2008-2009 Season for San Francisco Ballet May 5, 2008
Ratmansky, Balanchine, and Morris, oh my!
Yuan Yuan Tan and Ruben Martin in Balanchine’s Diamonds. © Erik Tomasson
Is it possible to be any more excited than this past groundbreaking 75th anniversary season for the San Francisco Ballet? Apparently so – I’m almost more excited for next year than for this year’s amazing programming! Although the new production of Swan Lake, complete with video and multimedia effects, is being touted as the crown jewel for next year, I’m thrilled to see a great sampling of Balanchine’s greatest works, including what I was holding my breath for, the full length production of Jewels; the last act, “Diamonds”, pictured above, was presented as a part of Program 1 this past year. Other Balanchine works I’m really excited about is The Four Temperaments and Stravinsky Violin Concerto.
Also, they are presenting a full evening of my favorite modern choreographer, Mark Morris, presenting his baroque The Garden to the music of Richard Strauss, his recently made Joyride, and his brilliantly humorous Sandpaper Ballet, which I’ve been itching to see again. Six out of the 10 new works that were presented in the New Works Festival, a new commission by resident choreographer Yuri Possohkov, and Alexei Ratmansky’s much touted Russian Seasons round out an ideal programming for the 76th season for the San Francisco Ballet.
Taken from the SF Chronicle:
Program 1: World premiere by Yuri Possohkov, George Balanchine’s “The Four Temperaments” and Helgi Tomasson’s “Prism.”
Program 2: Stanton Welch’s “Naked,” Val Caniparoli’s “Ibsen’s House” and William Forsythe’s “in the middle, somewhat elevated.”
Program 3: All-new production of “Swan Lake” by Tomasson, after Petipa, with costumes and scenery by Jonathan Fensom.
Program 4: Company premiere of Antony Tudor’s “Jardin aux Lilas,” an encore presentation of Tomasson’s “On a Theme of Paganini” and Jerome Robbins’ “The Concert.”
Program 5 (All Morris program): Mark Morris’ “A Garden,” “Joyride” and “Sandpaper Ballet.”
Program 6: Christopher Wheeldon’s “Within the Golden Hour,” Robbins’ “West Side Story Suite” and Balanchine’s “Stravinsky Violin Concerto.”
Program 7: Balanchine’s evening-length “Jewels.”
Program 8: Alexei Ratmansky’s “Russian Seasons,” Possokhov’s “Fusion” and Jorma Elo’s “Double Evil.”
It’s really going to be a great season!! It takes the edge off of the sadness that this season is ending tomorrow. 
UPDATED: The official press release from the SF Ballet
Jewels is back! Yay!
Seriously – if I could have made one request for next season, it would have been Balanchine’s Jewels. I wonder if Sofiane Sylve will be around to dance it next year?? I hope!
This is only my humble opinion, and I speak from my point of view, as a classical dancer… Seriously, why does SFB need a new production of Swan Lake? The caliber of SBF dancers is first class, even the corps members are excellent… and SFB has the resource & money, why not bring a production of La Bayadere into reality? SFB corps danced SECOND ACT Giselle beautiful, I’d love to see them do the Shade… In addition, La Bayadere is a challenge (as well as dancing skill & acting skill combine), with the World Class level that SFB is at, this company will do La Bayadere justice.
Yeah, I agree that the Swan Lake revival isn’t as exciting, IMO, as the reappearance of Jewels or the Mark Morris tribute. More than anything, I’m excited that they’re doing Swan Lake at all (I’m REALLY looking forward to Tan and Helimets doing it), but the video/multimedia part seems to be unnecessary, a bit gimmicky as a way to get new audiences to come see it, the “new exciting modern” version that’s not so dry or dull. (The sacrilege! I can’t believe I even typed that but that’s Swan Lake’s reputation amongst non ballet audiences. But in going in this direction, it seems to be a few steps away from being a movie.) The video addition seems extraneous (maybe in the part of Odette waving in the window? Or at the end when they jump in the lake?) but who knows, I’m still being open to seeing it as long as they don’t change the ending!! I’m so glad they’re keeping true to the original plotline of the story. And if the sets are anything like Giselle, that’ll also be an exciting thing to look forward to.
Tthe corps in Giselle were amazing, and with that caliber of dancing, La Bayadere may be a possibility. Perhaps in the near future??