Tamara Rojo named new Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet

[sandik]

The hiring process has taken long enough that I kind of forgot to keep checking in!

This is surprising, yes, mostly because she seems to have had quite a lot of success in the UK, but I can see why SFB would hire her away based on the repertory she's commissioned/facilitated.  Not to mention her connections to the international dance community, which may be really valuable as we make our way out of pandemic restrictions.

There are a number of companies that are changing leadership right now -- in the west, Oregon Ballet Theater is also on the lookout for a new artistic director.  For many years, most of the companies on the west coast have been closely connected to the House of Balanchine -- it's looking like that will be shifting over the next few years.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this all develops.

[California]

I assume there was also a lot of pressure to find someone other than a white male. They could have continued a Balanchine heritage with Daniel Duell (Chicago) or Ib Anderson (Arizona) and for whatever reason passed over them. (I know nothing about their management ability, but have been impressed with rep choices for their respective companies in streaming presentations during the pandemic.) Much-loved couples like Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky haven't contributed the artistic vision that Rojo has (although I hope they're being considered for ABT).

[miliosr]

4 hours ago, canbelto said:

Helgi Tomasson himself cleaned house in a rather harsh way when he took over SFB.

Memories are short. People forget how contentious that period and its aftermath were.

32 minutes ago, sandik said:

For many years, most of the companies on the west coast have been closely connected to the House of Balanchine -- it's looking like that will be shifting over the next few years.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this all develops.

I was thinking about this after I heard the news. I don't associate Tamara Rojo with George Balanchine (or with Jerome Robbins for that matter). So, this represents a sea change for the company. Between the Christensen brothers and Helgi Tomasson, there's always been someone with a connection to the New York City Ballet in a position of power. (Power sharing in the case of Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin.)

Also, what becomes of the Mark Morris repertory Tomasson commissioned? Morris made 8 dances for the company between 1994 and 2012. What becomes of the Yuri Possokhov repertory? The Tomasson repertory? I hope Helgi Tomasson isn't harboring illusions that the repertory he built up over four decades will enjoy a better fate than the repertory he tossed out when he took over in 1985.

As for the dancers, we shall see. For instance, Aaron Robison left San Francisco Ballet to join English National Ballet and then returned to San Francisco Ballet after a year,

26 minutes ago, California said:

They could have continued a Balanchine heritage with Daniel Duell (Chicago) or Ib Anderson (Arizona) and for whatever reason passed over them..

The problem with Andersen and Duell is that neither is as youngish as Tamara Rojo. I looked up Andersen and he turned 67 in December. I imagine Duell is a comparable age. So, even apart from the gender issue, the board probably wanted someone who is younger and will hopefully last in the position for awhile.

[Helene]

10 minutes ago, miliosr said:

Memories are short. People forget how contentious that period and its aftermath were.

I'm not sure how many long-time company followers have forgotten, even if this was before social media: that was a very different situation; this is the way the Washington Post described it in 1985:

Quote

Last fall, at the successful peak of his 12-year tenure, Smuin was ousted by company management, to be replaced in July by former New York City Ballet dancer-choreographer Helgi Tomasson.

That was an ugly turnover.  Tomasson is leaving on his own at 79, and he certainly deserves retirement at this point in his life.

[Drew]

I don't have a clear cut "position" on whether a company like this does better hiring from within its own ranks and alums or going outside. Certainly this is not centuries' old company with a byzantine bureaucracy where any "outsider" is likely to be eaten alive.

But at the least Rojo seems to me a very interesting and even an exciting choice, as she seems to have found intelligent ways to be 'of the moment' at ENB while still being committed to classical ballet...Since San Francisco Ballet has a lot of great dancers as well as great ballets in its repertory of course one hopes the transition won't be too bumpy even if it's bound to be somewhat bumpy. 

This is from the Guardian's piece on Rojo's move:

"The acclaimed dancer – who has introduced groundbreaking works into the ENB’s repertoire, including more than 40 works choreographed by women – will step down in late 2022 to take up the role of artistic director at San Francisco Ballet....Rojo has been credited with giving ENB a new, international allure, through innovative and risk-taking commissions such as Akram Khan’s Giselle.

"She also led ENB into a new chapter in 2019 by moving it into the RIBA award-winning Mulryan Centre for Dance in east London, several months before the pandemic hit. Since then, she’s been a strong advocate of the arts, after ENB had to furlough 85% of its workforce and many of the staff, including Rojo, took pay cuts."

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/jan/11/tamara-rojo-to-leave-english-national-ballet

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by Drew

[Quiggin]

4 hours ago, miliosr said:

I was thinking about this after I heard the news. I don't associate Tamara Rojo with George Balanchine (or with Jerome Robbins for that matter). So, this represents a sea change for the company. .. Also, what becomes of the Mark Morris repertory Tomasson commissioned? Morris made 8 dances for the company between 1994 and 2012. What becomes of the Yuri Possokhov repertory? The Tomasson repertory?

Yes, I agree that there will be no more sunny Balanchine years for us here, with Divertimento #15 and Scotch Symphony and Symphony in C listed on the same season's programs. Or the brash American-school works of Jerome Robbins or Justin Peck.

Tomasson maintained a nice balance between witty NYCB ballets and heavier fare like Frankenstein and Ethan Frome. Possokhov will likely still work with the company, as he did with ENB, but the Morris works may fade away (farewell Sandpiper Ballet!).

ENB trailer for Possokhov's Senseless Kindness, based on V Grossmann's novel of World War II, Life & Fate:

https://ondemand.ballet.org.uk/production/senseless-kindness/

Edited January 12, 2022 by Quiggin

[sandik]

6 hours ago, Helene said:

I'm not sure how many long-time company followers have forgotten, even if this was before social media: that was a very different situation; this is the way the Washington Post described it in 1985:

Many thanks for the link -- what a pleasure to read Kriegsman again.  This

"Smuin will be in Washington this week to lead the San Francisco Ballet in its Kennedy Center debut, as artistic director of the company. It will, however, be his final act in that post. "

reminded me of Edward Villella and his departure from Miami City Ballet.  He was in Paris with the company, and then he was gone.

[sandik]

4 hours ago, Drew said:

I don't have a clear cut "position" on whether a company like this does better hiring from within its own ranks and alums or going outside. Certainly this is not centuries' old company with a byzantine bureaucracy where any "outsider" is likely to be eaten alive.

...

"She also led ENB into a new chapter in 2019 by moving it into the RIBA award-winning Mulryan Centre for Dance in east London, several months before the pandemic hit. Since then, she’s been a strong advocate of the arts, after ENB had to furlough 85% of its workforce and many of the staff, including Rojo, took pay cuts."

I hadn't really thought about it till now, but SFB's relationship with the opera, and the fairly peculiar schedule they maintain in their theater -- I wonder if Rojo might be thinking about shifting that situation...

[Helene]

The opera is the big kahuna in San Francisco.  There is a spot between the June-July and Fall opera seasons, but that's not a traditional ballet time, and San Francisco Opera might be in rehearsals then.

[pherank]

Rojo would not be my choice as a best fit, not by a long shot, but as audience members we have little choice but to ride with it and see what happens. My guess is the chemistry will be very different, so yes, there may be some dancers jumping ship (or being pushed).

I would have to think that there are SFB dancers who support this choice and it would be interesting to hear their take on things.

What I do like: SFB chose a woman as AD, and an experienced one.

Edited January 12, 2022 by pherank

[pherank]

You know, I'm still wondering: Why is Rojo leaving ENB? If things have turned out so well for her there (as the p.r. makes it sound), why not continue to build up ENB?

And why go halfway around the world - leaving behind the usual ballet centers to lead a US West Coast company? What's the benefit to Rojo? I would think it would be more difficult, not less, to get notice for her 'artistic vision' when located in California. Perhaps she intends on making SFB tour more (good luck with that). Or maybe the point is to get away from all the touring that ENB has had to do?

Edited January 17, 2022 by pherank

[volcanohunter]

Is the pay better?

[aurora]

7 hours ago, pherank said:

You know, I'm still wondering: Why is Rojo leaving ENB? If things have turned out so well for her there (as the p.r. makes it sound), why not continue to build up ENB?

And why go halfway around the world - leaving behind the usual ballet centers to lead a US West Coast company? What's the benefit to Rojo? I would think it would be more difficult, not less, to get notice for her 'artistic vision' when located in California. Perhaps she intends on making SFB tour more (good luck with that). Or maybe the point is to get away from all the touring that ENB has had to do?

One might imagine being in the same location as their spouse would be a draw. That's quite the long distance relationship otherwise.

[California]

3 minutes ago, aurora said:

One might imagine being in the same location as their spouse would be a draw. That's quite the long distance relationship otherwise.

But her husband Isaac Hernandez is currently a principal at ENB. Presumably Rojo had the clout to keep him in that position. If she didn't, that would explain both of them leaving.

https://www.ballet.org.uk/the-company/dancers

[aurora]

2 minutes ago, California said:

But her husband Isaac Hernandez is currently a principal at ENB. Presumably Rojo had the clout to keep him in that position. If she didn't, that would explain both of them leaving.

https://www.ballet.org.uk/the-company/dancers

Interesting--the articles citing her appointment clearly said that he had recently (as in before her appointment) rejoined SFB.

[Mashinka]

Over the years ENB has struggled to balance the books.  When Rojo 'took over' (ahem) from Wayne Eagling, the company was in excellent financial health.  It will be interesting to see the financial position post Covid.  I understand Ms Rojo commanded a substantial salary in London so I doubt if that influenced her move to the US.  Perhaps SFB has better financial reserves?

[pherank]

6 hours ago, aurora said:

Interesting--the articles citing her appointment clearly said that he had recently (as in before her appointment) rejoined SFB.

Yes, I read that bit about Hernandez "rejoining" SFB, but it was news to me, and I think to everyone else that follows SFB. There was never any PR announcement of this fact. It's obviously just part of Rojo's package deal.
 

4 hours ago, Mashinka said:

Over the years ENB has struggled to balance the books.  When Rojo 'took over' (ahem) from Wayne Eagling, the company was in excellent financial health.  It will be interesting to see the financial position post Covid.  I understand Ms Rojo commanded a substantial salary in London so I doubt if that influenced her move to the US.  Perhaps SFB has better financial reserves?

Even if SFB pays fairly well, the cost of living is so high in the Bay Area that I would think that would mitigate the salary benefits. And of course the artist would have to prove they care about a lot more than money to get the A.D. job.  😉
I'm just not sure what the attraction would be for Rojo.

I seem to recall that both Rojo and Tomasson were on the panel of one of those "What is the future of ballet? symposiums, and that may have been where they first talked in depth, and perhaps, that's how the idea of coming to SFB got into her head.

Edited January 17, 2022 by pherank

[Drew]

17 hours ago, pherank said:

You know, I'm still wondering: Why is Rojo leaving ENB? If things have turned out so well for her there (as the p.r. makes it sound), why not continue to build up ENB?

And why go halfway around the world - leaving behind the usual ballet centers to lead a US West Coast company? What's the benefit to Rojo? I would think it would be more difficult, not less, to get notice for her 'artistic vision' when located in California. Perhaps she intends on making SFB tour more (good luck with that). Or maybe the point is to get away from all the touring that ENB has had to do?

I was mildly surprised by this announcement, but fact is, she could have been the fairy godmother of ENB rather than its Director and still wanted to see what she could do someplace else. (And that's without the impact of the pandemic--which has caused a lot of people to rethink what they want/need from life.)

It doesn't odd to me that almost any artistic director would want the San Francisco job. Vis-a-vis ENB, it is a slightly larger company which, for starters, may appeal to her. (These are delicate matters, but I'd have thought it's slightly more prestigious internationally as well though presumably not in the UK).  And as you mentioned,  ENB has to tour throughout the UK--that's their raison-d'être--and the touring may also mean there is a limit to the kind of development of new repertory that interests Rojo. I suppose it may be she has been promised resources in San Francisco she doesn't have at ENB, though I agree with what was said above about her needing to learn a new donor community.  And yes, one suspects San Francisco's audiences' apparent openness to new repertory appealed to her as well...

Edited January 18, 2022 by Drew
clarity

[miliosr]

7 hours ago, Mashinka said:

Perhaps SFB has better financial reserves?

The San Francisco Ballet has deep pockets. It's probably the third richest American dance company after the New York City Ballet and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. So, not only can the board exceed what Tamara Rojo was earning in London, they can no doubt provide a very generous subsidy regarding housing.

2 hours ago, pherank said:

I'm just not sure what the attraction would be for Rojo.

Perhaps the board thinks the repertory needs a major overhaul after 37 years with Helgo Tomasson. Rojo proved at the English National Ballet that's she's not afraid of making changes and, in fact, welcomes them. And, with those deep pockets, she can get away from the English National Ballet's starveling existence and build the kind of repertory she wants.

Just speculating . . . 

 

[Quiggin]

Don't think the cost of living in San Francisco is as high as London. It's a lower profile city and you can somehow live in less expensively. You don't have to spend much to appear stylish since you can wear the same things here for years and there's a tech-led dress down aesthetic. In general you can get  by on little without anyone noticing much.

But it is worth pondering, as pherank suggests, why Tamara Rojo chose San Francisco, rather than somewhere like ABT which might have been a possiblity. Perhaps she feels she'd have a freer hand, they'd be fewer groups she'd have to please, less politics. That SFB would be a blank slate for her to remake.

San Francisco was at one time considered the most European of American cities but it is a bit distant from things and as a result not that influential in the arts (at least in the visual arts). It's not a two hour trip away from say New York as Philadelphia or Chicago are, making it easy to check out what's going on in the rival city (like the second of the Jasper Johns shows Kathleen O'Connell recommended). It doesn't tour to the east coast very often. And within the city there's not an ABT vs NYCB-like creative tension. As Joan Didion has remarked, it can be a bit sleepy here.

Interesting circle Isaac Hernandez has made, leaving San Francisco Ballet with Victoria Ananyan for Netherlands Ballet, then rather shortly after being made principal moving onto English National Ballet and now back to San Francisco.

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Quiggin

[Drew]

I think being close to New York is a double edged sword for ballet companies that aspire to be (or are) "world class"....San Francisco and Pacific Northwest Ballet perhaps have some advantages...

[Quiggin]

4 minutes ago, Drew said:

I think being close to New York is a double edged sword for ballet companies that aspire to be (or are) "world class"....San Francisco and Pacific Northwest Ballet perhaps have some advantages...

You are right. Distance has given San Francisco, a city of only 800,000 or so, a greater national influence than it might have otherwise.

Sergei Prokofiev, Jan 18, 1926:

Quote

Packed my things, rehearsed the Third Concerto in Schmidt’s room and wrote postcards. San Francisco is one place from  which it is essential to send postcards to Europe as everyone there knows that San Francisco is somewhere at the ends of the earth.

 

[Helene]

At least Prokofiev had a definition of the end of the Earth:  Vancouver, BC had to throw an exhibition in 1986 to get the rest of Canada to find it on a map!

San Francisco has long been an important place in music.  San Francisco Opera, and Chicago, too, got major artists before or as often as NYC, but, also back in the day, artists would go on long tours by train, and they'll give recitals along the way in places they wouldn't consider today, where they go directly to the coast on their way to Asia..

I think that while the income taxes might be similar in London and San Francisco (when you consider federal, state, and FICA), even the high sales tax rate is less than half of UK VAT.  (It just seems high because it's added, rather than included.)  Brexit has made a lot of things difficult in the UK in terms of importing, and it's not a simple thing anymore to have your costumes made in Italy, for example, and there were early reports of touring-related border snags.  I don't know the specifics about being able to hire from all EU countries and the residency status possibilities post-Brexit, but, from a cursory glance, what had been (relatively) easy from a bureaucratic standpoint is no longer.

While there was plenty of talk at the beginning of the pandemic of (mainly) young people abandoning their high-priced apartments in the Bay Area and doing their tech jobs remotely from cheaper, less hectic places, I don't know if that materialized in an impactful way, or if it did, they're now moving back for a combination of vacancy and deciding that less hectic=not enough excitement.  But even if housing capacity is still as tight as before, for an incoming AD, surely someone on the Board or a big donor would be able to make a few phone calls to help them find a suitable place to live (or buy, if that's what they want to do.)

I remember liking Isaac Hernandez' dancing a lot, and I was sorry when he left the company.

[PeggyTulle]

4 hours ago, pherank said:

Yes, I read that bit about Hernandez "rejoining" SFB, but it was news to me, and I think to everyone else that follows SFB. There was never any PR announcement of this fact. It's obviously just part of Rojo's package deal.

And Hernandez has been posting quite regularly in the UK and with ENB (recently in class and at rehearsals). There's no evidence that he's started here yet, even. Seems to me to be part of the package, as you said @pherank, but positioned differently. 

[pherank]

The Hernandez brothers together again at last. Well I suppose that's something.

One thing that Rojo may be able to improve upon - getting SFB a real, continuous, online presence in the form of streamed performances and interviews/classes/seminars, etc. All those great things they started doing during the lockdown and then...?
Here's an idea: a shared West Coast digital platform with channels for PNB, SFB, Millepied's LA Dance Project, Lines Ballet, etc.