English National Ballet School · La Scala Theatre Ballet School · Moscow State Academy of Choreography · Royal Ballet School · Royal Swedish Ballet School · Vaganova Ballet Academy · Americas Cuban National Ballet School · National Ballet School of Canada · Pacific Northwest Ballet School · Royal Winnipeg Ballet School · San Francisco Ballet School · School of American Ballet · Other Australian Ballet School · Beijing Dance Academy · Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts · The Music and Ballet School of Baghdad ·

v • d • e Ballet General information History of ballet · Ballet timeline · Glossary of ballet · List of ballets · Ballet music · Ballet company · Ballet Portal Ballet by genre Classical ballet · Contemporary ballet · Neoclassical ballet · Character dance Ballet by region British ballet  · French ballet  · Italian ballet  · Russian ballet Ballet technique Balanchine method · Cecchetti method · Vaganova method · En pointe  · Royal Academy of Dance Ballet apparel Ballet shoes · Pointe shoes · Tutu