SFB Scene

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | All Posts by Open Studio 455, SFB Scene | No Comments

• Mixed bill Program 2 and the Balanchine Masterworks program open next Tuesday and Thursday. Click here to read program notes for Program 2 and the Balanchine Masterworks programs. Also, check out these preview videos of Paul Taylor’s Company B and George Balanchine’s Serenade, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, and Theme and Variations.
• Christopher Wheeldon’s creative team has arrived to finalize the world premiere of Ghosts which opens next Tuesday. Mark Zappone (costumes), Laura Jellinek (set), Mary Louise Geiger (lighting), and Kip Winger (score) are in the Opera house with Christopher for the work light rehearsals going on this week.
• Check out this great article on Kip Winger, composer of the score for Ghosts, that appeared in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Former bassist for Alice Cooper and founder of metal band Winger, Kip has studied classical music composition for the last 17 years. Read more here and stay tuned for a blog update from Kip!
• The San Francisco Ballet School Trainees will perform at Stanford University today at 1:30pm. The international roster of pre-professional young dancers will present excerpts from the classical and contemporary repertoire. Click here for more information.
• Have you visited our website lately? Check out a new video featuring highlights from Program 2 and the Balanchine Masterworks program currently featured on our homepage!

Dores Andre and Christopher Wheeldon rehearsing Wheeldon's Ghosts (©Erik Tomasson)

Tags: Christopher Wheeldon, Dores Andre, Ghosts, Kip Winger, Trainees

Pic of the Week

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | All Posts by Open Studio 455, Pic of the Week, SFB Scene | No Comments

San Francisco Ballet School Trainees take a break for a bit of goofiness during a recent photo shoot. The Trainees are currently participating in Canada's National Ballet School's Assemblée International through November 22. (©Erik Tomasson)

Tags: Trainees

Bravo, SF Ballet Trainees!

Thursday, April 9th, 2009 | All Posts by Christina Hecht, SFB Scene | No Comments

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 90^th 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.

Tags: Bravo, Student Showcase, Trainees