San Francisco Ballet Reveals 2024-25 Season

San Francisco Ballet has announced its 2024–2025 season that showcases works in contemporary and classical ballet, cross-disciplinary creative partnerships in fashion, music, and visual art, and company premieres of works not often staged in the U.S.

Curated by Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, the season furthers the organization’s vision of defining the future of ballet by uplifting the voices of today’s most inventive dancemakers, celebrating the legacies of ballet visionaries, and expanding the company’s classical lexicon. Programs include high drama story ballets envisioned by Rojo and Sir Kenneth MacMillan; a quartet of ballets by Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen; and works by innovative contemporary choreographers Christopher Wheeldon, Akram Khan, Wayne McGregor, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. The company also announced its first international tour since 2019, to the Teatro Real in Madrid, as well as its roster, which includes returning principal dancers Dores André and Max Cauthorn as well as newly-promoted and appointed soloists and corps de ballet dancers.

SF Ballet’s 24/25 Season will include:

• Manon, a devastating and dramatic ballet and one of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s most widely celebrated works, which will be performed for the first time by SF Ballet. Manon delves into human psychology and explores the juxtaposition between Manon’s impoverished origins and the lavish world she longs to inhabit;
• Cool Britannia, a triple bill celebrating the new wave of boundary-pushing British voices with Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, and the North American premiere of Akram Khan’s Dust;
• Tamara Rojo’s own Raymonda, a lavish reclamation of one of ballet’s timeless classics that celebrates the best of Marius Petipa’s original ballet and Alexander Glazunov’s sumptuous score in a dramatic, contemporary story;
• The return of Liam Scarlett’s Frankenstein to San Francisco, an emotional tale of life, death, love, and identity featuring sensational choreography, cinematic design, special effects, pyrotechnics, and a haunting original score;
• A tribute to the “grandmaster of contemporary ballet” with a curated selection of four works by Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen, including the San Francisco premiere of his critically acclaimed 5 Tango’s;
• Broken Love, a double bill of two standout hits from the 2024 season, Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Broken Wings; and
• The beloved family holiday favorite Nutcracker, set in San Francisco and honoring the company’s legacy as the first to present a full-length production.

Additionally, this season will feature San Francisco Ballet’s first tour since 2019 with eight performances of Helgi Tomasson’s Swan Lake at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain from October 15-22.

“Across an extraordinary 2024 season, I have been deeply inspired by the incredibly talented artists of our world-renowned company and our audiences in San Francisco. In 2025, SF Ballet will explore a range of choreographic and artistic styles and deliver profound human connections through dance—from seduction to heartbreak, and from stories of conflict to gothic science-fiction,” said Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet. “I am thrilled to expand the classical repertoire for SF Ballet with works that showcase the brilliance of our dancers, while continuing to engage fresh perspectives and uplift the artistry of leading creatives from around the world.”
 

As part of its longstanding mission to foster innovation and new works, as well as rising choreographic talent, San Francisco Ballet will continue to provide a broad portfolio of career-enhancing creative opportunities through Creation House—the company’s first formal choreographic initiative launched in 2024—focusing specifically on choreography and new work development for company members, SF Ballet School students, and guest artists. Through programs including the Choreographic Residencies and ChoreoLabs, SF Ballet company members and visiting choreographers will have more opportunities to develop new work with the company. Most recently, SF Ballet Principal Dancer Esteban Hernández has been selected to create a piece for the SF Ballet School Trainees, which will become part of their touring repertoire during the 24/25 Season.

San Francisco Ballet Partners with FAMSF

SF Ballet is thrilled to announce an annual partnership with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), commissioning local talent to create a new stage drape for a production every season. This collaboration aims to infuse new perspectives into the world of ballet while fostering visual artists and enriching the cultural landscape of the Bay Area.To commence this annual initiative, FAMSF has acquired the stage drop created by Oakland-based artist Maria A. Guzmán Capron for SF Ballet’s recent Dos Mujeres program into its permanent collection. Future stage drops created through this partnership will pair with one of the programs in SF Ballet’s repertory season and will be considered for acquisition by FAMSF. Details on a potential stage drop commission for the 24/25 Season are to come.

Roster & Artistic Team

SF Ballet also looks forward to welcoming to the company, and welcoming back, established artists and emerging talent, including the return of Dores André and Max Cauthorn as principal dancers; the promotion of SF Ballet corps de ballet members Kamryn Baldwin, Carmela Mayo, and Joshua Jack Price to Soloist; and the appointment of soloists Fernando Carratalá Coloma and Victor Prigent, both from English National Ballet. Additionally, SF Ballet Apprentices Sofia Albers, Jacey Gailliard, and Dylan Pierzina have been promoted to the corps de ballet, and Rebecca Blenkinsop (English National Ballet), Jakub Groot (Czech National Ballet), Lucas López (Joffrey Studio Company), Archie Sullivan (English National Ballet), and Juliette Windey have been appointed to the corps de ballet. Six SF Ballet School Trainees have been named apprentices for the 24/25 Season: Maya Chandrashekaran, Carlota Cruz, Emmitt Friedman, Justin-Cooper Meeks, Ben Taber, and Juliana Wilder. The roster is effective beginning July 1, 2024. 
 

The company and school will be led by Tamara Rojo alongside a team including recently appointed Associate Artistic Director Antonio Castilla, Director of Artist Development Kerry Nicholls, and Director of SF Ballet School Grace Maduell Holmes.
 

SF Ballet performs with the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Ballet Orchestra throughout the season, under the direction of Music Director Martin West.

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