San Francisco Ballet | Mixed Repertory: Working Rehearsal

San Francisco Ballet

Cue sheet FOR STUDENTS

Working R ehearsal

S

an Francisco Ballet, founded in 1933, is the nation’s oldest professional ballet company.

Though initially focused to train dancers to appear in opera productions, it soon began to present all-dance programs. The company played an influential role in establishing ballet as a popular dance form in the United States, performing the first American presentations of many ballets that are now considered classics, including Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

In honor of its 75th anniversary season, San Francisco Ballet is conducting a national tour of ballets from their New Works Festival. The festival featured premieres of ten new ballets by ten major choreographers—including Mark Morris’ Joyride

and Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, both of which will be performed here at the Kennedy Center. The company will also perform The Four Temperaments, a classic ballet by George Balanchine, whose pioneering choreography helped pave the way for the newer works.

What is a Working Rehearsal?

Touring artists often have little time before their first performance to get to know an unfamiliar theater.

A Working Rehearsal is a time for a company to work out last-minute details, get used to a new dance space, and refine sections of their program.

There are sometimes interruptions for technical adjustments, but usually, a Working Rehearsal looks like any other performance.

San Francisco Ballet in Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour. Photo © Erik Tomasson

Mixed Repertory: Program Notes Joyride

Choreography by Mark Morris, Music by John Adams

Professionally trained in Balkan folkdance, flamenco, modern dance, and ballet, Mark Morris is known for choreography that shows his ingenuity, humor, and diverse inspirations. Since 1994, Morris has created seven works on the San Francisco Ballet, including Joyride, an ultra-modern ballet with a futuristic, urban feel. An ensemble of eight dancers, clad in sleek, metallic leotards, move in time with John Adams’ high-energy musical score, revealing a variety of interconnecting shapes and movements.

Listen and Watch for… how the music shifts and changes beats throughout the ballet, and how the dancers movements adapt to these changes.

Within the Golden Hour Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon, Music by Ezio Bosso

Born in 1973, Christopher Wheeldon began studying ballet at age eight. He danced for the Royal Ballet and the New York City Ballet before trying his hand at choreography in 1997.

Wheeldon’s choreography combines characteristics of classical ballet with modern dance, especially his incorporation of the dancers’ use of the floor.

Within the Golden Hour is shaped around four pas de deux (PAH-d’-DUEH), with each of the partners playing out a series of variations on romance. From the French, meaning literally, ‘step for two’, a pas de deux is designed to show the virtuosity and interplay of the ballerina and her partner. Whether telling a story through mime, or creating purely architectural shapes, the dancers are working together to communicate the choreographer’s vision.

Watch for… the complete synergy of lighting, costume, music, and movement which combine to create the mood of the work.

The Four Temperaments

Stephen A. Schwarzman Chairman Michael M. Kaiser President Darrell M. Ayers Vice President, Education Cuesheets are funded in part through the support of the U.S. Department of Education; Verizon Foundation; Estate of Joseph R. Applegate; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; the Carter and Melissa Cafritz Charitable Trust; Citi Foundation; DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Mr. Martin K. Alloy and Ms. Daris M. Clifton; the Harris Family Foundation; Newman’s Own Foundation; the Clark Winchcole Foundation; Chevy Chase Bank; The Clark Charitable Foundation, and the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts.

Choreography by George Balanchine, Music by Paul Hindemith

George Balanchine was the most prolific, and often considered the most influential, ballet choreographer of the 20th century. He revolutionized classical ballet by eliminating complex plots and emphasizing movement that expressed music. Balanchine created more than 400 ballets and founded the New York City Ballet. His artistry and fresh approach helped popularize ballet in the United States.

One of Balanchine’s earliest experimental works, The Four Temperaments is inspired by the four humors of medieval psychology: melancholic, sanguinc, phlegmatic and choleric.

Each represents a different temperament, or personality.

Watch for… the ways the dancers embody the psychological and emotional characteristics of each of these temperaments: Humor

Melancholic

Characteristics

Depressive, despondent, gloomy

Sanguinic

Courageous, passionate

Phlegmatic

Unemotional, passive

Choleric

Ill-tempered, easily angered

Expressed through...

weighted down or burdened movements that stretch upward but then fall back to the ground weightless and airy movements that are bold and energetic

drooping movements that are often unnatural or odd, with the arms and hips off-kilter

uncomfortable movements that have an agitated quality to them

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For more information about the performing arts and arts education, visit us at www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org © 2008, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The U.S. Department of Education supports approximately one-third of the budget for the Kennedy Center Education Department. The contents of this Cuesheet do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.