Dance Educator Mary Wood interviews Principal Dancer Tiit Helimets

As we wrap up the season, we revisit John Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, a heart-wrenching story of sacrifice and unrequited love told through dance and drama and hear from Executive Director Glenn McCoy and Media Consultant and Producer Judy Flannery about SF Ballet’s past, present, and future media projects.

The wealth of varied music in our repertoire contributes significantly to its impact. We will explore this through the eyes of Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West as we discuss Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov’s newest ballet Francesca da Rimini and the return of Alexei Ratmansky’s Le Carnaval des Animaux, along with an encore of Helgi Tomasson’s Trio.

John Cranko’s Onegin opens the season and Assistants to the Artistic Director and Ballet Masters Bruce Sansom and Ricardo Bustamante along with Ballet Master Anita Paciotti, review the season and discuss the challenges and rewards of dancing full-length dramatic works and the company’s commitment to keeping this genre vital.

Prominent choreographer Mark Morris creates his 8th world premier Beaux for San Francisco Ballet. Ballet Master Betsy Erickson, Principal Dancer Gennadi Nedvigin, and Megan Williams Repetiteur for Mark Morris offer insights into the production of this world premiere. Returning contemporary works, Christopher Wheeldon’s Number Nine © and Wayne McGregor’s Chroma are also featured on this program.

Cheryl A. Ossola, SF Ballet writer and Dance Studio Life magazine editor in chief, interviews Ballet Master Katita Waldo and Principal Dancer Pascal Molat.

Charles Chip Mc Neal, SF Ballet Director of Education interviews Principal Dancers, Sarah Van Patten and Pierre-François Vilanoba.Charles Mc Neal and his guests discuss the new SF Ballet production of John Cranko’s ballet, Onegin. Van Patten and Vilanoba offer insight into their preparation for the lead roles of Tatiana and Onegin. Each considers the challenges and the joys of portraying these dramatic, iconic characters. They also discuss how the steps themselves are imbued with so much emotional depth, the expressive disposition of the characterizations are readily apparent – “The steps are the emotions.”

Planned Giving Manager Allison Groves interviews General Manager Debra Bernard.

Education Director Charles Mc Neal interviews Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West.

The acclaimed ballet Chroma, created by contemporary British choreographer Wayne McGregor, inspires a discussion about the edgy and challenging movement vocabulary SF Ballet dancers must master. Corps de Ballet Dancers Jennifer Stahl and Gaetano Amico III talk about volume and variety dancing in the corps presents as well as the opportunities they have been given to dance featured roles.