SAN FRANCISCO BALLET PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF CATHY MARSTON’S MRS. ROBINSON ON PROGRAM 1, FEBRUARY 1–12

SF BALLET RELEASES MRS. ROBINSON SHORT FILM TO THE PUBLIC 

WILLIAM FORSYTHE’S BLAKE WORKS I, A COMPANY PREMIERE,
TOPS PROGRAM 2, FEBRUARY 3–13

AN FRANCISCO, CA, January 14, 2022—San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet), the Company and School that has been an innovator in dance since its founding in 1933, begins its repertory season and Helgi Tomasson’s 37th and final season as Artistic Director this February with the live world premiere of Cathy Marston’s Mrs. Robinson on Program 1, February 1–12 at the War Memorial Opera House. The premiere arrives after a two-year postponement of the ballet’s debut due to Covid-19. To celebrate, SF Ballet today releases the Mrs. Robinson short film for free on its website. Filmed at the Fairmont San Francisco in November of 2020 and never before shared publicly, the dance film features choreography from a scene of Mrs. Robinson and stars Principal Dancers Sarah Van Patten and Joseph Walsh in the ballet’s leading roles.

Click here to watch the Mrs. Robinson short film

In Mrs. Robinson, Marston re-imagines The Graduate, the classic 1960s American novella and film, from the perspective of Mrs. Robinson, America’s most notorious seductress. With an original score by Terry Davies, scenic and costume designs by Patrick Kinmonth, and a scenario developed by the choreographer and Edward Kemp, Mrs. Robinson is Marston’s second commission and narrative ballet created for SF Ballet. Her first, Snowblind, traveled to The Kennedy Center in 2018 and Sadler’s Wells in 2019.

SF Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, in his 37th and final season, will also present George Balanchine’s Symphony in C and his own ballet, Trio, on Program 1. Hailed as one of the world’s foremost exponents of the Balanchine repertory, SF Ballet first presented Balanchine’s Symphony in C in 1961. Symphony in C is one of 30 ballets by Balanchine in the Company’s repertory and was last performed by SF Ballet in 2011. Tomasson’s Trio, an abstract dance set to Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, premiered in 2011 in San Francisco before touring to New York, London, and Washington, D.C, and was last seen in San Francisco in 2017. Program 1, like each program of the 2022 Season, celebrates the expansive unfolding of Tomasson’s career as a dancer and choreographer, encompassing works by luminaries in the field and repertory from Tomasson’s own canon.

Program 2 opens on February 3 with Tomasson’s Caprice, followed by Jerome Robbins’ In the Night, one of the first ballets Tomasson programmed upon joining the Company in 1985 and one of 18 ballets by the choreographer in the Company’s repertory. Program 2 closes with the SF Ballet premiere of William Forsythe’s Blake Works I. Called “a brilliant expression of purity and modernity” by Vogue, Blake Works I is Forsythe’s 2016 creation for Paris Opera Ballet and sets seven movements of dance to songs from James Blake’s 2016 album The Colour in Anything. Forsythe contributed to the ballet’s stage, costume, and lighting design in collaboration with costume designer Dorothee Merg and lighting designer Tanja Ruehl. “[SF Ballet] dances Forsythe better than any other American company,” wrote the Los Angeles Times in 2016.

Photo: Nikisha Fogo rehearsing Forsythe’s Blake Works I // (c) Erik Tomasson

Tickets to Programs 1 and 2 start at $29 and may be purchased online at sfballet.org or by calling 415-865-2000, Monday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm Pacific.

San Francisco Ballet’s Company members are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 per FDA, CDC, and City of San Francisco guidelines. Patrons may review Covid-19 safety protocols on our website. 

Casting for Programs 1 and 2 will be available here at least one week before each performance.