Spring into Fall with Donna Karan!

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Spring is the air but Fall is on my mind.  The San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary Fashion Show, taking place on May 18, is only a few short weeks away.  Donna Karan will unveil her Fall 2012 Collection on a double runway in the Ritz Carlton Ballroom.  Donna Karan’s visual team, Saks and our Décor Chair, Allison Huegel, have been working to transform the ballroom to reflect Karan’s fall show.  It will be unrecognizable!

Grey will be the prominent color but I do not want to give away the surprises.  I look forward to the big unveil into the ballroom when the doors are opened for the lunch seating.

We are so lucky that Donna Karan will be joining us for the day.  I know she has a huge following.  Please be sure to check out our auction lot packages.  The New York package includes a one of a kind Donna Karan ball gown that will be modeled on the runway!

In addition, the winner and a friend will join celebrities and socialites from around the world for the September 2012 New York Fashion Week to see Donna Karan’s Spring 2013 Runway Show.  They will make an impressive arrival at the show in a new Donna Karan look, purchased with their $2,500 Saks Fifth Avenue shopping spree. The trip includes three nights at the exceptional St. Regis New York hotel and two tickets to the Broadway hit, “Priscilla Queen of the Desert.  Please visit the website for further lot details at http://www.sfballet.org/events/fashion_show .

I look forward to seeing you there!

 

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Behind the Scenes with “Don Quixote”

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Fans! Spanish flamenco fans fluttering everywhere and the trill and jingle of tambourines – that was my first overwhelming impression as I stepped into the Stage Left wings in the War Memorial Opera House last Saturday afternoon.

It was the first onstage rehearsal for San Francisco Ballet’s new production of Don Quixote, and I was there as a BRAVO volunteer, assisting with the many children in the cast.

The wings were crowded with what appeared to be every dancer in the Company, the upper levels of the School, and student dancers as young as age 10.  I stood and absorbed the scene.

Dancers were all over the floor – stretching, chatting and joking.  Our contingent of Spanish-speaking men were in high spirits, carrying on a lively conversation in their language; beside them, another Company member sat on a stool, focused on forming characters in his Japanese language workbook.  The girls of the corps, wearing their character shoes, were practicing with their fans as they waited; the young men did the same with their tambourines.

I noticed the many props categorized and waiting for use: boxes of knives, baskets of fake foods, a table of wine bottles and pewter drinking mugs. Sancho Panza’s cow horn, a couple of guitars, and even a rolling pin were all laid out.

Onstage, the pianist started playing. It’s the opening scene and Sancho Panza is prepping Don Quixote for his adventures.  Behind the curtain backing the Prologue scene, the stage was set for Act I, with corps members and students relaxing and stretching, but ready to spring into their roles the moment before the curtain goes up.

Ballet masters frequently clapped hands to stop the music and action, working with Helgi Tomasson to get every detail and nuance just right.

Then I heard “clomp, clomp” on the wooden floor, and took a free moment to go visit two of the stars of Don Quixote.  If you’ve seen the ballet before, you’ll know who I’m referring to!  If not, I’ll just tell you that the shaggy one is named “Johnny Appleseed” and the white Arabian is named “Estimation.”

Enjoy the show!

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“Youthful High Jinks” and “Don Q” Lore!

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Maria Kochetkova (copyright Erik Tomasson)

 

On Monday, April 30 I will be giving a talk at the Museum of Performance and Design on the great nineteenth century ballet comedic masterpiece, Don Quixote, this season’s firecracker closer at San Francisco Ballet. This ballet has it all – a romantic storyline, a deliciously exotic Spanish setting, and some of the most explosive virtuosic dancing in the classical canon.

In preparation for the talk I’ve been digging through the memoirs and diaries of Marius Petipa, the choreographer whose 1869 production, with additional alterations made in 1900 by Alexander Gorsky, is most closely related to contemporary versions. Petipa spent several years in Spain as first dancer at the King’s theater in Madrid, and his tales of those days might be likened to the “chivalric romances” that are Don Quixote’s downfall in the Cervantes novel.

In his memoirs, Petipa falls in with a group of street dancers at a bullfight and “audaciously invite[s] an attractive Spanish woman to dance” while students throw flowers, money, and capes at their feet; he also narrowly escapes a duel with a determined rival for a lady’s affections – allegedly shattering the jaw of “Marquis X” in the process. Having spent most of his career quite respectably employed as chief ballet master in the Imperial theaters in Russia, one certainly gets the sense that Petipa commemorated the spirit of his adventures in Spain in Don Quixote.

Come to the lecture for more Don Q lore, including Petipa’s story of how he found the horse to play Rocinante, the Don’s trusty (and totally worn-out) steed, but be sure to see SFB perform the ballet that defines youthful high jinks!

The lecture is at 7 pm on April 30, 2012 at the Museum of Performance and Design on the 4th Floor of the Veteran’s Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue (next to the War Memorial Opera House). Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for non-members, and all proceeds go to benefit the Museum, which serves as the official archive for the San Francisco Ballet. Please see http://www.mpdsf.org/PAGES/EVENT/calendar.html for more information or call the Museum at 415-255-4800.

(Image via Gutenberg.org)

 

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Backstage with SFB’s Staff Photographer

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SF Ballet dancers in Robbins' Glass Pieces. © Erik Tomasson

© Erik Tomasson

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Preparing for Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet (© Erik Tomasson)

SF Ballet in Robbins' Glass Pieces © Erik Tomasson

Clara Blanco backstage (© Erik Tomasson)

© Erik Tomasson

As the staff photographer for San Francisco Ballet, my job is to photograph the Company for advertising, press releases, brochures, and programs. Most of my time is spent in the rehearsal studios photographing the dancers and choreographers while ballet’s are being created. But during the Company’s season, I’m fortunate enough to be able to photograph the dancers on stage and backstage in the War Memorial Opera House. I find shooting backstage to be a very interesting part of my work and yet, at the same time, the most challenging. This is basically due to shooting in near darkness or directly into bright stage lights and trying to stay out of the way of dancers, crew, and moving sets.

Recently, I started focusing less on what was on stage and more on what was happening backstage. My camera of choice for photographing backstage is the Leica M9. It’s very small, lightweight, quiet, and doesn’t attract a lot of attention. I mainly use the Leica 50mm Summilux-M F/1.4 ASPH lens wide open due to the fact that it’s very dark backstage. This lens is one of my favorites in terms of sharpness, contrast, and its beautiful out-of-focus quality.

When I’m shooting the dancers on stage or during rehearsals, timing is the most important factor in getting the shot. Of course, timing is important in most types of photography. But in dance photography, the difference between a good and bad shot can literally be a fraction of a second. When photographing dance, you really have to be “on your toes” (sorry, I couldn’t resist.) There are other photographic variables that I’m thinking about but timing is key. When I’m shooting backstage, it’s more about looking for little ‘moments in time.’ I have a bit more time to stop and think about the shot, and how I want it to look in terms of focus and composition. It’s definitely not a lot of time but it feels like that compared to the fast shooting style of photographing on stage.

I also approach shooting backstage a little differently than on stage. On stage, I’m looking for a more polished, slick look, almost as if it looked like it was shot in a controlled studio setting. Backstage, I think of things in a more gritty, documentary- style. I’m still aware of things like lighting, separation of subject to the background, and composition but my main goal is to grab ‘the moment.’

Sasha DeSola © Erik Tomasson

 

Charlene Cohen © Erik Tomasson

© Erik Tomasson

Backstage during Nureyev's Raymonda Act III © Erik Tomasson

Posted in All Posts by Erik Tomasson | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments
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