2/8/2025—San Francisco Ballet opens the second performance of the 2025 season with Cool Britannia, three works by "three bold British voices in dance." Making its North American premiere is choreographer Akram Khan's Dust, a dramatic, one-act ballet that evokes the human experience of World War I. SFB has previously performed the other two works on...
February 3, 2025—In keeping with Michael Smuin's wish to give his Company's dancers the resources to develop their creativity, since 2008 Smuin Contemporary Ballet's annual Choreography Showcase has presented new works choreographed entirely by Company artists.
January 11, 2025—San Francisco Ballet will open the 2025 season with the Company premiere of Sir Kenneth Macmillan's Manon, a ballet in three acts. Based on Abbé Prévost's 1871 novel "Manon Lescaut," Manon is a tale of a young woman of much beauty and charm, but of little in the way of scruples. Manon's morals change to suit the...
November 20, 2024—Michael Smuin's first Christmas Ballet was performed the year after he founded Smuin Contemporary Ballet, making this the 30th anniversary of what has become a treasured Bay Area annual tradition. Each year's performance includes beloved, familiar standards, such as the boa-wielding vamp in Santa Baby, as well as some new works to...
October 28, 2024—For most professional dancers, working full-time while raising a family is more than enough to keep them busy around the clock. Diablo Ballet's Amanda Farris does all that and more, as one of the Company's two costumers. Typically an overlooked and underappreciated art in and of itself, constructing and maintaining costumes...
July 17, 2024—San Francisco Ballet has introduced Principal Dancer Sasha De Sola and Soloist Julia Rowe as the first recipients, or inaugural fellows, of its new artist development program Raising Leaders. The program offers a curriculum tailored to support the career growth of dancers as "future leaders of ballet beyond the stage."
Premieres Aplenty Coming in 2024-2025 Season
May 10, 2024—The coming of spring marks the end of the ballet season for many companies and the beginning of their summer tour season. The upcoming 2024-2025 season beckons with several premieres, works that are new to the Bay Area, North America, or, lucky us, the world. Here are some of the premieres we can look forward to in the coming months....
Dos Mujeres is San Francisco Ballet's tribute to Latina women, featuring the choreography of Colombian-Belgian Annabelle Lopez Ochoa with the San Francisco Ballet premiere of Broken Wings and the world premiere of Carmen by Cuban-born Arielle Smith. For the occasion, the lobby of the War Memorial Opera House is decorated in big, brightly colored...
April 9, 2024—As well as showcasing foreign artists, the annual San Francisco International Arts Festival is an opportunity to see some of the smaller local dance companies that typically perform in less well-known venues. Often limited by shoe-string budgets, they don't get as much advertising exposure as the bigger dance companies. Yet, some have...
Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa Premieres a Portrait of Elvis for Smuin Ballet's Dance Series 2
March 26, 2024—One of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's signature choreographic accomplishments is her narrative ballets about famous women in recent history: Frida Kahlo, Eva Peron, Coco Chanel, Maria Callas, Delmira Augustini, etc. It may seem surprising, then, that her upcoming world premiere, Tupelo Tornado for Smuin's Dance Series 2 tells the story of...