As noted in an earlier post, SF Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, in his 37th and final season, presented Program 1 last Tuesday to critical acclaim. The same reception is expected for the most recent production.
San Francisco Ballet opened its Program Two 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.