Press Releases

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ANNOUNCES ENGAGEMENT

AT ICELAND’S REYKJAVIK ARTS FESTIVAL

San Francisco Ballet Returns to Iceland after Seven Years

with an All-Tomasson Program

SAN FRANCISCO, Thursday, February 8, 2007—San Francisco Ballet has announced it will perform at the Reykjavik Arts Festival in Iceland, May 16-20, 2007. Over five days and seven performances, the Company will present a program of four works by SF Ballet Artistic Director and Choreographer Helgi Tomasson at Reykjavik’s City Theatre. The program includes the Icelandic premieres of Blue Rose, Concerto Grosso, 7 for Eight, and The Fifth Season. This tour marks San Francisco Ballet’s third visit to Iceland and its third engagement at the Reykjavik Arts Festival.

“We are honored to perform at the prestigious Reykjavik Arts Festival in my native Iceland,” remarked San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director and Choreographer Helgi Tomasson. “With San Francisco Ballet’s 75^th Anniversary in 2008, the Company has never danced better and I am especially proud that they will present a program of my works.”

All-Tomasson Program

San Francisco Ballet will present four Icelandic premieres on one all-Tomasson program at the City Theatre in Reykjavik. The program will be performed May 16, 17, 18 at 8:00 p.m. and at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on May 19 and 20.

Blue Rose, a work for three couples, highlights the shifting moods of ten songs by Elena Kats-Chernin. Blue Rose was premiered by SF Ballet in 2006 and features costumes by Judanna Lynn with lighting by Lisa J. Pinkham. The critically acclaimed Concerto Grosso was deemed a program “highlight” by the Financial Times, during the Company’s recent Lincoln Center Festival engagement. Originally created for the 2003 Opening Night Gala, the work for five men was so well received that it was added to that season’s repertory and has been performed frequently since. Concerto Grosso is set to an orchestration of Francesco Geminiani’s variation on a Corelli theme, with costumes by Sandra Woodall and lighting by David Finn. 7 for Eight, proclaimed “stunning” by the San Francisco Chronicle when it premiered in 2004, is a work for eight dancers. Set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, 7 for Eight was most recently performed in its entirety during the Company’s engagement at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival in July 2006. The work features costumes by Sandra Woodall and lighting by David Finn. Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “[Tomasson’s] best ballet yet,” The Fifth Season premiered during SF Ballet’s 2006 Repertory Season. Set to the music of Karl Jenkins, the six-movement work for six principal dancers and eight corps de ballet, features costumes by Sandra Woodall with lighting by Michael Mazzola.

Reykjavik Arts Festival

The Reykjavik Arts Festival has been held regularly since 1970 and is one of the oldest and most respected arts festivals in Northern Europe. The festival takes place in the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, with a few events also taking place in the countryside. The purpose of the festival is to promote Icelandic and international culture in all fields of art. The festival’s programs offer a variety of concerts exhibitions, theater, dance, and opera performances. Along with its focus on Icelandic culture past and present, the festival has hosted many outstanding international artists including Herbie Hancock, Jiri Kylian, John Cage, and the Kronos Quartet. For more information about the festival or to purchase tickets online, visit www.artfest.is.

San Francisco Ballet

As America’s oldest professional ballet company, San Francisco Ballet has enjoyed a long and rich tradition of artistic “firsts” since its founding in 1933, including performing the first American productions of Swan Lake and Nutcracker, as well as the first twentieth-century American Coppélia. San Francisco Ballet is one of the three largest ballet companies in the United States. Guided in its early years by American dance pioneers and brothers Lew, Willam and Harold Christensen, San Francisco Ballet currently presents more than one hundred performances annually, both locally and internationally. Under the direction of Helgi Tomasson for more than two decades, the Company has achieved an international reputation as one of the preeminent ballet companies in the world. In 2005, San Francisco won the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award, its first, in the category of “Outstanding Achievement in Dance,” for its 2004 London tour. In 2006, San Francisco Ballet was the first non-European company elected “Company of the Year” in Dance Europe magazine’s annual readers’ poll.