San Francisco (SF) Ballet School Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson and Director Patrick Armand will present the virtual SF Ballet School Virtual Festival on June 17, beginning at 6pm PDT with dinner at a virtual table followed by a 7pm PDT program. The festival program features three newly captured performances by SF Ballet School Trainees, including world premieres by SF Ballet School Faculty members Dana Genshaft and Viktor Plotnikov and the SF Ballet School Premiere of the pas de quatre from Sir Frederick Ashton’s Swan Lake, as well as recorded class observations and a review of the 2020-2021 School Year.
School Director Patrick Armand
observes rehearsal of the Virtual Festival.
Photo by Erik Tomasson.
“The Virtual Festival celebrates the resilience of our students and faculty throughout this most challenging year,” says Armand, who recently welcomed intermediate level students back to the studios for in-person classes after a year of distanced learning. “I’ve been heartened by the students’ commitment to their artistry and craft, and their dedication to excellence despite the circumstances. The success of the Spring Festival’s performance program is thanks to the tremendous effort put forth by the students, their parents and our fine faculty. It will be a pleasure to share the culmination of these year-long efforts with our dedicated supporters, both local and abroad.”
Carrie Kaufman chairs the event. Kaufman is a member of the SF Ballet Auxiliary and parent of an SF Ballet School student.
In addition to the pas de quatre from Ashton’s Swan Lake, the festival’s programming includes world premieres by Genshaft and Plotnikov created for SF Ballet School Trainees. Plotnikov, who joined SF Ballet School’s Faculty for the 2020-2021 school year, has created Graces, a piece for three couples set to the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 that includes “difficult lifts and exciting tilts and weight bearings,” he says. “The piece evolves slowly, and the characters describe grace. The Trainees are fun, open-minded, driven and eager-to-dance upcoming professionals, and it’s been a pleasure to create this work on them.”
rehearse for the upcoming
Virtual Festival.
Photo by Erik Tomasson.
Genshaft’s new piece for seven dancers, Future Papers, is set to the music of San Francisco-based composer Kamran Adib. “This piece is inspired, quite simply, by the idea of returning to the theater,” she says. “After so much has been put into question this year, I wanted to embrace the feeling of connectivity and joy of dancing together. Rather than make a piece that is ‘happy,’ I wanted to make a piece that fights through the heaviness of the moment and arrives in a hopeful place together — from our Zoom bubbles, back to a shared space on stage.”
All performances featured in the Virtual Festival program were captured under strict safety protocols in compliance with the San Francisco Department of Public Health guidelines, which protect artists, production crews and the greater public.
The complete Virtual Festival program will stream for free on SF Ballet @ Home from June 18-24. Patrons whoattended the June 17 Virtual Festival will receive an access link to the stream via email on June 18. Those who did not attend the June 17 event must sign up to access the free stream via SF Ballet @ Home. Access to the stream is valid for a consecutive 72-hour period during the run of the program, which expires on June 24, at 9pm PDT. Access is free due to the generosity of Executive Producer level donors Dr. Sunnie Evers, Shelby and Frederick Gans, the Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, David and Kelsey Lamond, Alison and Michael Mauzé, and Catherine and Mark Slavonia; a $29 donation is suggested.
For more information, visit www.sfballet.org/support-us/special-events/sf-ballet-school-virtual-festival.
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