Feature Stories

The Tomasson Effect: Reflections on the Artistic Director’s 20th Anniversary

Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson’s 20-year push to reshape San Francisco Ballet can be summed up in two words: excellence and integrity. The soft-spoken former world-renowned dancer took the helm of San Francisco Ballet on July 1, 1985, a date that has come to signify the beginning of a new, extraordinary chapter in the Company’s history. A self-described risk taker, Tomasson set his sights for the Company before he ever set foot in his 455 Franklin Street office or taught company class to his adopted troupe of dancers. Then with unwavering determination, he steered San Francisco Ballet in a new direction. That direction, it turns out, was one that would lead the former regional company to its current status as one of the top ballet companies in the world.

When the search for a new artistic director for San Francisco Ballet began in 1984, the Board of Trustees had a singular goal: raise the Company to a higher level. Although Tomasson had no experience as an artistic director, he came highly recommended. Ballet heavyweights such as New York City Ballet’s Lincoln Kirstein and Jerome Robbins, Erik Bruhn (then director of the National Ballet of Canada), and SF Ballet’s own Lew Christensen all expressed a vote of confidence in Tomasson, who at the time was still a principal dancer with New York City Ballet. Bruhn went so far as to tell Trustee Emeritus Thomas J. Perkins, a longtime Board member who chaired the search committee, “There’s only one person in the world you should hire—and that’s Helgi Tomasson.”For someone who had yet to venture off the stage, Tomasson was a hot commodity. As he began to consider retiring from dancing, he thought he would teach, perhaps choreograph, at his home company. He had had a taste of both under the watchful eye of George Balanchine, and he and his wife of 19 years, Marlene, and their two sons were happy in New York City. He had already turned down an invitation to direct a regional American company, but the Royal Danish Ballet had made him a more enticing offer. Before he got the phone call from Christensen that would plant the idea of San Francisco in his head, he had begun negotiations with the Copenhagen-based company to become its artistic director. “Lew said, ‘Don’t sign the contract, stall them. Give me an opportunity to talk to you,” recalls Tomasson. He didn’t have to stall them; negotiations bogged down, and Tomasson flew home to New York to find that Christensen had died. “I didn’t give San Francisco any more thought after that. I had worked with Lew in New York, for the Stravinsky Festival—I danced his Norwegian Woods. That’s the only time I met him.” But several days later he found himself on another plane, this one headed west to Christensen’s memorial service. “Lincoln Kirstein asked me to represent him at the service, saying he didn’t like to fly. Knowing Lincoln, he had another motive in sending me out here,” says Tomasson with a smile. That trip was the artistic director’s introduction to the Company he would shepherd for the next two decades.Tomasson’s reputation for integrity and high standards appears to have far outweighed his lack of directorial experience, making him the top candidate for the job and opening doors for him as a fledgling artistic director. “One of the things I was known for was excellence in conveying Robbins’ or Balanchine’s choreography,” comments Tomasson. “So when I started this job, I would call up choreographers—they knew me, or of me, and knew what I stood for. There was never any question of proving myself; it was ‘Oh, it’s you, Helgi—great!’ ” It’s doubtful that anyone, including Tomasson, could have anticipated that his managerial skills would match the level of his artistry, but he has proved himself, in the words of Board Chair James Herbert, to be “an inspirational leader.” Talk to anyone who works with Tomasson and the word “excellence” is likely to crop up. “He’s not only an artist, he’s a thoughtful and caring manager,” says Herbert. “People underestimate the managerial aspect of his job. Helgi’s real talent is the balance of the artistic and managerial. He would never claim that he does it by himself; he attracts people who are delighted to work with him. At the core of everything Helgi does is a drive for excellence. All good leaders have that, and Helgi has it.”But in 1984, no one could be certain about that. Perkins says, “The ballet was as close to the brink of disaster as you can get. We needed more than an artistic director—we needed someone of strength, integrity, character, someone who could bring stability to a chaotic situation. I couldn’t know those things about Helgi but I’ve been on 16 boards and I was guided by my instincts. Helgi was the committee’s choice right from the beginning.”Perhaps what’s most remarkable about Tomasson’s tenure is the fact that he has accomplished exactly what he said he would. On February 5, 1985, he assured the San Francisco Examiner that the Company would remain classically oriented, featuring “full-length ballets, neoclassical, modern classical, and modern works.” He also said he would invite illustrious guest choreographers to create new works for the Company. He has kept his promise. He built the Company step by step, using and refining the resources at hand and carefully calculating each new move. It was, he says, a balancing act, during which he never lost sight of his goal: “to make this company the best it can possibly be, with what I have to offer,” says Tomasson. But an artistic director’s goals, whether lofty or humble, are meaningless without the trust of his dancers. Tomasson taught company class five days a week for the first few years; he understood that spending time in the studio was the best way to develop the rapport he knew they would need to move forward. Ballet Education Coordinator Evelyn Cisneros, then a Company dancer, faced the untried director’s arrival with trepidation. “It was difficult when [former Artistic Director] Michael [Smuin] left because I felt loyal to him, and I didn’t know what to expect with Helgi,” Cisneros says. “But then the first thing that he choreographed on me was Confidencias, which made it so clear that he understood the position I was in. It was to Latin music, and I’m Latin, and it portrayed being torn from one place to another, feeling drawn to one place but then being able to leave that and go to another place. So to me it was personal and dear—it was like saying I was ready to go forward into what was coming. It was also, for Helgi, like an outpouring of ‘I understand where you are.’ It was a wonderful gift.”

The Tomasson Effect: Reflections on the Artistic Director’s 20th Anniversary

Although his dancers weren’t sure what to expect, Tomasson made his own expectations clear to the trustees: total artistic control. He got it, and quickly earned the Board’s trust; they have worked collaboratively and productively ever since. General Manager Lesley Koenig describes that relationship as one of “mutual respect. He has real accessibility as a person. When he goes into a board meeting, he’s one of the group. He knows these are the people who helped him, and the Company, become what they are. And when he feels that something’s important, he speaks up and speaks eloquently, from the heart.”

Tomasson built trust the same way he’s brought about change in the Company: methodically and logically, with a huge dollop of intuition thrown in. “He’ll perfect a certain phase in the Company,” says Executive Director Glenn McCoy, “and then he’ll come up with an idea and everyone will say, ‘Oh, no, we can’t do that.’ It happened with the UNited We Dance Festival. It happened the first time we went to Paris, to New York, to London. And each time he says, ‘It’s time; it’s the next step.’ And each time he’s right. To me, a vision isn’t some pie-in-the-sky dream about what you want to do; it’s about understanding the steps it will take to get there and when it’s time. Helgi is really good at making sure we’re ready for the next step.”

Tomasson must take those steps with budgetary restrictions in mind and with an eye to increasing potential funding by yielding a product that donors are proud to support. In 2004, San Francisco Ballet’s 13th year in the black, the budget for program and support expenses (including touring and education) stood at just over $31 million; approximately 41 percent of that revenue comes from the Annual Fund (gifts, the majority of which are given by trustees and other individual donors, and grants), and the balance comes from ticket sales and an annual draw from the Endowment Fund. Financial and artistic decisions go hand in hand, a fact that Tomasson clearly understands. Koenig says, “It’s extraordinary to have an artistic director who’s so open to listening to the resource and management side.”

“He understands what things cost,” adds McCoy, “so he doesn’t program something really expensive unless he thinks there’s a real payoff. Almost all of our funding comes locally, and most of it from individuals. And many of them are the same individuals who have supported him for 20 years, but most of them are giving a lot more money now because they’ve grown to feel they have a major investment on many levels.”

“If he says we are dedicated to creating a diverse, rich large repertory of new works, we do,” says Koenig. “We keep our promises—he keeps our promises.”

Chair Emeritus Chris Hellman, who chaired the board and executive committee from 1993 to 1999, sums up Tomasson’s achievements succinctly: “[Helgi] managed to do something no other artistic director has done: He turned a regional troupe into an international company.” He has done so, she says, by “listening, taking what others have to say into account, and getting the job done. He has always had the Company at heart.”

Tomasson’s reputation for excellence reaches far beyond the walls of the San Francisco Ballet building. In September 2004, Judith Mackrell of London’s Guardian wrote, “As director of San Francisco Ballet, Helgi Tomasson has started to acquire an aura of infallibility; his expertise in laying down repertory and in balancing a great evening of dance is held in envy by the rest of the profession.”

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