San Francisco Ballet

Program C: "Bespoke" "Your Flesh Shall be a Great Poem" "Guernica"
Program D: "The Infinite Ocean" "Let's Begin at the End" "Bjork Ballet"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
April 24 and 26, 2018

Program C. The third evening of unbound’s premieres felt like an example of the direction contemporary ballet is taking. It also probably offered at least one example that everyone could like in this program. Beautifully danced, each of the works

Program A: "The Collective Agreement," "Bound To" "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"
Program B: "Otherness," "Snowblind," "Anima Animus"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
April 20 and 21, 2018

This past weekend San Francisco Ballet opened its much anticipated, or at least much advertised, unbound-a festival of new works with two programs of three world premieres in each. An additional two evenings will bring the grand total to twelve new choreographies. That’s a

"Opus 19/The Dreamer" "The Cage" "Other Dances" "Fancy Free"
San Francisco Ballet
March 2, 2018
Program V
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA

A full evening of one-choreographer works is a rarity, eagerly to be anticipated. At SFB it took the one choreographer’s centennial and an artistic director’s thank-you for having enabled him to get a spot on the list of the country’s great male dancers. The men, of course, are Jerome Robbins

"On a Theme of Paganini" "Ibsen's House" "Ghost in the Machine"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
February 15, 2018

Helgi Tomasson has an astute sense for programming. After an evening of works that were brought in, he followed it with pieces created in-house: “On a Theme of Paganini” (Tomasson), “Ibsen’s House (Val Caniparoli) and “Ghost in the Machine” (Myles Thatcher). The first two were created in 2008; corps member Thatcher’s first

"Serenade," "The Chairman Dances-Quartet For Two," "Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes"
San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
February 13, 2018

The first of this season’s repertory programs was called “Bright Fast Cool Blue”. You probably could find at least one of these qualities in the magnificently performed “Serenade”, “The Chairman Dances — Quartet for Two” and “Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes.” George Balanchine’s name only appeared in his early masterpiece but his spirit hovered

"Sleeping Beauty"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 23, 2017

Is “Sleeping Beauty” the greatest classical ballet? It’s a question that periodically arises in my mind. After again seeing Helgi Tomasson’s 1990 version, I finally decided: “Sleeping Beauty” is the finest expression of classicism that we have, and SFB’s current production is about as good as they come. Lora de Avila and Larisa Lezhnina coached the company.

So why was this opening

"Celestial"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 18, 2018

Galas exit is to raise money — lots of it. The people who give the money took, until recently, hefty deductions, and get to dress up and socialize with their peers. They also fill the house with an audience determined to like everything. That’s a given. More importantly, we get to see what the artistic director has up his sleeves for the new season. Helgi Tomasson,