Smuin Contemporary Ballet, formerly known as Smuin Ballet, [1] is a touring ballet company based in San Francisco, California. [2] Smuin Ballet performs its season in multiple venues: the Dean Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, [3] [4] the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in Mountain View, the Sunset Center in Carmel, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and The Palace of Fine Arts Theater [5] in San Francisco. [6]
Michael Smuin, a former dancer, choreographer [7] and co-artistic director [8] with the San Francisco Ballet and an award-winning choreographer, [9] founded Smuin Contemporary Ballet in 1994. [10]
Then known as Smuin Ballet, [1] the "American ballet company with a distinctly American accent… infused ballet with the rhythm, speed, and syncopation of American popular culture.” [11] Michael Smuin created about 40 ballets for the Smuin Ballet company. [12] After his sudden passing in 2007, Smuin's longtime “muse and mainstay,” [13] Celia Fushille, was named Artistic Director of Smuin. [14] [15] [16] As a founding member of the company, Fushille created roles in some of Michael Smuin's most memorable ballets, from the romantic Roxane in Cyrano to the lusty Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel. Fushille's vision for the Company, beyond the role of conservator and prime presenter of Michael Smuin’s ballets, is to bring to the stage new works by both world-renowned and emerging choreographers, as well as support young aspiring choreographers within the Smuin company. [17]
Smuin performs over 60 shows per season in theaters throughout San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Mountain View, and Carmel. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Smuin also tours across the country to venues including the Joyce Theater in New York; Montana, Michael Smuin's home state; southern California; Colorado; and Alaska, [20] as well as throughout Europe and Australia. [20]
Smuin has launched over 50 new works into the American dance repertoire, including many choreographed by Michael Smuin, as well as over 10 ballets created by Amy Seiwert, Smuin's Choreographer in Residence. [21] Many notable choreographers such as Trey McIntyre, Helen Pickett, Ma Cong, Adam Houghland, and Val Caniparoli have premiered works with Smuin. Many of the choreographers have also given Smuin the opportunity to perform their works, including Jiří Kylián, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Matthew Neenan, and more. [21]
In February 2023, Dance Data Project announced the results from its first Gender Equity Index for the 50 largest U.S. ballet companies. Smuin Ballet was ranked "Best of Leadership" and “Exceptional.” [22] [23]
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca, the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 by artistic director Hope Muir. Renowned for its diverse repertoire, the company performs traditional full-length classics, embraces contemporary work and encourages the creation of new ballets, as well as the development of Canadian dancers and choreographers.
Mark William Morris is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments. Morris is popular among dance aficionados, the music world, as well as mainstream audiences.
San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, and effective December 2022 under the direction of Tamara Rojo. It is among the world's leading dance companies, presenting more than 100 performances annually, with a repertoire that spans both classical and contemporary ballet. Along with American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet has been described as part of the "triumvirate of great classical companies defining the American style on the world stage today."
Michael Smuin was an American ballet dancer, choreographer and theatre director. He was co-founder and director of his own dance company, the Smuin Ballet in San Francisco.
Lawrence Pech is a dancer, choreographer and teacher currently living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards or Izzies honor San Francisco Bay Area dance artists for outstanding achievements in a range of categories including: choreography, sustained achievement, individual performance, company performance, costume design, and set design. The awards are presented annually and named in honor of Isadora Duncan. The awards began in 1986 and were revitalized in 2004 via a partnership with Bay Area National Dance Week after a slump due, in part, to a perceived lack of credibility.
ODC, formerly the Oberlin Dance Collective, is a contemporary dance and arts organization founded in 1971, in Oberlin, Ohio, by current artistic director Brenda Way. ODC relocated to San Francisco in 1976 and in 1979 became the first modern dance company in America to build its own facility, from which it still operates. ODC comprises ODC/Dance, its contemporary dance company, ODC Theater, and ODC School, which provides classes and training for youth, teen, and adult dancers.
Robert Garland is the artistic director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, where he was a principal dancer and their first official resident choreographer. He has also choreographed for the New York City Ballet, The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and the Oakland Ballet, among many others.
The Museum of Performance + Design, formerly the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum, is located in the Bayview District of San Francisco, California at 2200 Jerrold Avenue, Ste. T. The Museum collects and makes accessible materials about the performing arts, with a special emphasis on documenting and preserving the San Francisco Bay Area’s rich and diverse performing arts heritage from the Gold Rush to the present. The museum produces public and educational programs, provides library services to researchers, and conservation and archival services to performing arts institutions. The Museum's collection includes personal papers of prominent artists, original costumes and design renderings, audio-visual recordings of live performances, original artwork, other artifacts, and ephemera. The Museum also serves as the official archives for many local performing arts organizations including the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, Stern Grove Festival, and the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival.
The Oakland Ballet Company is a non-profit ballet company based in Oakland, California. OBC was founded in 1965 by Ronn Guidi, an Oakland native, and gained recognition through its historical reconstructions of ballets from the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev; the mounting of classic works of Americana; and the creation of innovative contemporary choreography.
Colorado Ballet encompasses a 31-member professional performing ballet company, a studio company for advanced dance students, an academy, and an education and outreach department. Based in downtown Denver, Colorado, Colorado Ballet serves more than 125,000 patrons each year.
Danielle Rowe is an Australian-born ballet dancer and choreographer.
Susan Jaffe is an American ballet dancer and arts administrator. She is currently the artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre, where she had danced for 22 years and held the rank of principal dancer. She previously served as the dean of the School of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the artistic director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
National Choreographers Initiative (NCI) is a non-profit dance organization based in Irvine, California, that promotes the development of choreographers from all over the United States in the professional ballet world. NCI hosts a three-week workshop with selected professional dancers, who have auditioned from various ballet companies throughout the United States. The choreographers each produce a work in progress, which are then showcased at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. These performances are open to the public and are held every year in late July. National Choreographers Initiative was founded in 2004 by Molly Lynch. The rehearsals and dancer accommodations are hosted by the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine campus.
San Francisco Ballet School was founded in 1933 as part of the San Francisco Operatic and Ballet School when Gaetano Merola, the founder of the San Francisco Opera, perceived a need for an institution where dancers could be trained to perform in opera productions.
Val Caniparoli is an American ballet dancer and international choreographer. His work includes more than 100 productions for ballet, opera, and theater for over 50 companies, and his career as a choreographer progressed globally even as he continued his professional dance career with the San Francisco Ballet.
Darren John Anderson is an internationally acclaimed ballet dancer. He is also known for his work in contemporary and classical choreography.
Evelyn Cisneros-Legate is an American ballerina. Evelyn, who is Mexican American, is considered the first prima ballerina in the United States of Hispanic heritage. She holds an honorary doctorate from Mills College and the University of California at Monterey Bay.
Amy Seiwert is an American contemporary ballet choreographer and artistic director. She is the founder and artistic director of Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, a contemporary ballet company in San Francisco.