Feature Stories

INNOVATION IN BALLET

Because Tomasson’s first love is the art of dance, his first priority is to both perpetuate its traditions and give it new life by promoting creativity. In keeping with that belief, he has bestowed on San Francisco Ballet a repertory that includes the benchmarks of classicism, neoclassicism, and contemporary ballet while leaving plenty of room for experimentation by other choreographers.

He spotted talent in dancemakers like William Forsythe, David Bintley, and Christopher Wheeldon before they became darlings of the dance world, and he delights in giving his dancers opportunities to work with a wide range of choreographic talent. “I’ve never been afraid to get good people,” Tomasson says. “I’m not one of those people who say, ‘I’m doing this whole thing, all by myself. Nobody else matters—I’m the one.’ Surround yourself with good people. Get good choreographers. It will enhance the Company, and that in its own way, will make the art of dance better.” According to Arthur Jacobus, SF Ballet's executive direcotr from 1992 to 2002, "Helgi has impeccable taste, and an exquisite eye for uniqueness in choosing dancers. Over the years he has brought in nothing less than the finest choreographers. The result is that San Francisco Ballet is one of the most current and eclectic repertory companies in the world today."

As a result of the diversity, his dancers can put on different styles like so many pairs of gloves, making them a choreographer’s dream. It’s one aspect of the Company that Tomasson is most proud of. “I think it’s terribly important for an artistic director to stay in touch with the dancers through the studio,” he says. “And particularly if you choreograph—it sets a tone. You tell them in classes how you would like them to dance, how you would like them to approach that type of step, the quality you’re looking for. Slowly this seeps in and they start to understand what you are about. If that quality’s there, it will transfer to any other choreographer. I take pride in how the dancers are able to go from one style to another, and do it extremely well. They are quite remarkable that way.”

In his own choreography, Tomasson has pushed himself to take creative risks. He’s done what he needed to do to satisfy his own need for artistic expression, which, in his case, meant choosing paths that led him to such discrete ballets as Haffner Symphony, Nanna’s Lied, Chi-Lin, and his most recent work, 7 for Eight. “I have been very conscious of trying different things, different music,” he says. “Some have worked; some have not—but I had to try.” That sense of experimentation sends a message to his company about artistic openness and has allowed Tomasson to mature as a choreographer.

Glenn McCoy, executive director, and Lesley Koenig, general manager, were thrilled with London’s response to 7 for Eight, which they says, “blew their minds.” "It was very gratifying to see [that response to] this one piece that represents the culmination of his development as a choreographer over the last 20 years,” says McCoy.

Another way Tomasson fosters artistic openness is by recruiting a steady stream of guest choreographers. One frequent visitor is Christopher Wheeldon, a former Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet dancer who is now the latter’s resident choreographer. Since making his West Coast debut with Sea Pictures in the 2000 season’s New Discovery Program, he’s come to appreciate Tomasson’s guiding hand. “I haven’t really had a mentor in my career—I’ve never been lucky enough to have someone standing over me and guiding me,” Wheeldon says. “And in a very gentle way, Helgi’s been that to me, in the opportunities he’s given me.” One of those was the first performance of a full evening of his works, at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2003. Wheeldon also respects the freedom Tomasson gives him during the creative process. “He would never presume to inflict his opinion, but he’s always there. It’s reassuring, because it’s a scary thing to be at the front of a studio having to make a brand-new piece of art. He’s a wonderful choreographer himself, and it’s not that often that you find a director humble enough to take that step back and allow other people to develop. I think he has a great love for the art of ballet, and he understands that it needs to progress. So he does take that step back and allow young artists to come in, and he guides them as well.”

Another guest choreographer, the much-respected and innovative Mark Morris, comes to the Company because of the dancers. “I don’t go there because I need the work—I’m busy, thank God. I go there because I love the dancers in the Company. I love that they’re individual human beings, that there’s an actual culture amongst them,” Morris says. “They’re not robots, and that’s just great because nobody wants to watch robots.” Like Wheeldon, he respects Tomasson for embracing other choreographers. “Helgi, in being a very good choreographer, is doing something that artistic directors never have the sense [to do], which is to complete programs, propose programs, hiring very good choreographers and wonderful dancers and supplying work custom made, tailored to his dancers.” And, he says, “the wonderful thing is that Helgi leaves me entirely alone when I’m there. I can work for weeks, and I’ll see him in the hallway, but he doesn’t come into the studio unless I ask him to. You know he’s maybe worrying like crazy, but he’s not in the vision panel fretting at me, because he trusts me and he trusts that I’m getting the work done.”

Tomasson’s belief that people deserve a chance to test and prove themselves is as evident with emerging choreographers as it is with the dancers whose careers he shapes. And he does it in a big way: on the Opera House stage as part of the Company’s repertory season, rather than in something less risky, like a workshop presentation. Part of that is pure practicality; the tight rehearsal schedule coincides with the touring season, and Tomasson needs his dancers to work on the season’s repertory. There simply aren’t enough dancers, or enough time, to send them off to work on other projects. For at least two of the choreographers whose early works took life on the Opera House stage, the experience proved far more rewarding than what a workshop could have afforded them. Christopher Stowell, who made Opus 50 as part of the 2000 Discovery Program, says, “I made a huge leap in that piece because the better the circumstances, the better I choreograph. Being in a studio situation may be better for others. And having good dancers, a pianist instead of a machine, and money behind it was very important. That was the first time I had that kind of support.”

Yuri Possokhov, a principal dancer whose new work for the 2005 Repertory Season, Reflections, cut his choreographic teeth on Magrittomania, also created for the 2000 Discovery Program. He says that if he had had to create his first work on students, he probably would never have choreographed again. That kind of experience, he thinks, wouldn’t have allowed him “to smell it, to feel it, to go forward.” With “good dancers on a big stage,” he says, “I got the smell of professional dancing. That’s why I love to do it.” He’s grateful for the opportunities Tomasson has given him. “I’m a lucky person—I didn’t have to convince someone that I have ideas.”

As far as choosing who gets that kind of chance, for Tomasson it’s simple: “I saw talent. Unfortunately, in our profession there’s a little bit of an attitude that if something doesn’t succeed the first time, it’s no good. You need a lot of patience, and I seem to have that.”

Wheater agrees. “I think with any creativity you have to accept and allow that not everything is going to be successful, but you cannot allow that to become a barrier. You have to say, ‘I’m not so happy with that,’ or ‘That’s not my best work, but let’s go on.’ Helgi’s that way with dancers and choreographers. I know that when Julia and Yuri were first doing pieces, Helgi reassured them, giving them the confidence and commitment that he was standing with them. Helgi has great judgment and really great taste. He can look at something, and even if it’s not exactly to his liking, he will know that it’s good for the Company. He’s a very fair man, and he has incredible integrity.”

Cheryl Ossola is a freelance arts writer and editor, and a contributing editor for Dance Magazine.