Lots of changes at San Francisco Ballet

[alison]

Just catching up with the Links page, and it seems that a lot of change is afoot at SFB:

 

http://www.sfchronicle.com/performance/article/Feijoo-taking-her-final-steps-at-SF-Ballet-11065862.php

 

"Feijoo arrived here 18 years ago, and her retirement is yet another indication that the San Francisco Ballet is evolving rather dramatically these days. Consider that Vanessa Zahorian and husband Davit Karapetyan are also leaving this spring, while at least a half-dozen other principals and soloists, for various reasons, are rumored to be packing their bags.

Last year’s retirement of three stellar males — Joan Boada, Pascal Molat, Gennadi Nedvigin — has left a gap."

 

I've not kept up that well with SFB in recent years, but it does seem rather sad that so many of the dancers whose names I recognise will be - or have already - gone from the roster

[alison]

On 13/04/2017 at 20:18, alison said:

"Consider that Vanessa Zahorian and husband Davit Karapetyan are also leaving this spring,"

 

http://www.sfchronicle.com/performance/article/SF-Ballet-s-royal-couple-retire-with-a-magical-11076912.php

[Melody]

I remember that when Helgi Tomasson arrived at San Franciso in the mid-eighties, he completely remade the company from the ground up, pretty much turning it into a neoclassical company from something that had been a lot more showy and based on story ballets under Michael Smuin. There was quite a bit of bad feeling about the change at the top, and several dancers left or were purged. Over the next decade or so, Tomasson brought in a lot of young dancers and based the repertoire on Balanchine and Forsythe, which was really different from how it had been previously. Maybe what we're seeing now is the retirement of a generation of dancers who arrived there as youngsters during the years of the changeover in the 1990s.

Edited April 18, 2017 by Melody

[Jan McNulty]

This tends to happen though in any company when you have a cluster of dancers who are moving towards retirement around the same time.  

 

It happened a few years ago with BRB.

 

(Posting at the same time as Melody)

Edited April 18, 2017 by Jan McNulty
Added final sentence

[betterankles]

There are many beautiful young dancers at SF Ballet!

[Ian Macmillan]

From today's Links:

 

https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/san-francisco-ballet/a-ballet-couples-loving-swan-song

 

 

[Jane S]

SFB has put online the video shown at Lorena Feijoo's farewell earlier this week it shows her virtuousity but doesn't really bring out the musicality and stage presence which made me a life-time fan within 10 seconds of the first time I saw her, dancing Balanchine's Tchaikowsky pas de deux at the gala that opened SFB's first Sadler's Wells season. She had a grown-up glamour and authority which made me think of the ballerinas of the Ballets Russe era, and of my great regrets is that I didn't see more of her.

[alison]

A year on - and again courtesy of the Links page - another principal is leaving:

 

https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Principal-dancer-Maria-Kochetkova-to-leave-S-F-12838330.php

 

https://www.pointemagazine.com/maria-kochetkova-to-leave-san-francisco-ballet-2560654007.html

 

She doesn't know where she's going yet, apparently, but I'm guessing she won't be severing ties with ABT.  Wherever she goes, I wish her all the best.

[assoluta]

9 hours ago, alison said:

A year on - and again courtesy of the Links page - another principal is leaving:

 

https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Principal-dancer-Maria-Kochetkova-to-leave-S-F-12838330.php

 

https://www.pointemagazine.com/maria-kochetkova-to-leave-san-francisco-ballet-2560654007.html

 

She doesn't know where she's going yet, apparently, but I'm guessing she won't be severing ties with ABT.  Wherever she goes, I wish her all the best.

 

To me it seems that it is rather the Pointe magazine editor who doesn't know...

[MAB]

No one knows, so far she's not telling.

[capybara]

18 minutes ago, MAB said:

No one knows, so far she's not telling.

 

.............. because, no doubt, the company she will be joining isn't ready to make its announcement.

[toursenlair]

maybe she won't be joining a company, perhaps she's just going to freelance

[fromthebalcony]

20 hours ago, alison said:

A year on - and again courtesy of the Links page - another principal is leaving:

 

https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Principal-dancer-Maria-Kochetkova-to-leave-S-F-12838330.php

 

https://www.pointemagazine.com/maria-kochetkova-to-leave-san-francisco-ballet-2560654007.html

 

She doesn't know where she's going yet, apparently, but I'm guessing she won't be severing ties with ABT.  Wherever she goes, I wish her all the best.

She is not slated to dance at ABT for the Met season.  I would imagine if she would be staying with ABT, she would at least be doing several shows.  Speculation on the ballet boards over here is that she will go with Daniil Simkin to Berlin.

[assoluta]

9 hours ago, capybara said:

 

.............. because, no doubt, the company she will be joining isn't ready to make its announcement.

 

.............. or the company she will be joining isn't in habit of making public announcements of this kind.

[Angela]

I think that Staatsballett Berlin, ABT and Simkin himself announced his moving to Berlin on the very same day. So why should the Berlin company keep Kochetkova a secret now? Berlin also has Iana Salenko who is tiny and a perfect partner for Simkin.

[SwissBalletFan]

1 hour ago, assoluta said:

 

.............. or the company she will be joining isn't in habit of making public announcements of this kind.

To me it seems like assoluta knows....and is keeping us guessing.... no clues???

Edited April 18, 2018 by SwissBalletFan

[MAB]

11 hours ago, assoluta said:

 

.............. or the company she will be joining isn't in habit of making public announcements of this kind.

 

A company doesn't announce it's joiners, especially such a high profile dancer as Maria Kotchetkova?  That's a new one on me.

[fromthebalcony]

My guess would be that when they announced Simkin, he had obviously already told ABT/Kevin his plans.  If Masha is going to Berlin, but was not ready to tell SFB/Helgi that she was leaving.   When leaving a company, many dancers wait until contracts are released and then tell their director they will not be signing their contract/returning the following season.  I know that promotion announcements were just made at SFB and contracts were recently released.  Usually, they give dancers a few weeks to return them.  So, perhaps Masha just waited until contracts were due to make her departure known.   

[Angela]

Big companies normally synchronize their press releases about dancers who change from one company to the other, they publish them on the same day.