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San Francisco Ballet presented their second program of the season on Tuesday evening with Classical (Re)vision, featuring mostly modern ballet set to classical or classic popular tunes. Of the five works presented, three short works were not included in the program notes, which billed them as Director's Choice, that is, selections by Artistic...

February 8, 2020—Now in their 26th season Diablo Ballet has continued to attract and please audiences, and with good reason. Under Artistic Director Lauren Jonas' leadership the company has attracted veteran dancers of reputable companies, such as San Francisco Ballet, Smuin, and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Saturday's performance of ...

February 7, 2020—This month San Francisco Ballet will perform the world premiere of choreographer Trey McIntyre's The Big Hunger, set to Prokofiev's Concerto No. 2 with costumes and sets designed by Thomas Mika. Trey McIntyre sat down with Michael Phelan of BayDance.com to discuss what The Big Hunger is about and how he's been working on it...

Museum of Performance + Design Lauds SF Ballet's Artistic Director for Leadership in the Arts

The 100th anniversary of the birth of choreographer Merce Cunningham has inspired many events to celebrate his work. Director Alla Kovgan's 93-minute documentary Cunningham brings together his dances with archival footage and audio of Cunningham, from 1942 to 1972, into an aesthetic collage with 3D touches. Kovgan wrote and directed the film...

December 13, 2019—Now in its 25th year, Smuin Ballet's The Christmas Ballet has become a treasured experience as well as a tradition. This season Smuin has performed The Christmas Ballet in Walnut Creek and Mountain View; last night was opening night at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

December 12, 2019—A gathering of Claras, showers of red and white balloons, nostalgic scenes of San Francisco, exuberant dancing, and an enthusiastic audience all contributed to yesterday's opening night of the 75th anniversary of America's first full-length Nutcracker. On Christmas Eve, 1944, San Francisco Ballet launched what would become one of...

On Christmas Eve, 1944, San Francisco Ballet launched an American tradition by presenting the country's first full-length Nutcracker. Fittingly, the tradition has a distinguished pedigree—the then Artistic Director Lew Christensen prepared for the ballet by consulting George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova, who were visiting San Francisco...

For the past eighty years the dance program at Mills College in Oakland has distinguished itself as a pioneering force in moving beyond artistic conventions. Ann Murphy, Head of the Mills College Dance and Theater Studies Department, talked with BayDance.com's Michael Phelan recently to discuss the dance program's venerable roots, its challenges,...

The Creative Process and Choreographing for Disabled Dancers