San Francisco Ballet

San FranciscoBallet is a company that arranges ballet and is currently based in War Memorial Opera House. It is United States’ oldest professional ballet company and was founded in 1933. The purpose of the making of this ballet was to train dancers in performing opera shows. In 1938, the very first production was staged by the name “Coppeila”. The show was choreographed by William Christensen.  1940 brought the premier of full-length Swan Lake choreographed by him as well. The main star of the ballet was Celina Cummings. You can get San Francisco Ballet tickets from us now.

 
During 1942, the production was split and there were two different ballet and opera houses created. The ballet was bought by Horald and William Christensen. During the same time San Francisco Ballet Guild was created to support the ballet. San Francisco Ballet presented Tchaikovsky’s popular “The Nutcracker” in 1944. It was also the very first complete version of the ballet.

 
During 1950’s, Lew Christensen became the co-director along with William Christensen. Previously he had been the “premier danseur”. In 1951, Lew took control of direction entirely. Under his leadership, San Francisco Ballet grew a lot, and during early 50’s it started touring and for the first time establishing itself as a company within United States. Till 1956, the ballet remained within United States. 1956 and onwards it started touring the world. That year, the ballet toured eleven Asian cities. It was the very first dance festival from United States that was presented in Asia.

 
In 1972, after changing many theatres, the ballet finally settled in the “War Memorial Opera House” where it is still. The ballet hired a new artistic director Michael Smuin and under his directions, a full production of Cinderella was staged that year. His version of Romeo and Juliet released in 1976 was the first ballet that was broadcasted on television in a series called Dance in America during 1980’s.

 
In 1974, the San Francisco Ballet went through serious financial crisis and almost faced bankruptcy. The supporters and fans of the ballet started a movement by the name “Save Our Ballet” and by the end of almost eighteen months managed to take the company out of the crises and blackout. 1985 onwards the ballet witnessed a totally new era. Under the artistic direction of Heigi Tomasson, some of the most famous ballets were staged, including remaking of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Romeo & Juliet. Nutcracker’s fourth edition was produced on the 54^th season of the ballet.

 
In twenty-six years of its existence, San Francisco Ballet was staged in the New York City for the very first time. During the ballet’s first tour with Lincoln Center Festival, The New York Times declared that “San Francisco Ballet has pulled from a regional country to national ranks”. During 1995, the company took part in and international event called “United We Dance”, which was a collaboration of twelve international dance companies. The festival introduced more than 150 dancers from across the globe at one place.

 
San Francisco Ballet has grown internationally in the last decade. The ballet presents about hundred performances in a year and the notable work included is of George Balanchine, Sir Fredrick Ashton, Mark Morris, Agnes De Mille, Hans Van Manen, Roland Petit, Peter Martins, Paul Taylor, Jiri Kylian and Antony Tudor.  The touring has become even more regular, and currently the ballet has developed relationship with arts centers such as “Southern California’s Segerstrom Center for Arts” and “New York City Center”.

 
In 2008, San Francisco Ballet celebrated its 72^nd Anniversary. Many of the oldest of the productions were revived and the premiere of West Side Story Ballet was staged.  Special exhibition “San Francisco Ballet at Seventy Two” was also arranged. In 2010, the company was titled “Silver Celebration” in “Opening Night Gala”. If you wish to attend the best ballet around the city, grab your San Francisco Ballet tickets from us today!

 
 
 

Like a robust pillar of the temple of performing ballet arts, the San Francisco Ballet stands alongside the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theater to form the triumvirate of American classical ballet companies. Yet, instead of diligently keeping itself soaked in the austere and traditional undertones, the San Francisco Ballet has been infusing its performances with refreshing modernity and scintillating gamut for the past eight decades. The company boasts a repertoire ranging from the greats such as Swan Lake, Giselle and the staple The Nutcracker to Coppélia, Sylvia and Don Quixote and stages upwards of 100 performances each year within its home at the War Memorial Opera House as well as prestigious venues all across the US and the world over. Your San Francisco Ballettickets will enable you to instill your senses with artfully mellowed ballet pieces seemingly effortlessly ensuing from its seasoned principle dances, soloists and corps de ballet.
 
Being the first dance company to open up the ballet scene in the US, the San Francisco Ballet has been setting precedents since its creation in 1933 as San Francisco opera ballet. The gloom and despondency of the Depression Era cast by the pilfering shenanigans of gangster bankers served as an ideal backdrop in which to inject some much needed emotional vitality into the downcast denizens. Right from the onset, the San Francisco Ballet has sought to train and induct dancers in its company for executing elaborate and full-length ballet productions. San Francisco Ballet found its seminal driving force in William Christensen who after joining as a soloist in 1937, choreographed Coppélia as the premiere full-length staging for the nascent company as a ballet master in 1938 and then executed a masterstroke by pioneering the full-length undertaking of Swan Lake 2 years later.San Francisco Ballet emerged as a separate entity in 1942 after distinguishing itself from its parent opera and had William Christensen take over the reins as its first artistic director along with his brother posting himself at the helm of the San Francisco Ballet School. With their younger brother Lew Christensen first joining the company as the co-director in the early 1950s and then having the mantle artistic directorship transferred to him from older brother William the next year, San Francisco Ballet trooped over to the east coast in 1956 and graced the stage at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and then embarked upon a tour of around eleven Asian countries the very next year, becoming the first American ballet entity to perform in the Far East.
 
Over the decades, San Francisco Ballet has steadily built up its repertoire to include some of the most prominent ballets and then incorporated its own nouveau take on their traditional vocabulary. Moving in to its current home of the War Memorial Opera House in 1972, San Francisco Ballet rolled out its productions of Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest, the latter garnering a trio of Emmy nominations following its live broadcast in 1981. The creator Michael Smuin received his just desserts in 1983 in the form of an Emmy Award in recognition of his choreography of the "Great Performances-Dance in America" the featured his A Song for Dead Warriors that aired on national television. Smuin already had a national claim to fame for having his creation of Romeo and Juliet showcased in the television series on PBS in 1976.
 
However, it hasn't all been smooth sailing along pirouettes and arabesques for the San Francisco Ballet, what with the company having faced the prospects of bankruptcy in the mid-seventies, and was only saved from going overboard by a concerted effort entailing its fans and the respective community, resulting in the formation of a formal association. The incumbent artistic director Helgi Tomasson has been steering the company since 1985 and upped the ante by actively engaging the dancers and honing their skills along a classical verve and catapulting them upon the stages of world renowned venues such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Opéra de Paris-Palais Garnier in Paris, the Royal Opera House in London and the Megaron Theater in Athens. Book your San Francisco Ballettickets now to indulge yourself in a cornucopia of ballet