Tamara Rojo named new Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet

[Helene]

That would be awesome!

[pherank]

One specific concern I have is that Rojo would bring in a few "stars" to make the company more like ABT (no thanks), and de-emphasize the importance of the SFB School to the company - something Tomasson spent 3 decades on. If my memory serves me, over 60% of the dancers spent time at the SFB School. [Just checked, and the website say's "more than 65%"].

Edited January 18, 2022 by pherank

[Mashinka]

On 1/17/2022 at 5:30 PM, miliosr said:

the English National Ballet's starveling existence

True the dancers aren't paid generously but they still managed to pay her more than Kevin O'Hare at the RB.

[Drew]

10 hours ago, pherank said:

One specific concern I have is that Rojo would bring in a few "stars" to make the company more like ABT (no thanks), and de-emphasize the importance of the SFB School to the company - something Tomasson spent 3 decades on. If my memory serves me, over 60% of the dancers spent time at the SFB School. [Just checked, and the website say's "more than 65%"].

Do you not trust the company's board on these issues? Have their members expressed a desire for that kind of change? That is, I'm imagining these or related questions would have been brought up in the interview/vetting process. 

As you may know, the director of the ENB school is Viviane Durante, and Rojo presided over brand new digs for the school as well--neither of which things suggest she thinks a company's school is unimportant.  I don't have figures, but the school website lists about 20 alums who are in ENB at the present time including soloists, a principal, and what they call a "leading principal."  (Overall, that would be less than the percentage at San Francisco of dancers from their school but over 30 percent of ENB's dancers--and one doubts their school has the pick of the crop in London.)

Tomasson had a super distinguished tenure at San Francisco. Bravo to him! But it wasn't an easy transition (as noted by others above) and he did/does bring in dancers from outside the company-- Mackay recently but quite a number of others -- not as guest artists but as soloists and principals, and I would be surprised if Rojo didn't do that as well.  Naghdi even made a guest appearance--very rare at San Francisco. Which I agree is a good thing. 

For all I know Rojo will be a bust in San Francisco, but I think she's a very compelling figure and am "rooting" for her and the company 100 percent.

[Helene]

Generally, I don't trust Boards: not everyone on a Board is equally engaged, has equal power -- we saw the publicly reported divisions in the NYCB Board back in the Anne Bass days, for example -- and, even when engaged, they have different values and different hills to die on.  I have to hope that the Board has the right values and is willing to call out and stop the AD if the AD acts against them, but I don't count on it.  They're the people who give the money and have the power, so they get the say, with their own reasons.

I have no idea where the Board or Rojo stands on the school.  For one thing, I don't know the economics of maintaining the school, ie, the cost of making your own dancers -- a handful each year, max -- vs. auditioning the many, many dancers who come out of other schools, and, depending on the finances and wishes of the Board, that cost-benefit equation might change over time.

Also, I don't know how the pandemic impacted school enrollments: For example, if fewer graduates are chosen this year and the next, it may have more to do with who has been able to train rather than a long-term approach: if the top prospects left/couldn't train, the students who did might not have been in the cards for a company spot in a prior year.  It may be a while before cause and effect are clear.

[volcanohunter]

In an interview published in the Globe and Mail Rojo insists she never "poaches" dancers from other companies. (Indeed, this happens a lot in Russia but is considered unethical in the West.) So any new "star" arrivals would apply at their own initiative, and it's been pointed out that this happened frequently under Tomasson.

But she also talked about imitating the way theater companies approach Shakespeare productions, so I would expect a lot of "reimagined" classics, budget permitting. 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-montreal-born-dancer-tamara-rojo-plans-on-opening-the-conversation-as/ 

[aurora]

14 hours ago, pherank said:

One specific concern I have is that Rojo would bring in a few "stars" to make the company more like ABT (no thanks), and de-emphasize the importance of the SFB School to the company - something Tomasson spent 3 decades on. If my memory serves me, over 60% of the dancers spent time at the SFB School. [Just checked, and the website say's "more than 65%"].

A bit off topic, but this doesn't really reflect the state of ABT today--whose school is a newer endeavor and emphasis.

35% of the current roster of ABT came through the school, including 4 of the principal dancers.

And 80% of the current roster came through ABT's studio company.

[pherank]

6 hours ago, Drew said:

Do you not trust the company's board on these issues? Have their members expressed a desire for that kind of change? That is, I'm imagining these or related questions would have been brought up in the interview/vetting process. 

As you may know, the director of the ENB school is Viviane Durante, and Rojo presided over brand new digs for the school as well--neither of which things suggest she thinks a company's school is unimportant.  I don't have figures, but the school website lists about 20 alums who are in ENB at the present time including soloists, a principal, and what they call a "leading principal."  (Overall, that would be less than the percentage at San Francisco of dancers from their school but over 30 percent of ENB's dancers--and one doubts their school has the pick of the crop in London.)

Tomasson had a super distinguished tenure at San Francisco. Bravo to him! But it wasn't an easy transition (as noted by others above) and he did/does bring in dancers from outside the company-- Mackay recently but quite a number of others -- not as guest artists but as soloists and principals, and I would be surprised if Rojo didn't do that as well.  Naghdi even made a guest appearance--very rare at San Francisco. Which I agree is a good thing. 

For all I know Rojo will be a bust in San Francisco, but I think she's a very compelling figure and am "rooting" for her and the company 100 percent.

Do I trust the board? No. That's the world of super money and super egos and there's political infighting that goes on - everyone wants to be the biggest influencer.

I didn't mean to suggest that Tomasson and SFB didn't hire from the outside (and the best that can be found) - every company does this to survive. But ABT has been relying on an 'international stars' model for decades. The stars had precedence over dancers who had come up slowly through the ranks. I happen to like the school-centered company model. That's me. It may be a quieter means of establishing a style and approach, but it is very effective over the long term, and binds people together (internally) in a way that the eclectic stars approach can never do.

 

5 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

But she also talked about imitating the way theater companies approach Shakespeare productions, so I would expect a lot of "reimagined" classics, budget permitting. 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-montreal-born-dancer-tamara-rojo-plans-on-opening-the-conversation-as/ 

Yes, I have a feeling this may be what we will see a lot of. To me, bringing in another version of Giselle, no matter how 'interesting', is not really pushing the art form forward. Hopefully she will continue the interest in new ballets,a nd new platforms to present them on.

[nanushka]

6 minutes ago, pherank said:

But ABT has been relying on an 'international stars' model for decades. The stars had precedence over dancers who had come up slowly through the ranks.

That's a pretty outdated description of ABT, though. None of the current principals were really international stars before coming to ABT. James Whiteside is the only current principal who did not enter the company in the corps or even earlier. The vast majority were in the Studio Company or ABT II.

[pherank]

3 hours ago, aurora said:

A bit off topic, but this doesn't really reflect the state of ABT today--whose school is a newer endeavor and emphasis.

35% of the current roster of ABT came through the school, including 4 of the principal dancers.

And 80% of the current roster came through ABT's studio company.

Yes, but as you say, these are recent changes (after years of complaints from the audience I might add). I was just speaking generally about the ABT approach to hiring principals and soloists over the last 30 - 40 years. Dancers coming up through the school never had any kind of precedence that I noticed. But you may know different. It always seemed liked the ABT school dancers were simply used to fill up the Corps, and if they were lucky, might be promoted to soloist after 15 years - I'm kind of exaggerating, but that's what it felt like.  😉

[nanushka]

Over the last 30-40 years minus the last 10, I'd say. There's been a noticeable change.

[pherank]

1 minute ago, nanushka said:

Over the last 30-40 years minus the last 10, I'd say. There's been a noticeable change.

 

It's very much my perception of the situation from afar. I agree that ABT has been changing over the last few years - and hopefully for the better. But none of the changes seemed to come easily. I'm not sure why the ballet world seems to rely upon public controversy and a cause célèbre to force improvements in the culture, but I suppose that's just people (and perhaps just a little too much 'tradition').

[Drew]

36 minutes ago, pherank said:

But ABT has been relying on an 'international stars' model for decades. The stars had precedence over dancers who had come up slowly through the ranks. I happen to like the school-centered company model. That's me. It may be a quieter means of establishing a style and approach, but it is very effective over the long term, and binds people together (internally) in a way that the eclectic stars approach can never do.

The value of a school-centered approach (for companies that have the resources) is enormous. Even ABT has been working to make that happen in recent years. Many ballet fans feel this way. Me too.

(Schools do seem to go through ups and downs. I remember how excited people were when they saw what was happening under Claude Bessy at the POB school.)

For my taste, the occasional relation with guest artists would not have bothered me at ABT had it remained more limited—especially given their (to my taste often dull) repertory and the need to fill the Met—but over-reliance on guest artists, especially those who only came in for a one-shot performance and, at times, the company’s seeming failure to fully develop internal talent did bother me. 

As noted by others, that has gone through a sea change in recent years. But actually it’s a kind of uneven history—seasons with heavy-reliance on guest artists years at a time....and then the emergence of more dancers from the ranks and then the pendulum swinging back. A stable school could make a big difference as it already seems to gave done.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Drew

[pherank]

4 minutes ago, Drew said:

The value of a school-centered approach (for companies that have the resources) is enormous. Even ABT has been working to make that happen in recent years. Many ballet fans feel this way—it is surely not ‘just you.’  (Schools do seem to go through ups and downs. I remember how excited people were when they saw what was happening under Claude Bessy at the POB school.)

For my taste, the occasional relation with guest artists would not have bothered me at ABT had it remained more limited—especially given their (to my taste often dull) repertory and the need to fill the Met—but over-reliance on guest artists, especially those who only came in for a one-shot performance and, at times, the company’s seeming failure to fully develop internal talent did bother me. 

Then it wasn't just me seeing these things. But I don't want to get into an ABT-bashing - when it should really be about NYCB-bashing.
Kidding!  Just kidding.

This pandemic makes it harder for me to look on the bright side of things, but I have to hope that Rojo has SFB's best interests at heart and isn't just on an ego trip. It may be a glorious new era, or, it may just be different from the last period.

[miliosr]

7 hours ago, Drew said:

Tomasson had a super distinguished tenure at San Francisco. Bravo to him! But it wasn't an easy transition (as noted by others above) and he did/does bring in dancers from outside the company-- Mackay recently but quite a number of others -- not as guest artists but as soloists and principals, and I would be surprised if Rojo didn't do that as well.

Leafing through my copy of the 'Look Book' from 2015 celebrating Helgi Tomasson's 30th anniversary with the company. there are 19 listed principals with accompanying bios and photos. Not a single one mentions the San Francisco Ballet School in their bios. So, at that point, the school hadn't been producing enough talent to obviate the need for Tomasson having had to go outside the company to either bring in dancers as principals and soloists or bring in dancers trained elsewhere as corps dancers and then develop them.

To the extent the school is firing on all cylinders now, I think you have to give the credit to Patrick Armand, who became Assistant Director at the school in 2012. Now, how well he will work with Rojo remains to be seen. They both have personality to spare!

1 hour ago, pherank said:

To me, bringing in another version of Giselle, no matter how 'interesting', is not really pushing the art form forward. Hopefully she will continue the interest in new ballets, and new platforms to present them on.

During the pandemic, I've been buying old issues of Dance Magazine on eBay. The June 1996 issue had an interesting feature about the men of San Francisco Ballet. Here are some equally interesting facts buried in the story:

"Today only four of its [San Francisco Ballet's] sixty-three dancers and none of its active repertoire date from before Tomasson's reign. It is effectively a new company, changed from within."

The company's going to change again under Rojo. How much so remains to be seen.

Edited January 18, 2022 by miliosr

[pherank]

19 minutes ago, miliosr said:

Leafing through my copy of the 'Look Book' from 2015 celebrating Helgi Tomasson's 30th anniversary with the company. there are 19 listed principals with accompanying bios and photos. Not a single one mentions the San Francisco Ballet School in their bios. So, at that point, the school hadn't been producing enough talent to obviate the need for Tomasson having had to go outside the company to either bring in dancers as principals and soloists or bring in dancers trained elsewhere as corps dancers and then develop them.

To the extent the school is firing on all cylinders now, I think you have to give the credit to Patrick Armand, who became Assistant Director at the school in 2012. Now, how well he will work with Rojo remains to be seen. They both have personality to spare!

During the pandemic, I've been buying old issues of Dance Magazine on eBay. The June 1996 issue had an interesting feature about the men of San Francisco Ballet. Here are some equally interesting facts buried in the story:

"Today only four of its [San Francisco Ballet's] sixty-three dancers and none of its active repertoire date from before Tomasson's reign. It is effectively a new company, changed from within."

The company's going to change again under Rojo. How much so remains to be seen.

If you think about it, to produce principal-level talent out of a school takes years to see any results. Even if the first Level 3 class had, say, 3 principal-level talents in their ranks, it would take close to 15 years for those dancers to end up as principals. So it would take decades to yield any consistency. That's why I hope the gains made are not squandered.

[Helene]

If Rojo brings reconstructed stagings of the classics to San Francisco, the company might be working with Doug Fullington: he was at ENB for Raymonda:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CY3-mq3F4Ve/

 

Quote

dougfullington

Merde and toi toi toi to @rojotamara and everyone at @englishnationalballet for the premiere of Raymonda tonight at the London Coliseum! I’m glad to have been part of the genesis of this production.

 

[Mashinka]

16 hours ago, miliosr said:

The company's going to change again under Rojo. How much so remains to be seen.

In less than a year after Rojo took over, ENB's three best dancers were gone.  A steady stream left and a lot of new recruits didn't stay.

[dirac]

Quote

"Today only four of its [San Francisco Ballet's] sixty-three dancers and none of its active repertoire date from before Tomasson's reign. It is effectively a new company, changed from within."

Which is pretty much what Tomasson was brought in to do. The goal was to return the company to a sound classical base. It will be interesting to see what Rojo's remit will be.

As far as I know she has spent little time in the U.S. and hasn't worked much with American dancers, so that will be something of a question mark (?) There may be cultural adjustments to make on both sides.

[Quiggin]

14 hours ago, Helene said:

If Rojo brings reconstructed stagings of the classics to San Francisco, the company might be working with Doug Fullington: he was at ENB for Raymonda

According to Laura Cappelle's review of "Raymonda" in today's Times, his influence was limited: "Rojo asked a notation specialist, Doug Fullington, to help, but has kept little beyond the women’s variations." All in all, she finds that Rojo's choreography borrows indiscriminately and results in "a messy 'Raymonda'":

Quote

The urge to tie the plot to Britain and to fix its Orientalist aspects is understandable, but Rojo’s “Raymonda” pulls in too many directions at once to cohere. One minute, it is a 20th-century romantic drama; the next, it goes back to the 1898 original, with reconstructed set pieces. It also nods to Soviet-era alterations and to other Petipa ballets, while including reimagined character dances by Vadim Sirotin. It is impossible to keep track, and worse, the constant tonal changes are treated as unimportant, as if style made no difference to the audience ...

Total reimaginings can work, as Akram Khan’s “Giselle,” one of Rojo’s commissioning successes, showed, but a serious art form should set higher standards of coherence for the versions it presents of classics.

Regarding changes of Tomasson's San Francisco company, before 2012 it seemed that many of San Francisco Ballet's dancers were coming from Spain or Cuba – Diego Cruz, Dores Andre, Clara Blanco, Gonzalo Garcia, Sergio Torrado, Ruben Martin, Moise Martin, Jaime Garcia Castilla, Katita Waldo / Spain – & Taras Domitro, Joan Boada, Lorena Feijoo, Jorge Esquivel (character actor and coach) / Cuba.  Lola de Avila was then assistant director of the school (Patrick Armand's current position) and helped with SFB's production of "Giselle." SFB is different company now but I would have a hard time characterizing it. Interesting how gradual changes of dancers on the roster affect the aesthetic of the company,

Edited January 19, 2022 by Quiggin

[Helene]

3 minutes ago, Quiggin said:

According to Laura Cappelle's review of "Raymonda" in today's Times, his influence was limited: "Rojo asked a notation specialist, Doug Fullington, to help, but has kept little beyond the women’s variations." All in all, she finds that Rojo's choreography borrows indiscriminately and results in "a messy 'Raymonda'":

That is so sad...

That was an amazing group of dancers: I was so glad I was "commuting" to the Bay Area for months at a time during some of those years and got to see them in a variety of roles.

[miliosr]

On 1/18/2022 at 5:05 PM, Drew said:

(Schools do seem to go through ups and downs. I remember how excited people were when they saw what was happening under Claude Bessy at the POB school.)

On 1/18/2022 at 6:13 PM, pherank said:

If you think about it, to produce principal-level talent out of a school takes years to see any results. Even if the first Level 3 class had, say, 3 principal-level talents in their ranks, it would take close to 15 years for those dancers to end up as principals. So it would take decades to yield any consistency. That's why I hope the gains made are not squandered.

There would have been no Generation Nureyev in the 1980s if Claude Bessy hadn't taken charge at the Paris Opera Ballet school in the early 1970s. When did she take charge -- 71 or 72? So, in the span of a decade, she delivered to Nureyev that group of dancers who jolted the company back to life in the 80s. (Of course, not everyone is a Bessy admirer. She and Aurelie Dupont have traded insults in the French press over the years.) 

[vipa]

6 hours ago, Quiggin said:

According to Laura Cappelle's review of "Raymonda" in today's Times, his influence was limited: "Rojo asked a notation specialist, Doug Fullington, to help, but has kept little beyond the women’s variations." All in all, she finds that Rojo's choreography borrows indiscriminately and results in "a messy 'Raymonda'":

Regarding changes of Tomasson's San Francisco company, before 2012 it seemed that many of San Francisco Ballet's dancers were coming from Spain or Cuba – Diego Cruz, Dores Andre, Clara Blanco, Gonzalo Garcia, Sergio Torrado, Ruben Martin, Moise Martin, Jaime Garcia Castilla, Katita Waldo / Spain – & Taras Domitro, Joan Boada, Lorena Feijoo, Jorge Esquivel (character actor and coach) / Cuba.  Lola de Avila was then assistant director of the school (Patrick Armand's current position) and helped with SFB's production of "Giselle." SFB is different company now but I would have a hard time characterizing it. Interesting how gradual changes of dancers on the roster affect the aesthetic of the company,

Forgive me if it's already been posted here but here is alastair Macaulay's very interesting take on Rojo's Raymonda.

https://slippedisc.com/2022/01/alastair-macaulay-tamara-rojo-does-violence-to-this-ballet/

[Quiggin]

17 hours ago, vipa said:

Forgive me if it's already been posted here but here is alastair Macaulay's very interesting take on Rojo's Raymonda.

Some of it seems to overlap with Cappelle's comments – though Macaulay gets demerits in the comment section for using Hollywood films of the 1930s as a negative example of the art form.

Re: associate artistic directors – interesting oral history of Loipa Araujo conducted by Sarah Crompton about Araujo's travels from Cuba to different companies in Europe before ending up at the English National Ballet just as she was ready to retire – and what she took away from her various experiences here and there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RU295huqrQ

On ENB Raymonda:

https://www.ballet.org.uk/people/loipa-araujo/

And Teri McCollum's 2012 tribute to Lola de Avila as she was leaving her San Francisco Ballet directorship:

https://odettesordeal.com/2012/03/17/after-brilliant-career-as-san-francisco-ballet-schools-associate-director-lola-de-avila-steps-down-patrick-armand-steps-up/

Edited January 20, 2022 by Quiggin

[JMcN]

On 1/17/2022 at 8:09 AM, 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?

All what touring???  ENB did away with the spring tour some years ago so they do a few weeks out of London in the autumn (aren't we the lucky ones!!).  Pre-pandemic they had been doing some abroad gigs but seemed to be doing much more in London than out.