The San Francisco Ballet’s 2014 opening season will supply us with all the passionate glory of the dance we could ever wish for:
Jan. 25–Feb. 2, Helgi Tomasson’s sumptuous Giselle opens the season, taking us into the world of the peasant maiden with romance in her heart and dancing in her soul. There will be two special performances of the Hamburg Ballet’s Midsummer Night’s Dream on Feb. 12–13. This tale of mistaken identities and love-driven pursuits is set to the classic Mendelssohn score.
From Feb.18–March 1, a world premier by Val Caniparoli will open a trio of works that also include Alexei Ratmansky’s From Foreign Lands and Wayne McGregor’s enthralling Borderlands. These will run in repertory with Stravinsky’s Firebird, Christopher Wheeldon’s Ghosts, and The Kingdom of Shades from Act II of La Bayadère.
March 11–23 will bring a new production of the popular Cinderella, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, complete with puppetry and cinematic effects; April 2–13 showcases Alexei Ratmansky’s Shostakovich Trilogy in co-production with the American Ballet Theatre and a full performance of passionate dance, presented in repertory with a new Helgi Tomasson work, which is bound to be exciting. Also in this program will be the 20th anniversary presentation of Mark Morris’ Maelstrom, and Yuri Possokhov’s The Rite of Spring.
Rounding out the season April 29–May 11 is a triple-bill consisting of a world premier by Royal Ballet Artist-In-Residence Liam Scarlett, Helgi Tomasson’s The Fifth Season and Serge Lifar’s elegant Suite En Blanc in repertory with the American classic Agon and the Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet. The program concludes with the magnificent Glass Pieces collaboration between Jerome Robbins and composer Phillip Glass.
