On Wednesday evenings, Dance Scholar and Educator Mary Wood, along with other guest presenters, hosts salon-style interviews with San Francisco Ballet dancers, guest artists, choreographers, musicians, and designers.

Pointes of View Lectures (POVs) are hour-long discussions that are free and open to the public. The lectures are conducted from 6–7pm in the Green Room, located on the second floor of the Veterans Building or in the Herbst Theatre on the ground floor of the Veterans Building, conveniently located across the courtyard from the War Memorial Opera House at 401 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister Street).

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

POV Program 1 
February 1st
Green Room – 2nd Floor

John Cranko’s Onegin opens the season and Assistants to the Artistic Director and Ballet Masters Bruce Sansom and Ricardo Bustamante along with Ballet Master Anita Paciotti, review the season and discuss the challenges and rewards of dancing full-length dramatic works and the company’s commitment to keeping this genre vital.

POV Program 2
February 15th
Green Room – 2nd Floor

Prominent choreographer Mark Morris creates his 8th world premier Beaux for San Francisco Ballet.  Ballet Master Betsy Erickson, Principal Dancer Gennadi Nedvigin, and Megan Williams Repetiteur for Mark Morris offer insights into the production of this world premiere. Returning contemporary works, Christopher Wheeldon’s Number Nine © and Wayne McGregor’s Chroma are also featured on this program.

POV Program 3
February 22nd
Green Room – 2nd Floor

The wealth of varied music in our repertoire contributes significantly to its impact. We will explore this through the eyes of Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West as we discuss Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov’s newest ballet Francesca da Rimini and the return of Alexei Ratmansky’s Le Carnaval des Animaux, along with an encore of Helgi Tomasson’s Trio.

POV Program 4 
March 7th
Green Room – 2nd Floor

Romeo & Juliet the most romantic of stories told through dance partnerships require both technical and dramatic demands. Assistant to the Artistic Director and Ballet Master Bruce Sansom along with Principal Dancers Yuan Yuan Tan and Vito Mazzeo who tackle these ill-fated characters share their approach to these challenges.

POV Program 5 
March 21st
Green Room – 2nd Floor

This program features Symphonic Dances a world premier by emerging choreographer Edwaard Liang.  Ballet Master Katita Waldo shares how a choreographer takes a work from conception to production.  Also on the program is Helgi Tomasson’s The Fifth Season and Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces.

POV Program 6 
March 28th
Green Room – 2nd Floor

The company shows off its versatility performing the lush classicism of Rudolph Nureyev’s Raymonda Act III, the wrenching drama of Yuri Possokhov’s RAkU, and the contemporary creation of Ashley Page’s world premiere Guide to Strange Places.   Assistant to the Artistic Director and Ballet Master Ricardo Bustamente and Soloist Elana Altman expand on the training and the discipline that allow San Francisco Ballet dancers to master this span of styles.

POV Program 7 
April 18th
Green Room – 2nd Floor

In this program, San Francisco Ballet performs three works by 20th century choreographic giant George Balanchine and focuses on the variety of his output, from the classic and traditional Divertimento #15, through a revival of the romantic Scotch Symphony.  Ballet Scholar Carrie Gaiser Casey, Ph.D. with Dr. Beth Genné, a historian of dance and of art at the University of Michigan and Dr. Stephen Hinton, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Music at Stanford University, will explore and comment in depth on the role of modernism in art and music in the 1940s, focusing on the cutting-edge ballet The Four Temperaments, choreographed by Balanchine in 1946 and set to the music of Paul Hindemith.

POV Program 8
May 2nd
Herbst Theatre – 1st Floor

Don Quixote is well-known as a rollicking comedy packed with virtuoso dance. We will hear from Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson and Technical Director Christopher Dennis about the process of bringing San Francisco Ballet new scenery and costumes to enhance this beloved work.

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. Click here to learn more.

For more information, please contact Cecelia Beam, adult education coordinator, at cbeam@sfballet.org or 415.865.6583.