San Francisco Ballet principal Wei Wang had made a few works of choreography — but he’d never made a dance the way Arielle Smith, whose new “Carmen” will premiere at the company later this season, instructed him to last summer.
“Arielle had us write down numbers from 1 to 10 in random order,” Wang explained. “Then she assigned the numbers to words like ‘crush’ or ‘dash’ or ‘propel,’ very active verbs to open the imagination for our bodies. And then we created movement sentences with the motions in different orders, because everyone has a different order of numbers.
“And then here’s the fun part …”
A lot of San Francisco Ballet dancers are talking about the “fun part” of their creative experiments over the last nine months. That’s because of, among the industry names that Artistic Director Tamara Rojo has brought to San Francisco from her decade leading the English National Ballet, one particular name that is not on the program marquees.
San Francisco Ballet’s 91st season: Jan. 24-May 5. $29-$495. War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., S.F. 415-865-2000. www.sfballet.org
Kerry Nicholls has worked as a choreographer, teacher and consultant, as well as associate artistic director to Rojo at English National Ballet. In San Francisco her official job title is also associate artistic director, but her duties are not typical. Rather than help rehearse dancers and make repertory choices, she helps dancers explore their talents and interests beyond daily classes and rehearsals.
Nicholls’ primary initiative, Creation House, has been rolling out since July, connecting dancers with the creative talents visiting their company. In the workshops, dancers who chose to participate worked with Smith and fellow 2024 season choreographer Aszure Barton’s rehearsal director, James Gregg, simply exploring.
“We call them ‘Physical Play’ workshops,” explained corps member Pemberley Ann Olson, who took part in both sessions. “We got to work with choreographers outside of the Ballet, in an environment that has no expectations. It’s not to get cast into a piece. It’s not to make sure the choreographer’s work looks good.”
In the session with Gregg, Olson worked with prompts like “pretend that your wrist is connected to your ankle.”
“And so we would have to choreograph while, basically, keeping our hand and foot attached,” she said. “I’ve never moved my body that way, and I’ve never moved my body so much.” Equally important: “I got to just let loose and have fun.”
Creation House also hosts Choreographic Exchange sessions, where visiting choreographers share their experiences in an intimate discussion. Olson said she likes to ask the guest speakers “if there were any, quote-unquote ‘failures’ in their career, and how did the failure propel you?”
“It’s an amazing session, because you kind of get to hear the whole choreographer’s career in 90 minutes,” she said.
More Creation House offerings are scheduled in 2024, including two-week-long ChoreoLabs for early-career dance makers both inside and outside the company, and a San Francisco Ballet School Choreographic Program, in which both students and company members will create works for the Spring Showcase and other performances.
The latter already existed informally in the company, but its workings have been made more transparent. Aspiring choreographers now pitch their artistic ideas to the director and a selection board in a formal application process.
Olson has been chosen as the first dance maker under this system, with her new work premiering at May’s School Showcase.
The year ahead will also bring more programs from Nicholls in her associate artistic director role. For instance, she’s developing a Leadership Initiative, in partnership with LinkedIn.
As for that “fun part” in Wang’s workshop experience, the next step of the process involved teaching the randomly generated “movement sentence” to a partner — a member of the San Francisco contemporary dance company ODC, whose dancers were also invited to 2023’s Physical Play workshops, a first step in Rojo’s vision to open up San Francisco Ballet to outside artists and organizations in the city.
Though Nicholls’ role is both new and nebulous, Wang and Olson are clearly glad for her presence.
“I love having her,” Wang said, noting that Nicholls’ role is also as a “middle person” to communicate openly with, because she makes no casting or promotion decisions.
Olsen agreed.
“What she does is something we’ve never had before. But we needed it,” she said. “We needed someone to be there to support the dancers in ways that aren’t just about ballet technique.”
Rachel Howard is a freelance writer.