“I look forward to creating a work for the San Francisco Ballet next@90 festival. It is even a greater honor to create work for a time-honored institution that found so much success under the leadership of Helgi Tomasson. He is a Mozart in world of Salieris! To that end, I plan to create a work to the music of that same composer, the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.”

SF Ballet welcomes renowned choreographer Robert Garland to create a new ballet for next@90.  

A native of Philadelphia, Garland witnessed his first dance performance at Dance Theater of Harlem, which ignited his passion for dance and movement. He moved to New York City to attend Juilliard where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance. Afterwards, Garland quickly rose through the ranks to become a principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. After Arthur Mitchell, Dance Theatre’s Founder and former Artistic Director, invited Garland to create a work for Dance Theatre of Harlem, he was soon afterwards appointed the company's first Resident Choreographer. He has since been selected to succeed Virginia Johnson as Artistic Director of the company, beginning his new role in 2023.

Following the appointments, Garland retired from dance after an outstanding career to become a full-time choreographer. He has worked with companies including New York City Ballet, Britain’s Royal Ballet (as the first black choreographer for the company), and Oakland Ballet. Most recently, Garland was commissioned to create an original work for the opening of the Lower Manhattan park, Little Island, featuring Misty Copeland and Black ballet dancers from Dance Theatre of Harlem, American Ballet Theatre, and New York City Ballet.  

Among his commercial work are music videos, commercials, and short films, including those for the children's television show Sesame Street, Nike commercials (including one featuring Baseball Hall of Fame member Derek Jeter), NAACP Image Awards, a short film for Donna Karan, and the "Charmin Cha-Cha" commission by Proctor and Gamble. In 2020, Garland's work was featured on the popular STARZ television show, "Run The World."   

So, what’s to expect at next@90? Take it from The New York Times: Garland’s gifts include everything from his “sparkling musicality” to an “ability to seamlessly weave classical ballet with influences from modern and social dance."   

“It is a great thrill to be commissioned alongside an all-embracing assemblage of dance makers for San Francisco Ballet's next@90 Festival. To be considered part of the innovative and creative tapestry of SFB is incredibly inspiring and I look forward to learning from and making with the multiplicity of artists in the company's harbor.”

We are delighted to present another world premiere by Danielle Rowe as part of the next@90 festival at SF Ballet. In the past few years, she has been an integral part of the SF Ballet family, creating memorable pieces for our dancers to perform such as Wooden Dimes and For Pixie.

Born in Shepparton, Australia, Rowe knew in her early life she was destined for the stage. Following her training at the Australian Ballet School, she became a principal dancer with the Australian Ballet. She then moved to the United States to dance with the Houston Ballet, and also danced with the prestigious Nederlands Dans Theater. Rowe has performed in works by Kenneth McMillan, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Mark Morris, and Nacho Duato, as well as a host of lead character roles in story ballets.

After retiring from dance, Rowe turned her focus to choreographing and is credited with creating innovative ballets based on storytelling. She has choreographed numerous works across the United States and internationally at companies such as San Francisco Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Co.Lab Dance (featuring dancers from American Ballet Theater). During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Rowe turned to directing and choreographing for film, including the vaudeville-style piece Wooden Dimes—part of SF Ballet’s 2021 Digital Season. Her directing repertoire also includes The Animals for Ballet Idaho and The Misfits for Louisville Ballet. Not without a sense of humor, she also collaborated with filmmakers (and former and current SF Ballet dancers) Garen Scribner and Alexander Reneff-Olson on Shelter, I Am Spartacus and Wilis in Corps-en-tine for The Australian Ballet.

“I am of course thrilled to be invited to next@90, to share the festival with such esteemed colleagues, and to be able work with the wonderful dancers of the San Francisco Ballet. I left the United States at an early age many years ago, so the chance to return to create a ballet in my own country, after so many years of being part of the European dance scene, is really an honour and a joy.”

Choreographer Bridget Breiner returns to the United States to create a ballet for next@90 after working in the European dance scene for many years. Her next@90 ballet will be her first creation for San Francisco Ballet.  

As a child in Columbus, Ohio, Breiner began her dance training at BalletMet Dance Academy and continued at the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung in Munich, Germany. She was a member of the Bavarian State Ballet in 1992 under Konstanze Vernon's direction. In 1996 she joined the Stuttgart Ballet under the direction of Reid Anderson. She quickly became one of the company’s most celebrated dancers, being promoted to principal dancer in 2001. From 2006 to 2008, she danced with the Semperoper Ballet in Dresden under the direction of Aaron Watkin. The Stuttgart Ballet regularly featured her as a guest artist until 2011.  

The Stuttgart-based Noverre Society presented Breiner's choreographic debut on its "Young Choreographers" evening. Since then, she has choreographed for the Stuttgart Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Latvian National Ballet, Kevin O'Day-Ballet Mannheim, Ballet Augsburg, Ballett im Revier Gelsenkirchen and Staatsballett Karlsruhe in and the Salzburg State Theatre. In addition to serving as Artistic Director of the Ballett im Revier Gelsenkirchen from 2012-2019, she has a distinguished dance career, as well as a reputation in Germany as a choreographer and director. She is currently the artistic director of the Badisches Staatsballett Karlsruhe.    

Throughout Breiner's ballet career, her passion for narrative ballet has been evident in several of her ballets. She created 7 full-length story ballets, including adaptations of Shakespeare's works such as The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, a one-act Othello, and Romeo and Juliet. In 2018, she presented her own version of the iconic Firebird ballet for Les Grandes Ballets Canadiens in 2018—her most recent experience working in North America. Breiner is a two-time winner of Germany’s DER FAUST award for choreography. 

“I am very honored to share this moment with dancers and the audience,
as we listen to the sound of the soul overflowing from each dancer's body and
thus join us in the process of creation.”

The talented Yuka Oishi makes her United States choreographic debut for SF Ballet’s next@90 festival.   

Oishi began her dance training at Masako Ohya Ballet Institute in Japan and joined The Hamburg Ballet in the 2002–03 Season, where she was promoted to Soloist in 2010.  Since 2015 Oishi has been working as a freelance choreographer and dancer. She has been active not only in the field of ballet but also in musicals and music videos. She choreographed RENKU with Orkan Dann for The Hamburg Ballet in 2012 and received the “Rolf Mares Prize” for the most outstanding production of the year. In 2018, she choreographed a piece called 空Ku for the Béjart Ballet Lausanne that drew influence from Japanese culture and brought the dancers' bodies to move poetically throughout the stage. 

Oishi has also choreographed for Bundes Jugend Ballet, Origen Festival Cultural, Sadamatsu-Hamada Ballet, The Tokyo Ballet, Takarazuka Revue, Shoko Nakamura, Natalia Osipova, Sergei Polunin, and Gil Roman. 

When asked about her next@90 debut, and stepping into the scene in the United States, Oishi said: “I feel a strange mixture of excitement and thrill.” We do too.  

“As a lifelong admirer of San Francisco Ballet, I am honored to have the opportunity to create a new work for the next@90 festival. SF Ballet embodies excellence in every facet of the organization, and I am honored to engage with its world-class artists to bring a new ballet to life.”

Claudia Schreier, a multi-hyphenate talent, makes her debut at San Francisco Ballet in next@90.  

After training at the Ballet School of Stamford under the direction of Stephanie Marini, Schreier continued her education at Harvard University where she earned a B.A. in Sociology and a Secondary Degree in Dramatic Arts. She immersed herself in the dance community in college, and her passion for ballet and her desire to continue nourishing her identity through dance led her to become a choreographer. 

Among her choreographic credits are commissions from Boston Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Vail Dance Festival, and Juilliard Opera. In 2019, her ballet for Dance Theatre of Harlem, Passage, was the subject of the PBS documentary "Dancing On the Shoulders of Giants,” which won the Emmy Award for Best Documentary (Capital Region).  

Schreier is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Choreography, Lotos Foundation Prize, and Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize. In addition, she was a Virginia B. Toulmin Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. In 2018, she presented a TEDx talk titled "Thinking On Your Feet” at Columbia University, which centers around the process of collaboration and revision in choreographing a dance. She has served as Atlanta Ballet’s Choreographer in Residence since 2020.