Dancers

Born: New South Wales, Australia

Joined in 1996. Promoted to Soloist in 1998, to Principal Dancer in 2001.

 

Born in New South Wales, Australia, Damian Smith trained at the Robin Hick School of Dance, McDonald College School of Arts in Sydney, and School of American Ballet. After dancing with Ballet du Nord, he joined San Francisco Ballet in 1996. He was promoted to soloist in 1998 and to principal dancer in 2001. Lead roles include Iago in Lubovitch’s Othello, Tybalt and Paris in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet, Hilarion in Tomasson’s Giselle, von Rothbart in Tomasson’s Swan Lake, Orion in Morris’ Sylvia, Drosselmeyer and the Snow King in Tomasson’s Nutcracker, and Gamache in Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote. He created roles in Adam’s Angelo; Jenkins’ Thread; Possokhov’s Study in Motion, Reflections, and Fusion; Stowell’s Opus 50; Tomasson’s The Fifth Season, Chi-Lin, and Silver Ladders; Wheeldon’s Sea Pictures, Rush, Continuum, Quaternary, and Within the Golden Hour; and Welch’s Tu Tu, among others. Smith’s repertory also includes Ashton’s Symphonic Variations; Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Theme and Variations, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Who Cares?, “Emeralds”, and The Four Temperaments; Caniparoli’s Lambarena, No Other, Slow, and Death of a Moth; Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and Artifact Suite; de Mille’s Rodeo; Morris’ Maelstrom, A Garden, and Pacific; Possokhov’s Magrittomania; and Wheeldon’s Polyphonia and the pas de deux from After the Rain. Smith has performed at benefits and galas, both in the United States and Europe, and as a guest artist with various companies. He received the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for ensemble performance in 2000. In December 2008, Smith was featured as Drosselmeyer in the PBS Great Performances broadcast of Tomasson’s Nutcracker, co-produced by San Francisco Ballet and KQED Public Television San Francisco, in association with Thirteen/WNET New York.