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SFB's Helgi Tomasson: At the Beginning


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Some 31 years on, I stumbled upon this fascinating LA Times article and interview with Helgi Tomasson at the beginning of his tenure at SFB -

San Francisco Ballet: Mr. T Takes Over
October 06, 1985|MARTIN BERHEIMER

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-10-06/entertainment/ca-5534_1_san-francisco-ballet

(FYI: there are 3 pages to this article that you will need to navigate through)

"The San Francisco Ballet owned an extraordinarily glamorous new building of its own for classes, rehearsals and offices. It could boast a reasonably strong roster of versatile, eager, devoted dancers, and a decidedly diverse repertory. The ballet functioned rather nicely on a $9.3-million annual budget. Still, this was a company in desperate need of calm, consolidating, tasteful leadership."

So many things that may appear to have been inevitable, are, in fact, fragile and tenuous at the start. His ideas for a Los Angeles connection made me smile.

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I was eager to find more articles on this subject, but it wasn't easy. These three articles in the NY Times archive help to flesh things out better:

TOMASSON TELLS HOPES FOR SAN FRANCISCO POST
By JENNIFER DUNNING
Published: February 16, 1985

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/16/arts/tomasson-tells-hopes-for-san-francisco-post.html

"Mr. Smuin and Patricia Neary, both popular with the dancers, were chief contenders for the post of artistic director. Miss Neary, formerly a soloist with the New York City Ballet and director of the Geneva and Zurich Ballets, was invited on Feb. 1 to become the company's executive or administrative artistic director, a vaguely defined job in which she would answer to Mr. Tomasson."

Some things never change:
"A source close to the dancers said they had expressed concern over possible dismissals and were worried that Mr. Tomasson might bring in a new style of teaching."


BALLET: HELGI TOMASSON'S SAN FRANCISCO TROUPE
By ANNA KISSELGOFF, Special to the New York Times
Published: February 2, 1987

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/02/arts/ballet-helgi-tomasson-s-san-francisco-troupe.html

"Just a year and a half after becoming artistic director, Mr. Tomasson has effected a stunning improvement in the company's dancing. The specific emphasis has been on raising the level of classical technique - especially the women's toe work. This new strength and polish were brought into relief in three separate programs, to be repeated this week."

DANCE VIEW; THE SAN FRANCISCO BALLET
TAKES A GAMBLE — AND WINS
By ANNA KISSELGOFF
Published: February 22, 1987

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/22/arts/dance-view-the-san-francisco-ballet-takes-a-gamble-and-wins.html

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If you read the San Francisco Ballet at Seventy-Five book, there's a certain amount of backstory included about the changeover. It's definitely pro-Tomasson in tone and Michael Smuin becomes a kind of unperson in the narrative -- you would never know that he had been there for a long time. The Smuin era got airbrushed out the picture in that book.

I guess it all worked out OK because the Smuin Ballet did come into existence and its still doing OK as far as I can tell.

Nothing much came of Tomasson's desire to forge a relationship with Los Angeles. But, then, forging any kind of ballet in Los Angeles has always been a problem. (Ask John Clifford.) The current iteration of the Los Angeles Ballet under Colleen Neary doesn't strike me as being a central part of LA's cultural identity.

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If you read the San Francisco Ballet at Seventy-Five book, there's a certain amount of backstory included about the changeover. It's definitely pro-Tomasson in tone and Michael Smuin becomes a kind of unperson in the narrative -- you would never know that he had been there for a long time. The Smuin era got airbrushed out the picture in that book.

I guess it all worked out OK because the Smuin Ballet did come into existence and its still doing OK as far as I can tell.

Nothing much came of Tomasson's desire to forge a relationship with Los Angeles. But, then, forging any kind of ballet in Los Angeles has always been a problem. (Ask John Clifford.) The current iteration of the Los Angeles Ballet under Colleen Neary doesn't strike me as being a central part of LA's cultural identity.

Before I knew anything about ballet as an art form, or anything of its history, I happened to see SFB during the Smuin period, and I was surprised at how much ballet reminded me of Broadway productions - the dancing was perhaps more 'neat and clean', and perhaps more pretentious in effect - at least that's how I experienced it then. And I was both mildly entertained, and somewhat let down by just how "mild" an art form it was. So I mostly stayed away. I have to blame Smuin's approach to dance for some of that, but, Smuin choreography is what it is, and I've no problem with the existence of the Smuin Ballet. However, I totally understand the SFB board's wish to have a company that could compete with the very best companies in the world, operating on the highest level. Smuin's approach wasn't every really going to deliver that.

I do think that if I had instead seen NYCB dancing Concerto Barocco or The Four Temperaments, things may have been very different for me - I'm sure I would have realized more of the possibilities available to ballet.

Los Angeles culture has never had much connection to the "Old World" and the particular values and interests embraced by that world. San Francisco, though, has a fairly long history of competition with U.S. East Coast culture and institutions, so it makes sense that ballet has managed to hang on there. LA does have money, and pretensions, so there will continue to be competition, rather than any sharing. I've wondered if Millepied (in LA) will do any choreography for SFB, or if Tomasson will want to steer clear. ;)

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The first SFB performance I ever saw (c 1984) included Concerto Barocco, and in the ensuing 2 years or so, the rep I saw also included Ashton's Fille, Balanchine's Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as his Western Symphony and Agon, as well as ballets by Robbins. Most, if not all, of these were either planned or performed while Michael was still the director. And this is just off the top of my head, I'd have to work a little to remember what else I saw.

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If anyone wants to delve more deeply into the subject, there's a summary of the events of late 1984 by Robert Commanday in the San Francisco Chronicle of February 24, 1985.

What's most interesting is that the board recommended Patricia Neary as co-director of SF Ballet. Erik Bruhn, the board's consultant, favored Helgi Tomasson, at least above the reappointment of Michael Smuin, but the co-directorship with Neary seemed to be a good compromise. (According to Herb Caen, the dancers had cast 27 votes to retain Smuin, 14 to hire Neary and two for Tomasson.)

Commanday:

It was a very unfortunate confusion, tough on Neary especially after The New York Times had published a story saying she had the job, and not very fortunate for a ballet association covered with egg and rue for the past six months. My reading of it is that when Tomasson went home, thought it over and considered the advice he doubtless received in New York, he perceived the problems of taking on a strong associate with 11 years' experience as a director. He could lose major control before even getting significantly started.

It seems to have worked out well in the long run, but you always wonder what the alternate history would have been like. Perhaps a less romantic repertoire?

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If anyone wants to delve more deeply into the subject, there's a summary of the events of late 1984 by Robert Commanday in the San Francisco Chronicle of February 24, 1985.

What's most interesting is that the board recommended Patricia Neary as co-director of SF Ballet. Erik Bruhn, the board's consultant, favored Helgi Tomasson, at least above the reappointment of Michael Smuin, but the co-directorship with Neary seemed to be a good compromise. (According to Herb Caen, the dancers had cast 27 votes to retain Smuin, 14 to hire Neary and two for Tomasson.)

Commanday:

It seems to have worked out well in the long run, but you always wonder what the alternate history would have been like. Perhaps a less romantic repertoire?

Thanks Quiggin - I don't have a subscription to the Chronicle so I couldn't go digging there, but I knew there must be some good pieces to read through.

It just doesn't seem like any directorship transition goes smoothly. It makes sense that people weren't completely won over by the idea of working with Tomasson, most importantly because he had no real management experience. And he wanted to concentrate on creating choreography, but had little experience with that either! Everyone knew he had been a great dancer, but that's a very different ability. Essentially SFB got lucky, and they were able to enter a very long stable period.

There's another online article that states, "Helgi Tomasson was invited — beseeched, in fact — to head the Royal Danish Ballet in 1984 and the Paris Opera Ballet in 1989 as Rudolf Nureyev's successor." I think that last statement is probably an exaggeration - considered for the job at POB, yes, and asked to interview for it, but I seriously doubt the job was his for the taking. If the A.D. job is difficult to get at SFB, it's a nightmare to gain it at POB. And probably something of a nightmare to hold on to.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/29/arts/dance-view-he-could-have-had-paris-but-he-has-no-regrets.html

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Essentially SFB got lucky, and they were able to enter a very long stable period.

Exactly. We can look back now and say that it all worked out for the best. But none of that was knowable at the time. Hiring Tomasson was a gamble that paid off. We'll have to see whether the current messy transitions in Pennsylvania and Bavaria also work out for the best.

If the A.D. job is difficult to get at SFB, it's a nightmare to gain it at POB. And probably something of a nightmare to hold on to.
As Benjamin Millepied discovered.
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