{"id":424200,"date":"2026-08-05T05:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T05:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/424200\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T05:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T05:30:13","slug":"the-san-francisco-ballet-returns-to-jacobs-pillow-for-the-first-time-in-70-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/424200\/","title":{"rendered":"The San Francisco Ballet returns to Jacob\u2019s Pillow for the first time in 70 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seventy years ago, San Francisco Ballet was mostly a regional company, admired and respected but little known outside the West and Midwest. That all changed when Ted Shawn brought the company to the Jacob\u2019s Pillow<\/a> Dance Festival in the summer of 1956, helping expose the company\u2019s talents to a packed house of dance lovers and critics from the East Coast and beyond. The troupe\u2019s knockout performances of eight ballets over three programs helped significantly elevate its national profile and launch its visibility abroad. Critics extolled the dancers\u2019 youthful beauty and exuberance, stylistic unity, and elegant technique. London\u2019s Dancing Times called them \u201cexpertly drilled and beautifully disciplined,\u201d and Newsweek proclaimed, \u201cThe Company which had once been a source of regional pride has now matured into a national asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast forward seven decades and San Francisco Ballet<\/a>, which returns to Jacob\u2019s Pillow this week for the first time since that auspicious debut, is now America\u2019s longest-running professional ballet company and one of the world\u2019s most internationally acclaimed dance organizations. Jacob\u2019s Pillow executive director Pam Tatge calls it \u201ca remarkable homecoming\u201d of a company born in 1933, the same year Jacob\u2019s Pillow was founded, as well as a rare opportunity \u2014 the last time the full troupe toured to the East Coast was 2018.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Ballet is known for sustaining beloved classical traditions (they were the first to bring an annual holiday \u201cNutcracker\u201d to US audiences) while also commissioning and supporting new works that move the art of ballet forward. Jacob\u2019s Pillow specifically requested a repertory program that would showcase the stylistic diversity and depth of the company. The mixed program in the Ted Shawn Theatre will feature live accompaniment for select works by 22 members of the Grammy Award-winning Albany Symphony and choreography by Hans van Manen, Helgi T\u00f3masson, company artistic director Tamara Rojo, George Balanchine, Akram Khan, and William Forsythe.<\/p>\n

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Tatge says the wide-ranging program also highlights the company\u2019s eloquence across a spectrum of emotional tones. She cites the work of Dutch choreographer van Manen, who passed last year. \u201cHis work is so at once intimate and grand. The first half of the program in the Shawn opens with his \u2018Grosse Fuge,\u2019 which is rarely performed and showcases the incredible breadth of expressiveness of this company. Set to Beethoven, it\u2019s just a glorious work. Then to bookend with Forsythe, and in between classical pieces like Balanchine\u2019s \u2018Diamonds\u2019\u201d and a duet from Akram Khan\u2019s \u2018Dust.\u2019 It\u2019s really a range of work that [illuminates] what this level of dancer can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expanding the company\u2019s presence at the festival, programs also will be presented on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage (indoors if weather is inclement) and feature live piano accompaniment. Performances include pieces by Ben Stevenson, van Manen, Liam Scarlett, Marius Petipa, and Sir Frederick Ashton. Tatge is especially excited by the prospect of seeing Ashton\u2019s \u201cFive Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora\u201d set against the open-air backdrop of the Berkshire Hills. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be stunning for audiences,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

An engagement of this magnitude is an impressive feat for Jacob\u2019s Pillow. \u201cIt\u2019s a heavy lift to bring a ballet company from the West Coast,\u201d Tatge says. However, she says it affirms the festival\u2019s commitment to including one major signature program every year. \u201cIt really forwards our presence as the national dance center and one of the most important international festivals in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seventy years ago, San Francisco Ballet was mostly a regional company, admired and respected but little known outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[232,169206,169207,7244,169208,169209,101,26971,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-424200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-232","tag-dress-rehearsal","tag-dutch-grandmaster","tag-group","tag-program-5","tag-repertory","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-ballet","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}