FREE LECTURES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
 

The San Francisco Ballet Center for Dance Education invites you to join us for our FREE lecture series designed to enhance your SF Ballet experience during the 2013 Season.

2013 Pointes of View Lectures

Dance Educator Mary Wood hosts each program with San Francisco Ballet dancers, guest artists, choreographers, musicians, designers, and visiting scholars.

Pointes of View Programs 1–7 are held on Wednesday evenings from 6-7pm in the Veterans Building, conveniently located across the courtyard from the War Memorial Opera House at 401 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister Street). Pointes of View Program 8 will be held from 6–7pm at Nourse Theatre, 275 Hayes Street (between Van Ness & Franklin). These hour-long programs are free and open to the public.

This page will be updated as information on scheduled guests becomes available.

Program 1: January 30
Green Room, 2nd floor
The 80th Season’s opening program includes the San Francisco Ballet premiere of Serge Lifar’s groundbreaking Suite en Blanc. English dancer and former director of the Australian Ballet, Maina Gielgud has staged the work for SF Ballet. Gielgud brings her extensive experience to the discussion of this work which has been described as “clever, intriguing and intricately patterned.” A world premiere by innovative choreographer Wayne McGregor and Jerome Robbins’ lovely In the Night round out the program.

Program 2: February 13
Green Room, 2nd floor
SF Ballet is proud to present Hamburg Ballet in Nijinsky, created by Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of The Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier. Mr. Neumeier will join us for a discussion of this provocative retrospective of the great dancer's life and career.  Following the discussion with Mr. Neumeier, Company Manager Lauren Chadwick will share the duties and responsibilities of the Company Manager while on tour and at home.

Program 3: February 27
Green Room, 2nd floor
The centerpiece of the program is the world premiere of Yuri Possokhov’s The Rite of Spring, set to Igor Stravinsky’s revolutionary 1913 score—music that has inspired and challenged a wealth of prominent choreographers and dancers. Musicologist Susan Key and SF Ballet school administrative manager and music educator Andrea Yannone will be joined by SF Ballet Music Director Martin West to explore Stravinsky’s complex musical tour de force, the challenges it offers to dancers, and how the work maintains its edgy modernism, even after a century.

Program 4: March 6
Green Room, 2nd floor
A world premiere by Alexei Ratmansky provides the centerpiece for this program of contrasting works. Soloist Sasha De Sola joins Ballet Master Betsy Erickson who offers her perspective of this ballet, and brings her long experience with the Company to the discussion of Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour and Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony.

Program 5: March 27
Green Room, 2nd floor
John Cranko’s Onegin, based on Russia’s beloved novel, returns by popular demand! SF Ballet’s 2013 Visiting Scholar Tim Scholl, Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at Oberlin College and an author and scholar in the history of dance in Russia and North America, will explore the way the three authors (Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, and Cranko) have re-imagined characters who are not only beloved in Russia, but resonate universally for all who
have experienced true love, and occasionally, regret.

Program 6: April 10
Green Room, 2nd floor
Val Caniparoli discusses his fascination with the development of complex characters, as portrayed in Ibsen’s House, his most recent work created for SF Ballet. He will provide insight
into the challenges of being a prolific freelance choreographer, whose works are in the repertoires of over 40 companies worldwide. Symphonic Dances, choreographed by Edwaard Liang and Rudolph Nureyev’s Raymonda Act III contribute to this diverse program.

Program 7: April 17
Herbst Theatre, 1st floor
The repertoire for this program—George Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements, Helgi Tomasson’s Criss-Cross, and Yuri Possokov’s Francesca da Rimini, represents three generations of choreographers. Ballet Master Katita Waldo, who has performed in both Criss Cross and Symphony in Three Movements, will be joined by Soloist Garen Price Scribner and Corps de Ballet Dancer Charlene Cohen to discuss the contrasting experience of creating a new work and interpreting a classic.

Program 8: May 8
Nourse Theatre
The SF Ballet premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s full-length Cinderella provides us with the opportunity to enjoy a fresh interpretation of the iconic story, set to the familiar Prokofiev score.  Ballet Masters Anita Paciotti and Felipe Diaz will discuss the process of bringing this production to the Opera House stage.
 

All programs are subject to change.  The information, views, and opinions expressed at Pointes of View Lectures are strictly those of the participants and do not necessarily represent or imply any official position of San Francisco Ballet Association.

Select Pointes of View Lectures are available in podcast form. Learn more.

For more information, please contact Cecelia Beam, adult education coordinator, at cbeam@sfballet.org.