San Francisco Ballet - Opening Night Gala

San Francisco Ballet
2025 Opening Night Gala
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
January 22, 2025

It was not lost on San Francisco Ballet patrons that this year’s opening night gala fell on an auspicious date – January two, two. An ideal frame to launch the company’s 2025 season, under the Artistic Direction of Tamara Rojo. Gala performances often take a ‘sampler’ style format, allowing the audience to preview upcoming programs as well as experience works that won’t appear in the coming months. This latter set allows the viewer to see the breadth of style, genre and tone that comprises any group’s repertoire. We saw both camps on Wednesday night, and just like most seasons, there were noteworthy and less bright moments.

Jasmine Jimison and Max Cauthorn in MacMillan's Manon
Photo Lindsey Rallo

The opener, the pas de deux from Act I of Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, danced by Jasmine Jimison and Max Cauthorn was a highlight. MacMillan’s choreography has an understated elegance – clean, tidy lines, not an ostentatious or fussy motion in sight. Yet, it still manages to be undeniably charged with passion; certainly not an easy task to balance. The Hungarian Dance from Act III of Raymonda gave the corps de ballet their chance to shine, led by Kamryn Baldwin and Nathaniel Remez. Featuring ample body percussion, batterie, dramatic extensions and parallel positioning, the ensemble character work was delightful and fun. A great reminder for the viewer that ballet doesn’t have to be heady or heavy. 

Frances Chung and Harrison James absolutely charmed in Ben Stevenson’s Three Preludes, a duet that tells of a relationship based on shared experience and shared vocabulary. It’s a beautiful ballet and Chung and James were sublime. Both dancers were back on the War Memorial Opera House in later duets, Chung teaming up with Joseph Walsh in Liam Scarlett’s No Man’s Land and Harrison partnering WanTing Zhao in Christopher Wheeldon’s After The Rain. No Man’s Land was cinematic, epic, and sweepingly romantic. Yes, it was a tale of love, passion and desire, but it was deeper than that – a comment on total, resolute adoration. 

WanTing Zhao and Harrison James in Wheeldon's After the Rain©
Photo Lindsey Rallo

I have to confess that I haven’t been the biggest fan of the pas de deux from Wheeldon’s After the Rain. I couldn’t ever put my finger on why because everyone else seemed to love it. But whenever I saw the dance, I thought it to be pretty, but not transformational. Not exquisite. Turns out it just took the right combination of dancers, and it was Zhao and James. They were stunning, full stop. And their performance allowed the narrative tones and qualities of After the Rain to emerge. It read as a true personification of grace – sometimes small, sometimes vast; sometimes planned, sometimes by accident. Grounded or in flight. Beautifully ordinary and expansively extraordinary. 

Three of the offerings, while impeccably danced, were less successful programmatically. Esteban Hernández’ solo from Hans van Manen’s 5 Tango’s paired fierce technical precision with quiet pedestrianism. The pas de deux from Akram Khan’s Dust was full of contorted, tortured movements and pained contractions. Almost primal in nature, a tone of despair and disbelief soared, as did the magnetic pull between Dores André and Victor Prigent. A highly contemporary work, the robotic and angular choreography from Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, danced by Nikisha Fogo and Cavan Conley, took viewers toward the future. But all three needed a larger container. Without the whole of each piece, they were difficult to read. Not all excerpts work in isolation, and these three definitely needed more context. 

SFB’s Gala closed with a bang, the final sections of George Balanchine’s Symphony in C. Here was the epitome of neo-classical choreography. Virtuosic speeds alongside the marriage of movement and music. A truly ‘ta-da’ ballet. Symphony in C is a huge ensemble piece, and new entrances kept coming and coming and coming. Principals, soloists, corps, eventually totaling over fifty dancers on the stage. It did feel a little crowded, but at the same time, it’s hard to ignore the phenomenal attention to patterning and dance architecture when constructing a piece with such an enormous cast.