Dancers

Born in Lille Nord, France, Pierre-François Vilanoba trained at the Lille Conservatory and Paris Opéra Ballet School. After dancing with Paris Opéra Ballet, he joined San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 1998 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1999. His lead roles include Albrecht in Tomasson’s Giselle, Romeo in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet, Prince Desiré in Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried in Tomasson’s Swan Lake, the Nutcracker Prince and Snow King in Tomasson’s Nutcracker, Othello in Lubovitch’s Othello, and Orion in Morris’ Sylvia. He created principal roles in Elo’s Double Evil, Tomasson’s Blue Rose and The Fifth Season, and Wheeldon’s Quaternary and Within the Golden Hour, among others. Vilanoba’s broad repertory includes Balanchine’s Apollo, Serenade, Symphony in C, The Four Temperaments, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, “Emeralds”, “Diamonds”, and Agon; Caniparoli’s Lambarena; Duato’s Without Words; Forsythe’s Artifact Suite, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, and in the middle, somewhat elevated; van Manen’s Solo; Robbins’ Glass Pieces, In the Night, and West Side Story Suite; Possokhov’s Damned and Study in Motion; and Tomasson’s Prism, Chi-Lin, Nanna’s Lied, and 7 for Eight. He has performed at galas around the world and in several ballet films with the Paris Opéra Ballet, including Nureyev’s Romeo and Juliet. In December 2008, Vilanoba was featured as the Snow King 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.