The first season programmed by San Francisco Ballet’snew Artistic Director Tamara Rojowill launch with a bold interdisciplinary collaboration connecting the ramifications of artificial intelligence to the myth of Pandora’s box before moving on to more traditional programs featuring ballets by Kenneth MacMillan and Frederick Ashton, a double bill of works by Latina choreographers, and a presentation offormer artistic director Helgi Tomasson’s production of “Swan Lake,” the company announced Thursday, April 20.
“Mere Mortals,” the world premiere planned to open the company’s 91st season on Jan. 26, will be choreographed by the Canadian-born Aszure Barton, with music by the popular electronic composer Floating Points, also known as Sam Shepherd. Rojo herself brought the collaborators together, first reaching out to Shepherd, a DJ with a doctorate in neuroscience who attended English National Ballet programs in London when Rojo was artistic director there.
“Sam and I used to talk about how to bring new audiences to ballets, what kinds of stories to tell,” Rojo told The Chronicle. “He seemed to me a great fit for San Francisco because he’s entrenched in classicism but also innovative.”
After conversations with Shepherd, Rojo said, “I wanted a choreographer of equal artistic weight.” Acclaimed for her layered, visceral movement style, Barton has created or set her works on companies ranging from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to Rojo’s own English National Ballet, which commissioned Barton in 2016.
With “Mere Mortals,” Barton will become the first female choreographer commissioned to create a full-length work at San Francisco Ballet.
Rojo first saw Barton’s work more than 15 years ago and realized that “even early in her career, her work had such individuality — I never forgot it,” Rojo said.
“She has ideas about what she wants the work to be, but she’s not linear in her process. She gets to know the dancers’ strengths deeply, so everyone looks amazing.”
Shepherd and Barton will work with Barcelona, Spain-based light and sound design firm Hamill Industries, which will create an “immersive environment.” The theme of AI and Pandora’s box emerged among the collaborators over a series of conversations. (The Ballet’s marketing team has experience with AI controversy, having drawn criticism for using AI-generated art in an advertising campaign last year.)
“AI is the story on everyone’s minds right now, but we didn’t want the ballet to be instantly dated,” Rojo said of “Mere Mortals.” “The deeper story is the moral questions we felt humanity and society should be asking itself, and that naturally landed in Pandora’s myth.”
Later programming for the 2024 season aims to balance “innovation and excellence in the classical canon,” Rojo said.
After the return of Tomasson’s “Nutcracker” at the War Memorial Opera House (Dec. 13-30), the 2024 season is set to launch Jan. 24 with the company’s traditional gala.
“英国图标,”第二个项目计划在the season, draws on Rojo’s performance career at the U.K.’s Royal Ballet, where MacMillan and Ashton works are bedrocks of the repertory. Danced in simple practice clothes, MacMillan’s “Song of the Earth,” to a Mahler song cycle, traverses episodes of love and loss and draws on Japanese Noh and Kabuki theater. Ashton’s dramatic “Marguerite and Armand,” to an orchestra arrangement of a Liszt piano sonata, is based on the Dumas novel “Lady of the Camellias,” and was created in 1963 as a vehicle for ballet superstars Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev.
“British Icons” is scheduled to run Feb. 9-15.
Feb. 23 to March 3 will bring the return of Tomasson’s “Swan Lake.” Then, opening March 12, the choreography of New York City Ballet founder George Balanchine will be represented by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” whichthe company last danced live in 2020, just before the pandemic shutdown. The 2024 presentation will include lavish costumes by Christian LaCroix, on loan from the Paris Opera Ballet and never before presented in a U.S. production.
From April 4 to 14, the double bill “Dos Mujeres” returns the spotlight to female choreographers, unveiling a world premiere, “Carmen” by Cuban-born choreographer Arielle Smith, alongside the company premiere of “Broken Wings,” Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s balletic depiction of the life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. “Broken Wings” was a hit at English National Ballet, where Rojo commissioned and starred in Ochoa’s work.
“Dos Mujeres” is planned to alternate with “next@90Curtain Call,” an encore selection of ballets from the Ballet’s 2023 new works festival. Three of the festival’s nine commissions —Yuri Possokhov’s “Violin Concerto,”Nicolas Blanc’s “Gateway to the Sun”andDanielle Rowe’s “Madcap”— will be reprised.
In late April 2024, the Ballet also plans encore performances to be announced. One of these encores will be “Swan Lake,” featuring international guest artists, while the other encore will be determined as the season progresses.
“I want to listen to our audience, hear what they would like to see again,” Rojo said.
The company plans to announce its updated dancer roster in late May or early June.
Rachel Howard is a freelance writer.