Annual fundraising dinner on May 22 benefits scholarships and financial aid offered to the School, totaling over $1.5 million annually
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) March 28, 2024 — Tickets are on sale today to SF Ballet School’s 2024 Spring Festival held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, May 22 ̶ 24. The festival’s performances will feature a world premiere by SF Ballet corps de ballet member Pemberley Ann Olson as part of SF Ballet’s Creation House, a new initiative offering SF Ballet company members, SF Ballet School students, and guest artists an expansive portfolio of choreographic opportunities. The Spring Festival is a hallmark occasion for SF Ballet School, America’s oldest professional ballet academy and a distinguished training ground for young dancers, led by SF Ballet Artistic Director Tamara Rojo and SF Ballet School Director Grace Holmes.
A celebratory dinner hosted by the SF Ballet Auxiliary follows the Spring Festival’s opening night performance at the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco. Chaired by Maureen Knoll, the dinner’s Honorary Chair is BRAVO (Ballet Resource and Volunteer Organization), which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024. BRAVO is comprised of more than 300 ballet enthusiasts whose support is vital to the on-going operation of SF Ballet. Proceeds from the dinner and performances benefit scholarship and financial aid programs for the School, which total over $1.5 million annually and which also support SF Ballet’s education and community engagement programs that serve more than 58,000 children, families, lifelong learners, and community members throughout San Francisco each year.
Each Spring Festival performance will begin with SF Ballet School level 2 ̶ 8 students in a short demonstration choreographed by SF Ballet School faculty member Karen Gabay, and will include excerpts from Flames of Paris and Balanchine’s Symphony in C. On Thursday, May 23 and Friday, May 24, Pemberley Ann Olson’s world premiere ballet will be performed by a mix of Level 7 and 8 students. The remaining repertory includes selections that showcase the students’ training in classical and contemporary ballet, including a new work by faculty member Dana Genshaft for SF Ballet School Trainees, and excerpts from Paquita, as well as selections from the School Choreographic Workshop. The Spring Festival will also celebrate Grace Holmes’ inaugural year as SF Ballet School Director. Holmes, who joined SF Ballet in January of 2024, danced in SF Ballet’s company for 12 years and has returned after serving as the director of the Kansas City Ballet School for ten years.
Tickets to the Spring Festival performances start at $25.
Individual tickets to the 2024 Spring Festival Dinner, which include admission to the opening night Spring Festival performance, begin at $200 for a child ticket, $350 for a youth ticket (ages 13–20), $650 for an En Face ticket, $1,000 for an En Avant ticket, and $2,500 for an En L’Air ticket.
Calendar information
San Francisco Ballet School
2024 Spring Festival
May 22, 2024 at 6pm
May 23–24, 2024 at 7:30pm
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater
700 Howard Street
Individual performance tickets start at $25.
To order, visit sfballet.org/springfestival or call Ticket Services at 415.865.2000.
2024 Spring Festival Dinner
Fundraiser benefiting San Francisco Ballet School, hosted by the San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary
Wednesday, May 22, 6pm performance, followed by dinner
Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco
757 Market Street
Tickets are $200-2,500, including performance admission.
ABOUT SF BALLET SCHOOL
SF Ballet School, led Grace Holmes with oversight by SF Ballet Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, was founded alongside the Company in 1933. More than 70% of San Francisco Ballet dancers trained at SF Ballet School, which is considered one of the finest ballet academies in the world. The School boasts an international roster of prominent instructors, a Trainee Program curriculum for pre-professional students, and a robust scholarship program. SF Ballet School attracts students from around the world, training approximately 700 annually. In addition to filling the ranks of SF Ballet, alumni have gone on to join prestigious ballet companies throughout the world. For those who wish to pursue a career in ballet, SF Ballet School offers a distinguished training program of unqualified excellence.
ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO BALLET
San Francisco Ballet is a leading ballet company and trailblazer in dance locally, nationally, and internationally. Performing, commissioning, and collaborating with exceptional artists in dance and across disciplines, SF Ballet balances an innovative focus on new and contemporary choreography with a deeply held dedication to the classics. SF Ballet is a catalyst for the future of ballet by cultivating creativity, bringing dance of the highest caliber to a wide audience, and providing exceptional training opportunities for the next generation of professional dancers in its world-renowned School.
Since its founding in 1933 and as the oldest professional ballet company in the United States, the Ballet has been an innovator in the art form and an originator of beloved cultural traditions, from staging the first American production of Swan Lake to bringing an annual holiday Nutcracker to U.S. audiences.