Dana Genshaft Honored with Princess Grace Award

San Francisco July 26, 2018—San Francisco Ballet School has announced that faculty member and former San Francisco Ballet Soloist Dana Genshaft has been selected by the Princess Grace Foundation to receive the Princess Grace Award in Choreography. The award includes financial assistance and support as an emerging choreographer.

A native of Moscow, Genshaft trained at the Kirov Academy of Ballet, School of American Ballet, and Paris Opera Ballet School. She became an apprentice with San Francisco Ballet in 2000 and became a member of the corps de ballet 2001. She was promoted to soloist in 2008. She has performed lead roles in Ashton's Monotones I; Elo's Double Evil; McGregor's Eden/Eden; Morris' Pacific, Maelstrom, and A Garden; Tomasson's 7 for Eight; Welch's Naked; Wheeldon's Carousel (A Dance) © and Within the Golden Hour©; as well as a singing role as Rosalia in Robbins' West Side Story Suite. In addition, she originated roles in Caniparoli's Ibsen's House and Morris' Joyride.

Following her retirement from the Company in 2015, Genshaft became a faculty member of San Francisco Ballet School, where she has taught contemporary repertory, conditioning, and choreography. She has choreographed for the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company and James Sofranko's SFDanceworks, among others.

The Princess Grace Foundation identifies and assists emerging artists in theater, dance, and film by awarding grants in the form of scholarships, apprenticeships, and fellowships. Since its inception, the Foundation has given awards to nearly 800 recipients. Notable winners in dance and choreography include Robert Battle, Gillian Murphy, Tiler Peck, Kyle Abraham, and Michelle Dorrance, and San Francisco Ballet Principal Joseph Walsh. For more information, see pgfusa.org.