PeggyTulle

I'm watching and rewatching the Jewels program, especially "Emeralds" since it's one I haven't seen as often. One thing that I'm particularly awestruck by is Sasha Mukhamedov. She breathes such life into not just the steps, but all of the inbetweens. Watching her, I feel like I'm lifted and just bouyant. She is stunning and such a gem; she elevates this "Emeralds" to a whole new level. Bummed that she wasn't promoted last year; I fear her ACL tear may hinder possibilities for the next year or so. Wona Park, in the pas de trois, was also lovely and bright, and seemed to have that wispy, dream-like air to her.

They both left before this season. Ami is in Japan. Emma left before that, I think. Possibly two seasons ago?

Also, Gregory Myles is an apprentice this year but not listed on next year's roster. Looks like most of this year's apprentices will return for a second year, which is nice considering they didn't get to perform in person this year.

Kim had posted in her public IG awhile back about a foot injury and surgery.

Looks like Kim Olivier is not on the roster. Also Jahna Frantziskonis.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET 2022 REPERTORY SEASON ARTISTS OF THE COMPANY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER Helgi Tomasson PRINCIPAL DANCERS Dores André Ulrik Birkkjaer Max Cauthorn Frances Chung Sasha De Sola Nikisha Fogo Benjamin Freemantle Mathilde Froustey Angelo Greco Tiit Helimets Esteban Hernandez Luke Ingham Julian MacKay Misa Kuranaga Wona Park Aaron Robison Jennifer Stahl Yuan Yuan Tan Sarah Van Patten Joseph Walsh Wei Wang WanTing Zhao PRINCIPAL CHARACTER DANCERS Ricardo Bustamante Val Caniparoli Anita Paciotti SOLOISTS Cavan Conley Diego Cruz Daniel Deivison-Oliveira Isabella DeVivo Lucas Erni Ellen Rose Hummel Jasmine Jimison Madison Keesler Steven Morse Sasha Mukhamedov Elizabeth Powell Julia Rowe Henry Sidford Myles Thatcher Lonnie Weeks Hansuke Yamamoto CORPS DE BALLET Kamryn Baldwin Sean Bennett Ludmila Bizalion Samantha Bristow Olivia Brothers Thamires Chuvas Rubén Cítores Estéban Cuadrado Megan Amanda Ehrlich Luca Ferrò Max Föllmer Gabriela Gonzalez Lleyton Ho Anatalia Hordov Blake Johnston SunMin Lee Elizabeth Mateer Norika Matsuyama Carmela Mayo Swane Messaoudi Davide Occhipinti Lauren Parrott Joshua Jack Price Leili Rackow Nathaniel Remez Alexander Reneff-Olson Jacob Seltzer Natasha Sheehan John-Paul Simoens Tyla Steinbach Bianca Teixeira Mingxuan Wang Joseph Warton Maggie Weirich Adrian Zeisel APPRENTICES Alexis Aiudi Teague Applegate Juliana Bellissimo Andris Kundzins Nicole Moyer Pemberley Ann Olson Jamie Adele Stephens Alexis Valdes BALLET MASTERS & ASSISTANTS TO THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Ricardo Bustamante Felipe Diaz BALLET MASTERS Tina LeBlanc Anita Paciotti Katita Waldo COMPANY TEACHERS Helgi Tomasson Patrick Armand Ricardo Bustamante Felipe Diaz Tina LeBlanc CHOREOGRAPHER IN RESIDENCE Yuri Possokhov MUSIC DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR Martin West ####

From the email to subscribers: Company Roster for 2022 Season San Francisco Ballet announces two promotions and the appointment of four apprentices for the 2022 Season. New positions are effective July 1, 2021. SF Ballet corps de ballet member Jasmine Jimison is promoted to soloist and apprentice Olivia Brothers is promoted to the corps de ballet. Both dancers received training at SF Ballet School. "Jasmine is an immensely talented and dedicated young dancer who excels in her roles on stage, and this year, on the screen in Myles Thatcher's COLORFORMS," says SF Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson. "Olivia is a fresh talent who proved this year she is ready to join the corps de ballet. What I am most grateful for in this difficult year is that we've kept our entire company of dancers working, and that I was able to offer four apprentice positions to students from San Francisco Ballet School's Trainee Program. The pandemic has been so difficult for dancers everywhere, but especially those dancers just beginning their careers after years of hard work. I am proud of these dancers and look forward to working with them in the 2022 Season." Jasmine Jimison, called a "breakout talent" (San Francisco Chronicle) for her role in Myles Thatcher's COLORFORMS in the 2021 Digital Season, is a native of Palo Alto. Jimison joined SF Ballet School in 2014, advanced to Trainee in 2017, and performed the principal pas de deux in Balanchine's Stars and Stripes during the School's 2018 Student Showcase. She joined SF Ballet as an apprentice in 2018 and became a member of the corps de ballet in 2019. Pointe magazine named Jimison one of 2019's Stars of the Corps. See Jasmine Jimison's bio here. Olivia Brothers is promoted to corps de ballet after joining the Company as an apprentice for the 2021 Season. A native of Palos Verdes Estates, California, Brothers won first place at Youth America Grand Prix San Francisco in 2017 as a member of the Marat Daukayev School, after which she joined SF Ballet School as a Level 7 student, moving to Level 8 in 2018, and joining the Trainee Program in 2019. See Olivia Brothers' bio here. NEW APPRENTICES Four SF Ballet School Trainees have been named apprentices for the 2022 Season: Teague Applegate, Juliana Bellissmo, Nicole Moyer, and Jamie Adele Stephens. As apprentices, dancers will take Company class and perform corps de ballet roles in SF Ballet productions. Read the full press release here. Let's congratulate these wonderful dancers who do so much to deliver art today and every day.

I have been biting my tongue... I wanted to like Symphony #9, but something just kept rubbing me wrong. Not sure what it is yet (the dancing is great! But the theme and music just didn't work for me). Thoroughly enjoyed Swimmer. Joseph Walsh is great, and the story of him dipping into pool after pool.. Hokey but in a nostalgic kind of way. Wooden Dimes, though.... I love Sarah Van Patten. But that film just doesn't do her justice. The video capture was so dark, and often I had to make sure my screen's brightness was up (and I'm fairly young). Only because I had read the program notes did I get the importance of the supporting characters (Tiit, Madison, Dores, etc.). The extras in the story itself seemed to get lost in translation. And I felt like I often missed the grandness that should have been there (such a stark stage set with lots of close shots).

I'm still thinking about how Sofiane would (at least in my imagination) be a wonderful AD. What about Edwaard Liang? He's been getting experience leading BalletMet, he's choreographed for SFB and many other companies, former NYCB dancer, doesn't have "history" from being in the company with the current set of dancers (so perhaps less conflict of interest than some of the others), and I believe he's a Bay Area native.

Lizzy Powell posted a brief IG story of the company learning Forsythe's "Blake Works". https://instagram.com/stories/lizzypowell222/2520081945141051361?igshid=tq91fcwecazo

Ezra Hurwitz, a former Miami City Ballet dancer and dance filmmaker, directed the video. He's collaborated with SFB and many others in the past, and I believe he's also partners w/Gonzalo Garcia (former SFB and current NYCB principal).

Really enjoyed Colorforms as part of Program 2, so much so I've re-watched it several times. The visual richness, quick and playful editing, and camaraderie that I think many of us are missing these days... Myles Thatcher hit it out of the park with this one. I'm curious how it'll translate to the stage in the future.

The program 5 change is also interesting and surprising given Cathy Marston's recent IG post praising the recording and dancers' performances. https://www.instagram.com/p/CLbgSvUANcZ/?igshid=xybionh1paoj

An email update today from SFB on Program 5: Programming Change for Program 05 These last 11 months have brought about much uncertainty and change with the world. As an organization, we have done our best to adjust and pivot where we can, announcing an all-digital season, and 3 world premieres created specifically for the screen. However, the safety of our audiences, dancers, and musicians has been at the forefront of our work, and COVID-19 related obstacles created unforeseen delays with the film capture of Choreographer Cathy Marston's Mrs. Robinson at the War Memorial Opera House this month. Therefore, we have made the joint decision with the American Guild of Musical Artists to continue to prioritize the health and safety of our artists and support staff by pausing filming. Mrs. Robinson will be rescheduled for live performance as part of the 2022 Season. An archival capture of Marston’s revered Snowblind, created for the 2018 Unbound Festival, will replace Mrs. Robinson for Program 05. Snowblind takes you inside the complicated relationships between Ethan Frome, his wife Zeena, and Zeena's cousin Mattie. But fear not! In 2022 you'll see our heroine in Mrs. Robinson exploring her relationship with Benjamin Braddock. Throw in the added complication of Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine, and you've got something worth waiting for. "[Snowblind] gripped the audience so tightly that when the score abruptly vanished, the emotional tension held us in breathless suspension...." — Dancing Times We thank you for your continued support of SF Ballet.

Is Harmony no longer part of the regular season? Or maybe it never was?

Gotta say, I love the idea of Sofiane as AD. She seems to check off all the boxes (I don't think she's a big schmoozer (sp?), but she has glamourous name recognition) plus she doesn't seem to be buddy-buddy with a bunch of the current dancers, which I think would be key for a new AD (from IG, Gonzalo and a few others are still close friends with current dancers on the roster, which could present potential conflicts of interest). Considering that, I'd have former principal dancer and choreographer Parrish Maynard (ballet master at Kansas City Ballet) on my list. Any thoughts on Larissa Ponomarenko, who is currently on faculty with the school?

Might as well add Tiit Helimets to the growing list. He's been coaching SFB dancers for the past few years.

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/dance/helgi-tomasson-to-step-down-at-s-f-ballet-in-2022-after-nearly-40-years-at-the-helm "Helgi Tomasson will step down as artistic director and principal choreographer of the San Francisco Ballet by June 2022, the company announced Wednesday, Jan. 6." "“This had been on my mind for a while, even before the pandemic,” he said in a video interview over Zoom. “And as I assess where we are now, I feel the company has come through this very well."

Thank you!

I thought that was a repost?

From the comments, it looks like Angelo Greco is no longer with SFB...?

I'm not quite sure where to put this (totally unexpected) news. SFB just announced on social media (Facebook and IG stories) that Julian MacKay is joining the company as a principal. Here's the press release.

From a logistics perspective, holding the full lengths until the end may be wise to allow the company members to better socially distance themselves until there is (cross those fingers) a vaccine. Full lengths mean the entire company (and towards the end, crew and orchestra) is hanging out constantly.

I'm a bit surprised by the hiring of Fogo as a principal. I assumed that Sasha Mukhamedov would have gotten the nod if they hired another leading lady. Ami Yuki's gone from the roster. She's posted on IG about being home in Japan and many of her SFB colleagues have said they will miss her and wished her good luck in Japan. Others missing from the roster that I can see from a quick glance: Vladislav Kozlov, Alexandre Cagnat, Max Föllmer, Skyla Schreter, Miranda Silveira,

I don't know about the access issues to the WMOH. But there is a continued push here in SF for social distancing, both for work (where possible) and canceling social events like public school fundraisers, community meetings, and picnics. Local SFB-goers should prepare for the whole season to possibly be canceled:(