San Francisco Ballet's Cool Britannia Reimagines Artistic Traditions

By Michael Phelan

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 the bill, Within the Golden Hour by Christopher Wheeldon and Chroma by Sir Wayne McGregor.

The British experience begins in the lobby of the Opera House with photo ops beside iconic British landmarks and a live band playing Britpop anthems and hits following the evening performances.

For the Cool Britannia program, San Francisco Ballet has partnered with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) and invited Bay Area artist Ranu Mukherjee to create a large-scale curtain drop for the War Memorial Opera House stage. "I am delighted to expand upon this meaningful collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums team to uncover new ways that our organizations can collectively uplift the rich artistry here in the Bay Area," said San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. "Cool Britannia features three essential choreographic innovators in ballet who are unafraid to break with and reimagine artistic traditions and push them forward."

Akram Khan created Dust for English National Ballet's production Lest We Forget to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. Dust, which premiered in 2014 in London, was Khan's first time working with a ballet company. It was also one of the first commissions by Tamara Rojo, then artistic director of English National Ballet. Set to original music by Jocelyn Pook, the ballet consists of three parts: the trenches at the front, women factory workers at the home front, and the relationship between the women and their loved ones in the trenches. Music in the final section includes lyrics from the poem "In Flanders Fields."

Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour was created in San Francisco Ballet's studios for the 2008 New Works Festival and has been performed worldwide. SFB is freshening up the production with new costumes designed by Zac Posen, EVP & Creative Director of Gap Inc. Posen is known for creating glamorous designs and red-carpet gowns. "We built these costumes by playing with different tonalities of the movement," says Posen, "and the incredible color palette of the sky of San Francisco. We're testing different ombré techniques of colorations to match the inspiration of the ballet." Posen added that his intention was to highlight, "the beauty of the movement of the dance and let that be the storytelling,"

Sir Wayne McGregor's Chroma was premiered by the Royal Ballet in 2006. Known as an innovative piece, it combines classical ballet and contemporary dance as well as innovative partnering and dynamic movements. Chromas is set to a rock-inspired score by The White Stripes' Jack White III and Benois de la Danse-winning Composer Joby Talbot performed by the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.

San Francisco Ballet's Cool Britannia runs from February 13 through 19. For more information, see San Francisco Ballet.