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Ross’ coherent exposition of the various parts of production, training and personnel is a welcome antidote to the book produced to honor the company’s fiftieth anniversary, Brigette LaFevre’s Preface places San Francisco Ballet in its international context with Allan Ulrich’s Foreword filling in the necessary laudatory notes. The text is augmented by some hundred color photographs; most of the images reflect ballets produced within the last three years and were taken by Erik Tomasson, the company’s official photographer since 2005.

The text is divided into seven chapters: I: Ballet Reborn in America; II: Inside San Francisco Ballet; II Lives of the Dancers; IV: Helgi Tomasson at Work; V: Making Visible: The Ballet and the Repertory; VI: The Invisible City Backstage; VII: The Ballet on tour: Community Matters, pages 17-165.

Ross’ treatment of pre-company inception is accomplished with grace along with the years up to Helgi Tomasson’s initial contract with the San Francisco Ballet Association, a touching picture of the three Christensen brothers with Ruby Asquith, Gisella Caccialanza and Leon Kalimos at the ground-breaking of the company’s building at 445 Franklin Street in included.

The 22 pages of appendices include a record of all the company’s ballets mounted a list of the dancers who have appeared with the company since Gaetano Merola engaged Adolph Bolm in 1932 as ballet master and director of the ballet school, the year the San Francisco Opera House started its seasons on Van Ness Avenue. Rightly, Ross notes that the artistic venue opened, despite the fact the country was in the midst of the Depression, and that the building has constituted a strong element in San Francisco’s civic pride.

The appendices also include the current members of San Francisco Ballet’s orchestra and administrative staff and the various support organizations and its members, sustaining the company since its inception: The San Francisco Opera Board of Trustees, the San Francisco Ballet Guild, The San Francisco Civic Opera Association, and the San Francisco Ballet Association. Along the bottom of these final pages is a time line with summaries of salient events by dates. Space is also provided for not only the major sponsors, but underwriters of the book have pride of place in the opening pages of this coffee-table sized book.
 

The design pulls out the stops with columns of black text on white paper, chapter headings and numbers in white against a panel of gold-like tone, surrounded by a shot of tutus, men in motion or smiling girls in a gesturing motion. Some text is also in white on the gold-like tone, as well as some blue type face on white. The result is a definite high on the production side, though the text and photographs present the lily very well without need of such enhancement.

Speaking of all out stops, the history is accompanied by a handsome DVD, with stills and early movies of the company, and tantalizing glimpses of a number of productions since Helgi Tomasson commenced his artistic direction. Included in it are rare shots of Lew Christensen dancing in his ballet Filling Station, as well as early San Francisco ballets under his direction, and extensive interviews by the early forces in the company and the school: Willam and Harold Christensen, Ruby Asquith and Gisella Caccialanza, Jocelyn Vollmar, Celina Cummings Felsch, Wana Williams Kalimos and Leon Kalimos, conductor Fritz Behrens, a range of members of the Association Board, Brigette LeFevre, British critics Clement Crisp and Jenny Gilbert.

Inevitably, of course, some dancers mentioned have moved on to other companies, notably Jonathan Mangosing to Hong Kong Ballet, Joseph Phillips to Miami City Ballet and most recently ballet master and assistant to the artistic director Ashley Wheater to the artistic directorship of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago..

Janice Ross writes a clear, informative text for someone unfamiliar with San Francisco Ballet’s history. There is precious little to criticize about Ross’ exposition and commentary. She does cite David Palmer as American when, in fact, he is native to Australia. Her comments in Touring the Neighborhood in Chapter VI tend to imply that Charles MacNeil has been at the helm of the company’s outreach program from its beginnings. She does employ the ly once in a while which seems unnecessary. I suspect both writing and editing were done with a tight production schedule, since much of the text reflects 2007 spring productions, and review copies were available by late September. Overall, however, both author Ross and the Association should feel gratified with this handsome, articulate account of San Francisco Ballet at 75.