San Franciso Ballet’s Balanchine Tribute Honors the Company’s 60th Anniversary of Performing the Masterworks of Choreographic Legend George Balanchine
San Francisco Ballet’s all-Balanchine program, its nearly annual tribute to the late Great and Powerful George Balanchine, known fondly as ‘Mr. B’ to his dancers, one of the world’s most prolific and most musical choreographers, who also just happened to change the face of American Ballet as we knew it, is finally upon us and we are all abuzz with anticipation for the revival of the master’s Scotch Symphony, not performed by this company in 40+ years.
The opening night cast honors for Scotch Symphony are given to Yuan Yuan Tan, Davit Karapetyan, & Courtney Elizabeth (a perfect cast based on Odette’s rusty memories of her one and only time seeing the ballet as performed by Sacramento Ballet over a decade ago), with additional excitement peppering the program as company favorites Taras Domitro and Vito Mazzeo will be making their debuts in Divertimento No. 15 and The Four Temperaments, respectively.
Three cheers for SFB-the Balanchine program is here!!!
Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah!!!
SFBalletomane newbies-this program is a MUST see, with each ballet offering a different Balanchine flavor: the full-on traditional classical majesty (and difficulty) of Divertimento No. 15, the romantic style of Scotch Symphony, and the very abstract neo-classicism of The Four Temperaments. To witness this program (get your tickets on SFB’s site here, where you will also discover the program’s associated events with SFB’s visiting dance scholar Beth Genné) is to receive your first lesson in understanding Balanchine by Mr. B himself, who summed up his personal ballet vision best when he said:
“See the Music, Hear the Dance”
&
“Ballet is Woman”.
~~~
Casting
*Denotes premiere in role
In the event of injury, illness, dancers inexplicably being catapulted into the future and onto an awaiting nearby starship for the amusement of a balletomanic commanding officer with 1,400 unpronouncable surnames (and who, I am told, is really one of the many future incarnations of George Balanchine, which explains why this nearly always happens to only the female dancers)**, being locked by jealous rivals in the bathroom 15 minutes before a performance, or other similar catastrophic events,
casting is subject to change.
This is why a real SFBalletomane always checks SFB’s actual Casting page for the most current info-Odette’s peeps are known to brazenly refer to this link sometimes multiple times daily during SFB’s active performing season:
http://www.sfballet.org/tickets/casting
PROGRAM 7: OPENING NIGHT – Thursday, April 12 – 8:00PM
DIVERTIMENTO NO. 15
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: Martin West
Gennadi Nedvigin, Hansuke Yamamoto, Taras Domitro*
Vanessa Zahorian
Sasha DeSola, Frances Chung, Courtney Elizabeth, Dana Genshaft
INTERMISSION
SCOTCH SYMPHONY
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn
Conductor: Martin West
Yuan Yuan Tan*, Davit Karapetyan*
Courtney Elizabeth*
INTERMISSION
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Paul Hindemith
Conductor: Martin West
Piano: Roy Bogas
Melancholic: Taras Domitro
Sanguinic: Sarah Van Patten, Tiit Helimets
Phlegmatic: Vito Mazzeo*
Choleric: Sofiane Sylve
PROGRAM 7: Friday, April 13 – 8:00PM
DIVERTIMENTO NO. 15
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: Martin West
Gennadi Nedvigin, Hansuke Yamamoto, Taras Domitro
Maria Kochetkova
Sasha DeSola, Frances Chung, Courtney Elizabeth, Dana Genshaft
INTERMISSION
SCOTCH SYMPHONY
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn
Conductor: Martin West
Van Patten*, Tiit Helimets*
Dores Andre*
INTERMISSION
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Paul Hindemith
Conductor: Martin West
Piano: Roy Bogas
Melancholic: Jaime Garcia Castilla
Sanguinic: Vanessa Zahorian, Joan Boada
Phlegmatic: Davit Karapetyan
Choleric: Elana Altman
PROGRAM 7: Saturday, April 14 – 2:00PM
DIVERTIMENTO NO. 15
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: Martin West
Davit Karapetyan, Ruben Martin Cintas, Jaime Garcia Castilla
Vanessa Zahorian
Elana Altman, Sarah Van Patten, Nicole Ciapponi*, Dores Andre
INTERMISSION
SCOTCH SYMPHONY
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn
Conductor: Martin West
Maria Kochetkova*, Joan Boada*
Nicole Ciapponi*
INTERMISSION
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Paul Hindemith
Conductor: Martin West
Piano: Roy Bogas
Melancholic: Isaac Hernandez*
Sanguinic: Frances Chung, Ruben Martin Cintas
Phlegmatic: Vito Mazzeo
Choleric: Kristina Lind*
PROGRAM 7: Saturday, April 14 – 8:00PM
DIVERTIMENTO NO. 15
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: Martin West
Gennadi Nedvigin, Hansuke Yamamoto, Taras Domitro
Maria Kochetkova
Sasha DeSola, Frances Chung, Courtney Elizabeth, Dana Genshaft
INTERMISSION
SCOTCH SYMPHONY
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn
Conductor: Martin West
Vanessa Zahorian*, Taras Domitro*
Courtney Elizabeth
INTERMISSION
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Paul Hindemith
Conductor: Martin West
Piano: Roy Bogas
Melancholic: Pascal Molat
Sanguinic: Sarah Van Patten, Tiit Helimets
Phlegmatic: Davit Karapetyan
Choleric: Sofiane Sylve
~~~
San Francisco Ballet’s Ballet Master Betsy Erickson on SFB’s Balanchine Masterworks, Program 7
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- Tiit Helimets & Sarah Van Patten in Balanchine’s ‘The Four Temperaments’; © George Balanchine Trust; Photo © Erik Tomasson
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- San Francisco Ballet in Balanchine’s ‘The Four Temperaments’; © George Balanchine Trust; Photo © Erik Tomasson
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- Ruben Bartin Cintas & Frances Chung in Balanchine’s ‘Divertimento No. 15’; © George Balanchine Trust; Photo © Erik Tomasson
**This actually happened thrice to former SFB ballerinas Tina LeBlanc, Sabina Alleman, and Evelyn Cisneros, twice to Joanna Berman and Katita Waldo, and once to Julie Diana, Elizabeth Miner, Sofiane Sylve, Suzanne Farrell (a very interesting case, as the jealous future Mr. B actually took her from himself while he was still Artistic Director of NYCB and she was still one of his muses there), Ashley Bouder, Gonzalo Garcia, Christopher Stowell, and even SFB’s Artistic Director, Helgi Tomasson, himself.
And THAT explains why all of these dancers ended up being brilliant interpreters of the Balanchine repertory. See? It pays to hang with Odette, who has the lowdown on these things.
Odette’s ‘lowdown’ is partially derived from SFB’s terrific free to the public educational discussions/lectures/interviews, whose dates can be gleaned from clicking of the hyperlinks below:
SFB’s Visiting Scholars Series
~~~
See You at the Ballet!
Odette's Ordeal 
Reblogged this on mysylph.
Thanks for the ‘re-blog’ and welcome to Odette’s Ordeal; glad to have another SFBalletomane aboard!
Thanks-actually I’m in Orange County, but a BIG fan. I am doing a dance book, please check out my Dancer’s Questionnaire-writing a book about dance.
That’s quite an interesting interview process; I wish you great success in your endeavor!
Thank you. Apparently your a nightbird like me. Maybe it will work, who knows. I hope so, because I have been working on it since I was 16. I am 49. It would be great to leave a magnum opus….ha. Anyway, if you have any interest in helping me, I could really use some, getting the interviews to dancers. Thanks.
Ava