Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×
Support Ballet Alert! Year Round through the Amazon Affiliates Program by Clicking Here to Order from Amazon.com

SFB 2021 Digital Season

sf_herminator

By sf_herminator
in San Francisco Ballet

Recommended Posts

sf_herminator

sf_herminator

Posted
  • Author
Posted

A press release was posted to SFBallet.org:  https://www.sfballet.org/discover/press-center/press-releases/release/san-francisco-ballet-announces-2021-digital-season/?fbclid=IwAR2duMIul6_P5hn8Fm5Z6tyMUkPasZmRuQ3J6l_eKvM6CfH-WezMe9rWQ34

PDF of press release:  https://cdn.sfballet.org/2019/10/27122047/Digital-Season-Announcement-Final.pdf

Tickets will go on sale November 17 per FB post:  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=639181936771524

I renewed my subscription, so not sure how this will work but will provide info if I find something....

Link to comment
sf_herminator

sf_herminator

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Looks like there has been some shifting of the programs per this document on the choreographers:  https://cdn.sfballet.org/20201023092452/2021SeasonChoreographers.pdf

Programs by Choreographer:

Program 1:  Balanchine (Midsummer)

Program 2:  Mark Morris, Dwight Rhoden, Myles Thatcher

Program 3:  Yuri Possokhov, Alexei Ratmansky, Danielle Rowe

Program 4:  Balanchine (Jewels)

Program 5:  David Dawson, Cathy Marston, Helgi Tomasson

Program 6:  Tomasson (Romeo & Juliet)

Program 7:  Tomasson (Swan Lake)

George Balanchine is listed for Program 1-A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Originally Program 1 was a mixed bill which included new works by Myles Thatcher and Danielle Rowe, plus the return of Possokhov's Swimmer.

Myles Thatcher has been moved to Program 2.  His new piece was previously slated for Program 1.  Also on Program 2 are Mark Morris's Sandpaper Ballet (which was part of the 2020 season) and Dwight Rhoden's Let's Begin at the End (part of the 2018 Unbound Festival).  Looks like we will have to wait for a new Mark Morris piece - but very happy to see Sandpaper Ballet again.

Alexei Ratmansky is listed for Symphony #9 on Program 3, which if you recall is the opening section of the Shostakovich Trilogy.  It looks like the SFB premiere of The Seasons will be delayed again.  Danielle Rowe is now on Program 3, along with Possokhov's Swimmer.  

George Balanchine's Jewels is Program 4 - originally it was Midsummer.

Program 5 is now a mixed bill with the (long delayed) return of David Dawson's Anima Animus, the long awaited premiere of Cathy Marston's Mrs. Robinson, and Helgi Tomasson's 7 for Eight.

Programs 6 & 7 are still Swan Lake and Romeo & Juliet, but the order is now reversed.

Link to comment
pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted

Thanks for posting all this info, SF_Herminator.
Being an out-of-towner these days, I can't tell you how happy I am to hear I may get a chance to view the entire season at home.   ;)   That would be truly incredible.

Anima Animus without either Sylve or Kochetkova is going to be interesting. A number of dancers  will get the chance to make it their own. How Swimmer is going to be filmed - that will be interesting to hear about in itself.

Link to comment
pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, California said:

I'm confused. The entire spring season will be on-line? Will these be recordings from previous seasons? New performances on stage to an empty theater?

From the little bits of information I've been hearing, I think SFB was wanting to perform either to an empty theater or to a 25% audience theater - either way, but the performance would be filmed. It's possible that something would be older footage, but a number of these programs would have to be brand new performances.

Link to comment
sf_herminator

sf_herminator

Posted
  • Author
Posted
8 minutes ago, California said:

I'm confused. The entire spring season will be on-line? Will these be recordings from previous seasons? New performances on stage to an empty theater?

My guess is it will be a combination.  The new works will be created with current social distancing guidelines applied.  I have heard some details about one of the pieces, but because it was not in a public forum I will not divulge the info - besides, things are constantly changing that it might be something completely different from the original concept.  From the press release (https://cdn.sfballet.org/2019/10/27122047/Digital-Season-Announcement-Final.pdf) one of the mainlines state:  New digitally conceived Swan Lake based on Helgi Tomasson’s original choreography, as well as a new film capture of George Balanchine’s Emeralds.  Regarding the new works:  Tomasson curated a reimagined season that includes three world premieres by Cathy Marston, Danielle Rowe, and Myles Thatcher fully conceived for film.

 

Link to comment
California

California

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, pherank said:

From the little bits of information I've been hearing, I think SFB was wanting to perform either to an empty theater or to a 25% audience theater - either way, but the performance would be filmed. It's possible that something would be older footage, but a number of these programs would have to be brand new performances.

I would LOVE to see them do Ratmansky's Symphony #9 (my favorite from the Trilogy), but that's a fairly large ensemble. Swan Lake? That's a lot of people on stage, which makes me wonder if that is a tape of a performance from years back (along with their R&J and Jewels). We did see their R&J with Kochetkova (was that on the Lincoln Center digital offerings?) The subscription for the whole season is pricey ($289) but with some real advantages -- like unlimited viewing of each program over 7 days, instead of just 24  hours. Hopefully, they'll post more specificity for all the programs.

Link to comment
pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, California said:

I would LOVE to see them do Ratmansky's Symphony #9 (my favorite from the Trilogy), but that's a fairly large ensemble. Swan Lake? That's a lot of people on stage, which makes me wonder if that is a tape of a performance from years back (along with their R&J and Jewels). We did see their R&J with Kochetkova (was that on the Lincoln Center digital offerings?) The subscription for the whole season is pricey ($289) but with some real advantages -- like unlimited viewing of each program over 7 days, instead of just 24  hours. Hopefully, they'll post more specificity for all the programs.

The R&B would likely be the newer version with Froustey and Di Lanno (which we got to see back in May). I wouldn't mind seeing Symphony #9 with original cast, such as Davit Karapetyan, but new cast would obviously be of interest too. Swan Lake was performed not so long ago at SFB, so they may have film of multiple casts. I do hope that Jewels will be all new performances.

Edited by pherank
Link to comment
PeggyR

PeggyR

Posted
Posted

Very glad to hear there will be some kind of season, even if it’s not live.  However, maybe I’ve missed something (my head is spinning right now with everything else going on in the world), but leaving out the possibility of previously filmed performances, are they saying that one performance of each program will be filmed and available digitally for the specific period of time?  That means only one cast per program, which would require fewer dancers than a live season that would normally have at least two or three casts per ballet.  If so, what a terrible impact for dancers waiting to debut new roles.  Plus, needing so many fewer dancers, can the company keep them all employed?

Link to comment
pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, PeggyR said:

Very glad to hear there will be some kind of season, even if it’s not live.  However, maybe I’ve missed something (my head is spinning right now with everything else going on in the world), but leaving out the possibility of previously filmed performances, are they saying that one performance of each program will be filmed and available digitally for the specific period of time?

I believe that is what is doable. And there is still the option of live performances with minimal audience size at this point. Taping multiple casts is an interesting idea, but I would think that would get really expensive.

"That means only one cast per program, which would require fewer dancers than a live season that would normally have at least two or three casts per ballet.  If so, what a terrible impact for dancers waiting to debut new roles.  Plus, needing so many fewer dancers, can the company keep them all employed?"

That is the question. But SFB has been resolute about maintaining the company size - keeping the artists has always been mentioned as a top priority. Thus the ticket price for a digital season (they haven't said whether there will be smaller packages available too). I think we have to consider subscription prices to be partly a donation towards the company's survival. It's not going to be about offering a "good deal" as compared to going to a sporting event, for example. And of course there's nothing to compare to yet - this is all happening for the first time, and every strategy and tactic will have a risk attached.

Link to comment
pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted (edited)

Misa Kuranaga:

"I smiled like Juliet in balcony scene today 😊 This photo was taken by @e_tomasson exactly a year ago when I debuted in Helgi Tomasson’s Romeo and Juliet in Copenhagen with @sfballet on our tour. And today after 7 months of lockdown, we are finally back in the studio and I’m working on a new creation with my favorite people. I’m very thankful for San Francisco Ballet for working very hard to figure this out very safely to be able to start back again."

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG54sMrnEr-/


Aaron Robison alludes to training for Swan Lake:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG0d8Z6l5hC/

 

And from SFB:

"A truly thrilling moment at SF Ballet today—in addition to company class (shown here, with @sashadesola) the dancers restarted rehearsals, carefully following strict protocols designed to maximize safety, and with the guidance and approval of @sfdph. They're starting to work on world premieres by @_danirowe_ and @mylesthatcher that will be filmed for the 2021 Digital Season.
A huge shout out to the Operations, Facilities, Wellness, Artistic, and Leadership teams who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make this possible, as well as to our dedicated Company Physician Dr. Richard Gibbs!"

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG58yCiBtxQ/

Edited by pherank
Link to comment
pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted (edited)

More specifics here about the digital season:

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/dance/s-f-ballet-announces-a-full-digital-dance-season-for-2021

'Three of the four previously announced world premieres — by choreographers Cathy Marston, Danielle Rowe and Myles Thatcher — remain on the schedule and have been reconceived for video, Tomasson said.

Thatcher’s still-untitled work, scheduled for Program 2 (Feb. 11-March 3), will be recorded in part at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Rowe’s “Wooden Dimes” (Program 3, March 4-24) is a dance video about love set in the Roaring ’20s. And Marston’s “Mrs. Robinson,” inspired by “The Graduate,” will be recorded on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House with an introduction shot at the Fairmont Hotel.

“A lot of people put on their thinking caps to try and find new ways of looking at things,” Tomasson said. “From our point of view, all we want to do is be back on stage within the theater. But in the meantime, we are trying to be creative and do things a different way.”'

It IS a shame that Ratmansky’s The Seasons is not going to be performed, and there hasn't been any explanation about why. That ballet would have already been through rehearsals for the 2019 season, right? So the dancers would just need a couple of weeks to reacquaint themselves with the choreography. So is Ratmansky unavailable (even remotely) to fine-tune things for the digital season?

Edited by pherank
Link to comment
pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted

Joseph Walsh post:

Me and SVP heading to our first dancing shots last week for @cathyrmarston ‘s Mrs. Robinson shoot. It was a bit chilly outside, but thanks to the @fairmontsanfrancisco for giving us an incredible space and letting us take over a whole wing! It’s part of @sfballet ‘s 2021 wild and crazy one time only... (🤞🏼) ... Digital Season. I will put up some more stuff on my story for bts goodness.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIb4elFgGBz/

Link to comment
pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted (edited)

There is an article in The Examiner that is all about SFB learning to cope with pandemic challenges. Part of the article talks about which ballets can be filmed now for the 2021 season, and which ballets must be represented by older footage:

“There are some ballets that we would have loved to have filmed for this season, but couldn’t because we were not allowed to have that many people together on site at once,” says Helgi Tomasson.

Some productions have been postponed, including a new work by New York-based Mark Morris, who prefers to choreograph in the studio, and “The Seasons” by Alexei Ratmansky. Tomasson says, “It would have been a company premiere and had been taught to the company, [but it] has such a big cast that it was impossible. … We simply cannot do, are not allowed to do, ballets with large casts.”

https://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/sf-ballet-adapts-to-covids-challenging-footing/

Edited by pherank
Link to comment
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...