San Francisco Ballet: 75th anniversary season January 23, 2008
Sofiane Sylve
… is about to begin! The Diamond gala benefit is tonight, with people looking for tickets on craigslist, as this gala has been completely sold out. If you want tickets, your best chance stands in grabbing some standing room tickets, which are, unfortunately, only sold in person at the box office. That’s not good news for people who don’t live in SF! I’m also surprised that people are selling tickets to the post-show party. Why go to a ballet gala if you’re not going to see the ballet? It’s something I don’t understand. It looks like one heck of a gala as well, with multiple premieres and the best part, featuring all their star dancers all in one sitting. In addition to their newest principal, Maria Kochetkova (who already got filmed as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker that’s going to be aired on PBS next year), I’m looking forward this year to seeing the new soloist, Julianne Kepley (a recent hire from Joffrey Ballet) as well as their “guest principal dancer for 2008″, Sofiane Sylve from NYCB. I remember reading this article about her in the NY Times years ago. She’s being paired with corps dancer Anthony Spaulding – I believe he was the dancer who danced Chinese Tea in the Nutcracker when I saw it last month. Fun!
Starting on January 29, their regular season begins! I’m especially looking forward to the Balanchine pieces in Programs 1 and 2, “Diamonds” from Jewels, and Divertimento No. 15.
I’m thrilled that Sofiane will be dancing with SF Ballet this season! I wonder what roles she will be doing? She’d be a perfect fit for “Diamonds” upcoming…
Ooh, the NY Times article extolled Sofiane as a Balanchine dancer, and would probably be lovely in “Diamonds”.
I can imagine how great she’s going to be in that — can’t wait to hear about it!