Sometimes delayed gratification is more meaningful — and two years after the last in-person San Francisco Ballet gala both the delay and the gratification were appropriately grand at“La Grande Fête.”
The gala, which returned at the War Memorial Opera House and City Hall on Thursday, March 24, was originally planned for Jan. 27 but was pushed back due to concerns over the omicron variant surge. The night was Artistic DirectorHelgi Tomasson’s final gala before his retirement at the end of the season after 37 years, but it also markedDanielle St. Germain-Gordon’s first as the Ballet’s new executive director, a role she had filled as interim for nine months after the abrupt exit ofKelly Tweeddale。事件在一个神奇的复出,圣通用电气rmain-Gordon reported “La Grande Fête” was the highest-earning gala in the ballet’s 89-year history, making more than $3.3 million to benefit artistic and educational programs, including helping to cover housing costs for student dancers.
In what felt like a return to normal, guests partied mostly unmasked (after providing proof of vaccine, dinner attendees also showed a negative COVID test provided by the Ballet, which instructed attendees to dinner take it within 24 hours of the event). But the company also acknowledged that the world is not entirely as it was in January 2020.
Throughout the evening, there were reminders of the ongoing war in Ukraine, ranging from sartorial tributes like blue and yellow Ukrainian flag ribbons to gowns in the country’s colors. Dr. Kerstin Rosen even brought a flag emblazoned with the words “I stand with Ukraine” that she unfurled on the steps at City Hall during dinner, while fellow attendee Tanum Davis Bohen completed her blue and gold gown with a headpiece reminiscent of traditional Ukrainian floral crowns.
San Francisco Ballet’s ‘La Grande Fete’ gala marks full return of live dance to the city
The program itself included three world premieres, with two by choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Possokhov, who both grew up in the country and still have family there. Board co-chair Robert G. Shaw noted that “Helgi is very close to the choreographers, the dancers and our staff that have ties to Ukraine.” In a moving gesture, Tomasson dedicated the night’s performance to the people of Ukraine, before the orchestra played a rousing rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem as the country’s flag was projected onscreen.
To keep guests on their toes — if not en pointe — the gala flipped its usual format. Following a Champagne reception in the Opera House, guests adjourned to the performance followed by dinner at City Hall. Even with all that’s going on in the world, including in Washington, D.C., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made an under-the-radar appearance.
Here are a few more of the evening’s highlights:
Backstage
Before the curtain rose, dancers warmed up on the stage as they awaited the arrival of Tomasson.
主要舞者多尔安德烈,choreogr初次登台apher Myles Thatcher’s “Drum Roll, Please!,” remarked that the night “felt special, privileged” after the pandemic delays. After 19 years at the company, André added she will miss Tomasson because as an artistic director “he cares about different things than other people care about.”
Of note: Earlier in the season, André played the title role in the world premiere of “Mrs. Robinson” (based on “The Graduate”) and brought so much heat to her performance I worried she would set her co-star on fire.
Fashion
晚会的着装正式“节日attire,” and guests spanned classic black tie and gowns to creative athleisure like Smuin Ballet dancer Max Forman-Mullin’s sparkling Barabas track suit. Mary Beth Shimmon opted for a vintage, gold Christian Dior turban that felt appropriately Diaghilev for a ballet gala. Another dance world favorite, poofs of tulle and chiffon, made a massive enough comeback that the stairs at City Hall at times resembled Britex with the amount of fabric trailing behind guests.
Dancer Christopher Ouellette, an alumnus of the famous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo drag dance company, was one of several guests who opted for gender-blending chic in a tuxedo-gown combination with a painted-on beard.
Mixing formal with fetishwear, choreographer Thatcher chose a shorts suit with a yellow cord harness visible under his jacket.
“A couple people asked me if it was Dior,” Thatcher said of the harness. “It’s DIY-ior — I made it myself.”
Dinner and decor
The park between the Opera House and Veterans Building was outfitted with a gold carpet for arrivals. Amid the Parisian-inspired floral displays by J. Riccardo Benavides in the lobby, René Rodman Diamond received guests and joked that she held the distinction of being “the longest-standing gala chair in San Francisco Ballet history” given that she was originally intended to hold the position at the canceled 2021 in-person gala.
“My (gala) committee of 25 stayed by my side for two years,” Diamond said. “At one point in 2021 we were thinking of doing it outside, then when the (omicron) variant came we decided to go back to City Hall in 2022 when things were safe. It feels like everything came to a head.”
After the performance, Van Ness between Grove and McAllister was closed (don’t worry, it’s not more construction) to allow guests to cross to City Hall for dinner. Watching the formally attired hordes flood the avenue is always its own moment of choreography.
Inside City Hall, Benavides’ decor was inspired by one of Tomasson’s favorite ballets, “Don Quixote,” and included three fabric-rose-covered panels in homage to a costume worn in the production, which made its season premiere last month.
“There’s 5,000 roses on each panel and three panels overall, that’s 15,000 roses,” Benavides said. ”I love highlighting these iconic pieces from the ballets and giving them new life.”
The menu by McCalls Catering & Events included salad with smoked trout and apple, truffled duxelles guinea hen roulade, and a chocolate hazelnut dacquoise with Burgundy poached pear cassis.
Tomasson’s legacy
The final words of the night belong to Tomasson, who quipped that even though “he barely made the performance” because of traffic, he felt fantastic given the warm responses from audiences all season.
Among the legacies he’s most proud of in his nearly four decades at the San Francisco Ballet are the dancers from the company who have gone on to be artistic directors in other cities — among them Ashley Wheater at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, Mikko Nissinen at the Boston Ballet, and Gennadi Nedvigin at the Atlanta Ballet.
When contemplating the past two years of the pandemic and the situation in Ukraine, Tomasson said it was a reminder “that we need art more than ever before, not only in this country but in the world. It’s a great healing process.”
Editor’s note: This story has been been updated to specify the Ballet’s vaccine and testing requirements, and the details of Nancy Pelosi’s attendance.