The San Francisco Ballet 2023 season at War Memorial Opera House marks the company’s 90th as well as the beginning of a new era under the artistic direction of Tamara Rojo.
Helgi Tomasson, SF Ballet’s current Artistic Director, added:
“It is a pleasure to witness the Company, on the eve of its ninth decade, building upon its tradition of sharing new work with our dedicated and passionate audiences, welcoming a roster of world class choreographers into the studios, and celebrating the company’s immensely talented dancers. This is a forward-looking season that also offers a chance to reflect on all that has been accomplished in the company’s near-century history.”
Despite departure from his leadership position, audiences will still get to experience Tomasson’s choreography throughout this landmark year, most notably in three full-length ballets – Giselle, Romeo & Juliet, and The Nutcracker.
San Francisco Ballet 2023 Season Schedule
next@90 | January 20–February 11, 2023
War Memorial Opera House
This marks the first festival at SF Ballet since 2018’s Unbound, which debuted new works by Dwight Rhoden, Cathy Marston, Christopher Wheeldon, and Arthur Pita.
The next@90 festival will include three programs of three ballets each, a total of nine world premiere ballets and five Company debuts that exemplify the experimentation and bold innovation of the dance world on the San Francisco stage.
The lineup will feature new choreography – to be announced later this year – by emerging and established choreographers from across the country and around the world, including:
- Nicolas Blanc, former SF Ballet Principal Dancer and choreographer at The Joffrey Ballet;
- Bridget Breiner, an American-born, Germany-based choreographer and Artistic Director of the Badisches Staatsballett Karlsruhe (SF Ballet debut);
- Robert Garland, Resident Choreographer of Dance Theatre of Harlem (SF Ballet debut);
- Benjamin Millepied, current Artistic Director & Co-Founder of the L.A. Dance Project who will premiere new choreography for SF Ballet for the first time;
- Yuka Oishi, the first Japanese soloist of Hamburg Ballet and currently a freelance choreographer around the globe (SF Ballet debut);
- Yuri Possokhov, SF Ballet’s Resident Choreographer, who will premiere his sixteenth work for the company;
- Jamar Roberts, Resident Choreographer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (SF Ballet debut);
- Danielle Rowe, the Australia-born, SF-based choreographer whose SF Ballet repertory debut Wooden Dimes recently premiered in the 2021 Digital Season;
- Claudia Schreier, Choreographer in Residence at Atlanta Ballet and Artistic Director of Claudia Schreier & Company (SF Ballet debut).
“As a longtime friend to SF Ballet and Helgi Tomasson, I am thrilled to see the Company yet again at the frontier of this art form,” said James H. Herbert, II, Vice Chair of SF Ballet’s Board of Trustees and Founder and Executive Chairman of First Republic Bank. “It is an honor to support SF Ballet on the eve of its next chapter, building on what Helgi has accomplished and looking ahead to its next decade.”
Giselle | February 24–March 5, 2023
War Memorial Opera House
- Giselle by Helgi Tomasson
Featuring some of the most coveted roles in the classical repertory, Giselle has continued to captivate audiences since its Paris premiere in 1841 with a tragic and romantic story of a young peasant girl, passionate about dance, whose fate is sealed by a nobleman. Audiences are led through an unforgettable journey from a Rhineland village to a forest glade haunted by ethereal spirits who enact revenge on the men who have wronged them.
Originally created in 1999, Helgi Tomasson’s Giselle, with choreography by Tomasson after Marius Petipa, Jules Perrot, and Jean Coralli, will be staged at SF Ballet for the first time since 2015, marking the return of an equally epic and timely story.
Program 5 | March 14-19, 2023
War Memorial Opera House
- 7 for Eight by Helgi Tomasson
- COLORFORMS by Myles Thatcher
- Blake Works I by William Forsythe
The season’s mixed repertory program opens with Helgi Tomasson’s 7 for Eight from 2004, a series of elegant solo and ensemble numbers for eight dancers and set to portions of four of Bach’s keyboard concertos. 7 for Eight includes black-on-black costume designs by Sandra Woodall and lighting designs by David Finn.
The program will also feature the stage debut of Myles Thatcher’s COLORFORMS, a new work the choreographer began developing for the Company in spring 2020, which premiered as a dance film in SF Ballet’s 2021 Digital Season, set at SFMOMA, Yerba Buena Gardens, and Golden Gate Park. Now, Thatcher’s vibrant reflection on joy and connection set to Steve Reich’s Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings will come to life on the stage.
Forsythe’s Blake Works I is set to seven songs from James Blake’s album The Colour in Anything. Forsythe – one of ballet’s most innovative creators – crafts a living love letter to the artform with complex, kaleidoscopic movements that riff off the classic ballet vocabulary.
Cinderella | March 31 – April 8, 2023
War Memorial Opera House
- Cinderella by Christopher Wheeldon
A co-production with Dutch National Ballet, Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella foregoes fairytale tropes to tell a simultaneously human and magical story.
Featuring scenic and costume design by Julian Crouch, as well as lighting design by Natasha Katz and projection design by Daniel Brodie, the production includes the breathtaking tree and carriage sequence directed and designed by master puppeteer Basil Twist. The production was last performed at SF Ballet in 2020 and is set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev.
Cinderella is one of eleven commissions Wheeldon has created for SF Ballet, and his first full-length production for the Company.
Romeo & Juliet | April 21-30, 2023
War Memorial Opera House
- Romeo & Juliet by Helgi Tomasson
Helgi Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet has been a signature work of the Company following its premiere in the 1994 season, marked by its exhilarating swordsmanship and passionate dancing set to Sergei Prokofiev’s masterful score.
This full-length production features opulent, Italian Renaissance-inspired set and costume designs by Jens-Jacob Worsaae, and lighting design by Thomas R. Skelton. This production of Romeo & Juliet is one of four productions recorded and released by “Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance,” which was shown at cinemas nationwide in 2015; after being featured in SF Ballet’s 2021 Digital Season, audiences will now have the chance to see this work in person.
Featured Photo for the San Francisco Ballet 2023 Season of Jasmine Jimison in Myles Thatcher’s COLORFORMS // © San Francisco Ballet.
