Birmingham's just not good enough for some people. In the highly competitive upper echelons of the ballet world, what Clara Blanco did several years ago is almost unheard of. In 2006, the San Francisco Ballet corps member quit the company and headed for England’s Birmingham Royal Ballet. A year later, she was eager, if not desperate, to return to San Francisco. . . . The Birmingham year did afford...
Helgi Tomasson’s setting of Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet takes place in San Francisco during the 1915 Pan Pacific Exhibition By Seán Martinfield Sentinel Editor and Publisher Photo by Lynn Imanaka For fans of Tchaikovsky and the San Francisco Ballet, Tomasson’s Nutcracker is the most wonderful time of the year. The production which debuted in 2004 opens Tuesday night, December...
Last night, I to see the Director's Choice program at PNB (it was delayed for a half an hour because of the power outage in Queen Anne). The four dances were a perfect illustration of the delicate balance new artistic director Peter Boal has achieved. The night had some old-fashionedy, pretty ballet (ironically, the most conservative piece of the evening was a world premiere by Val Caniparoli of the...
I f your little ballerina enjoyed Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake , then she will surely enjoy the second DVD in this series titled Prima Princessa Presents the Nutcracker . This DVD presents segments of the ballet "The Nutcracker" as performed by the San Francisco Ballet. In between these segments, Prima Princessa (an animated fairy princess ballerina) narrates the instruction to a few...
Prima Princessa's Nutcracker is beautiful, entertaining video that your little princess is sure to cherish for many years. Mary Kate Mellow and Stephanie Troeller capture this amazing story and present it in an amazing way. My little princess stayed focused for the entire 40 minute video. It provides easy to learn dance moves such as the pirouettes and jetes. The steps are explained in a clear, easy...
In a series of performances that opened at the Shanghai Grand Theater on Sept. 22, the ballet wowed and perplexed ballet-goers with an eclectic selection ...
On a blazingly hot Sunday, at a second-floor dance studio on Otis Street just a few blocks away from the annual Folsom Street Fair, the Smuin Ballet company held one of their final rehearsals for their upcoming Fall/Winter program which opens this Friday at the Palace of Fine Arts. The company had invited online journalists to watch the rehearsal and take pictures if they were so inclined, and it was...
Michael Smuin died two and a half years ago at the age of 68 while in the middle of rehearsals for his namesake San Francisco company which he started in 1994. (Click here for a nice career wrap-up by Steven Winn.) His career had enough ups and downs for half a dozen different performers, with triumph and disasters on Broadway, in film, and choreographing for various ballet companies around the world....
A little over a year ago, I reviewd a charming DVD called Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake. Now, I'm back, just in time for the holiday season, to review and give away a copy of the DVD Prima Princessa Presents The Nutcracker . Prima Princessa, the cute, animated narrator of the movie, is the brainchild of two entrepreneurial moms Stephanie Troeller and Mary Kate Mellow who get inspiration from their...
… on my way home from the opera dress rehearsal I heard my first ad for The Nutcracker. (For San Francisco Ballet.) I can’t tell you how sad that made me. It’s still September … right?
The coming week marks the end of what has been a listless summer. Wednesday night is the opening gala of the San Francisco Symphony , which I'll be attending for the first time courtesy of a kindly extended invitation. Lang Lang will perform Prokofiev's 3rd piano concerto and MTT has programmed waltzes by Liszt, Ravel and Rodgers to round out the evening. I've only seen Lang Lang once before and I...
Tour in Conjunction with the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 30th Anniversary of the Establishment of Official Diplomatic Relations between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China By Seán Martinfield Sentinel Editor and Publisher Photo by Lynn Imanaka San Francisco Ballet, the oldest professional ballet company in America, has announced...
The San Francisco Ballet season comes to an end this weekend with a mixed trio of ballets, two of which are encores from last year's New Works Festival. The program started with resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov's "Fusion," which is a pleasing melange of whirling dervish dudes and modern dancers mixing it up to Indian music orchestrated by the Argentenian Osvaldo Golijov for the Kronos...
San Francisco Ballet Special Offer - A Great Nite Out - Final Nite Out Program of the Season - 5/8 Link to online version of announcement: http://www.sfballet.org/performancestickets/buytickets/niteout.asp Note from Betty: San Francisco Ballet offers a special price for a special evening, including an exclusive cocktail reception for LGBT Nite Out participants! Join the fun for a wonderful evening....
Program 7 , May 5th and Program 8 , May 6th Bravo to San Francisco Ballet! By Seán Martinfield Sentinel Editor and Publisher Photo by Lynn Imanaka PROGRAM 7 – May 5, 7, 9, 10 PROGRAM 7 JEWELS : Choreography by George Balanchine The music of JEWELS is a glittering combination of selections by Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky, and Peter Tchaikovsky. Act One, Emeralds, is set to the...
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