By Christina Hecht Former-president and current member of BRAVO, an active group that contributes thousands of hours of volunteer assistance every year and provides vital services to support SF Ballet. April 9, 2009
What is BRAVO?
If you’ve looked in the back page of the Ballet’s program book, you will have noticed listings for SF Ballet’s volunteer organizations: the Auxiliary, ENCORE!, and BRAVO. The Ballet Resource And Volunteer Organization (BRAVO) is a group of over 200 loyal SFB fans who do what we can to help, whether it’s stuffing envelopes, assisting in the Ballet Shop, or chaperoning. We’ve been known to pull weeds at the student residence, greet visiting dancers at SFO, and give tours of the ballet building; but usually we are the smiling faces checking guests in to SFB events or preparing gift bags for the Auxiliary Fashion Show.
Right now we are getting organized for SF Ballet School’s 2009 Student Showcase. This is a fun and heart-warming event, the crème de la crème of student performances and it’s overseen by SF Ballet School Associate Director Lola de Avila. The curtain opens on ranks of impeccably clad and positioned small students of Girls’ Level 2 and the program shows how each level advances, until the oldest students perform repertory works. BRAVO volunteers will be there, getting all the students to the stage in time and supervising their departure back to their proud parents, in addition to taking tickets at the door, and ushering.
If you are a BRAVO member, expect to volunteer alongside friendly people who share your love of ballet. You can also expect to hear a Company member speak at each of our membership meetings. If you go to our training session first, you can expect to move around backstage with a group of young soldiers or butterflies during Nutcracker. This March we had a one-time-only special event: we celebrated the 90th birthday of one of our founding members with a performance by the San Francisco Ballet School Trainees!
The Trainees, led by Trainee Program Supervisor Jean-Yves Esquerre, performed four pieces for us, up close and personal in the Lew Christensen Studio. We watched two students sail through the exquisite nuances of the “Bluebird” pas de deux from Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty, as well as his moving Handel, a Celebration. The music of JS Bach came to life in a duet from 7 for Eight, also choreographed by Tomasson. Our show came to a stunning, exciting end with Fractals by School Faculty Instructor Parrish Maynard. The Trainees showed every ounce of their talent, fitness, hard work, musicality, dramatic attitude, and did I mention the results of their years of determination, perseverance, sheer hard work, and intense love of ballet? It was a fantastic evening and 70 BRAVO members left the studio knowing exactly why we love being part of the SFB Family.
Members of the 2008-2009 Trainee Program (photo by Olivier Wecxsteen)
Bravo, SF Ballet Trainees!
Former-president and current member of BRAVO, an active group that contributes thousands of hours of volunteer assistance every year and provides vital services to support SF Ballet.
April 9, 2009
What is BRAVO?
If you’ve looked in the back page of the Ballet’s program book, you will have noticed listings for SF Ballet’s volunteer organizations: the Auxiliary, ENCORE!, and BRAVO. The Ballet Resource And Volunteer Organization (BRAVO) is a group of over 200 loyal SFB fans who do what we can to help, whether it’s stuffing envelopes, assisting in the Ballet Shop, or chaperoning. We’ve been known to pull weeds at the student residence, greet visiting dancers at SFO, and give tours of the ballet building; but usually we are the smiling faces checking guests in to SFB events or preparing gift bags for the Auxiliary Fashion Show.
Right now we are getting organized for SF Ballet School’s 2009 Student Showcase. This is a fun and heart-warming event, the crème de la crème of student performances and it’s overseen by SF Ballet School Associate Director Lola de Avila. The curtain opens on ranks of impeccably clad and positioned small students of Girls’ Level 2 and the program shows how each level advances, until the oldest students perform repertory works. BRAVO volunteers will be there, getting all the students to the stage in time and supervising their departure back to their proud parents, in addition to taking tickets at the door, and ushering.
Students of the San Francisco Ballet School perform in the 2008 Student Showcase. (© Erik Tomasson)
If you are a BRAVO member, expect to volunteer alongside friendly people who share your love of ballet. You can also expect to hear a Company member speak at each of our membership meetings. If you go to our training session first, you can expect to move around backstage with a group of young soldiers or butterflies during Nutcracker. This March we had a one-time-only special event: we celebrated the 90th birthday of one of our founding members with a performance by the San Francisco Ballet School Trainees!
The Trainees, led by Trainee Program Supervisor Jean-Yves Esquerre, performed four pieces for us, up close and personal in the Lew Christensen Studio. We watched two students sail through the exquisite nuances of the “Bluebird” pas de deux from Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty, as well as his moving Handel, a Celebration. The music of JS Bach came to life in a duet from 7 for Eight, also choreographed by Tomasson. Our show came to a stunning, exciting end with Fractals by School Faculty Instructor Parrish Maynard. The Trainees showed every ounce of their talent, fitness, hard work, musicality, dramatic attitude, and did I mention the results of their years of determination, perseverance, sheer hard work, and intense love of ballet? It was a fantastic evening and 70 BRAVO members left the studio knowing exactly why we love being part of the SFB Family.
Members of the 2008-2009 Trainee Program (photo by Olivier Wecxsteen)
To find out more about BRAVO, please visit www.bravosfb.org.