BY KAREN BOSSICK
The San Francisco Ballet will bring 38 company dancers from 13 countries when it performs two completely different programs in the Sun Valley Pavilion on Friday, July 5, and Sunday, July 7.
Friday’s performance will feature “The Fifth Season” and “Concerto Grosso” choreographed by Helgi Tomasson. Tomasson will also choreograph Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty, Act III Pas de Deux.”
Yuiri Possokhov, San Francisco Ballet’s choreographer-in-residence, will present his choreographed version of Boris Tchaikovsky’s “Diving into the Lilacs Excerpt.” He and Tomasson will then collaborate to choreograph with Alexander Gorsky and Marius Petipa on “Don Quixote-Act III, Pas de Deux.”
Danielle Rowe will choreograph “UnSaid,” and Victor Gsovsky, “Grand Pas Classique.”
On Sunday, dancers will perform three original works ballets from the company’s 2018 Unbound Festival of New Works. The festival opened in San Francisco before journeying to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Choreographer Stanton Welch will stage Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Bespoke,” and Justin Peck, who had a large presence in Isabella Boylston’s 2017 and 2018 ballet festivals will choreograph “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.” Trey McIntyre who used to operate the Trey McIntyre Project out of Boise, will choreograph “Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem.”
Dancers include principals Dores Andre, Sasha de Sola, Carlo Di Lanno, Mathilde Froustey and Yuan Yuan Tan, as well as Brazilian soloist Daniel Deivison-Oliveira and Isabella Devivo, who performed on Broadway in Chita Rivera’s “A Dancer’s Life.”
Maestro Martin West, considered one of the world’s foremost ballet conductors, will conduct the festival orchestra.
Founded in 1933 right in the midst of the Great Depression, the San Francisco Ballet is known for pushing dance boundaries. It staged the first full-length American productions of “Coppelia” and “Swan Lake” and in 1944 it produced the first full-length production of “Nutcracker” in the United States.
Pavilion tickets for this coming weekend’s performances range from $50 to $500, and are available at www.balletsunvalley.com/tickets.
Lawn tickets for those who wish to view the performance on the big lawn screen are $25 with children 10 and under free with a ticketed adult.For tickets call 208-622-2135.
HELGI GOES TO THE LIBRARY
San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson will discuss his work taking the San Francisco Ballet from a respected regional troupe to an acclaimed international company at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 6, at Ketchum’s Community Library.
Tomasson will hold a conversation with the ballet’s General Manager Debra Bernard.
Additionally, San Francisco Ballet Principal Dancer Sasha De Sola, who trained in St. Petersburg, Russia, will read from the children’s book inspired by her life “On Tiptoes/De Puntitas” at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 6, at the library.