San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) has launched Creation House, a brand new multifaceted initiative providing SF Ballet firm members, SF Ballet School college students, and visitor artists an expansive portfolio of career-enhancing inventive alternatives with a concentrate on choreography and new work improvement. The initiative’s 4 strands — Choreographic Residencies, the Choreographic Exchange and Physical Play workshops, ChoreoLabs, and the SF Ballet School Choreographic Program — will present area and time for inventive exploration and mentorship throughout the firm, increasing upon SF Ballet’s longstanding dedication to fostering innovation and new works, nurturing rising choreographic expertise, and celebrating collaboration throughout the creative communities of San Francisco and past.
Devised and directed by Artistic Director Tamara Rojo and Associate Artistic Director Kerry Nicholls, the Creation House program will be part of a set of latest skilled improvement initiatives that mirror SF Ballet’s expanded dedication to holistically supporting the careers of dancers throughout the college and the corporate. These will embody alternatives for dancers to take part in a two-year management coaching program, study further roles outdoors of their mainstage casting, and take part in wellness classes with exterior well being and wellbeing practitioners. SF Ballet’s skilled improvement applications, together with Creation House, are designed to ask collaborative partnerships from throughout the Bay Area and across the globe.
“Through the launch of Creation House, SF Ballet will provide both company members and the renowned international choreographers who visit us the opportunities and resources they need to create bold new work with confidence,” Rojo stated. “In my first year as Artistic Director, a core priority has been to expand the resources we offer to our dancers. Taking part in new work development and having access to the choreographic process is invaluable experience for dance artists, and by offering this opportunity to our company members, we will also help SF Ballet identify and invest in the innovative new voices that will further our art form.”
On July 13, Creation House hosted its first Choreographic Exchange session led by Arielle Smith, a visiting choreographer from London who has been commissioned to develop a reimagined Carmen for SF Ballet’s 2024 Season. Smith will lead an off-the-cuff, intimate and inquiry-based session for SF Ballet dancers with an curiosity in choreography, providing perspective into the artist’s inventive course of and her private journey as a maker. Creation House and different skilled improvement actions will proceed to roll out this summer time and throughout the 2024 Season.
The launch of Creation House additionally marks an growth of SF Ballet’s engagement with the native dance neighborhood, significantly by a brand new partnership with ODC/Dance. SF Ballet will co-present ODC’s State of Play Festival and invite ODC artists to take part in upcoming Creation House applications.
“SF Ballet’s new professional development efforts are a commitment to a 360-degree wellness approach for our dancers — not just physical wellbeing, but their mental, professional and artistic wellbeing as well,” added Nicholls. “What’s more, this initiative will open up SF Ballet to the vibrant artistic and professional resources that San Francisco holds. We’re excited to invite new community partners into this ongoing process of learning and development and are greatly enthusiastic to see the results it achieves in the broader dance community as well.”
For extra info on San Francisco Ballet’s Creation House, go to www.sfballet.org/uncover/creation-house.
