San Francisco Ballet, the country’s oldest major ballet company, is getting ready for its 93rd season, full of large, ambitious programs.
Artistic Director Tamara Rojo has curated a 2026 schedule that consists of new commissions and old favorites paying homage to the company’s past.
Rojo told SF Classical Voice: “When I program a new season, I try to explore new ways of experiencing ballet, and we’ve found that audiences in San Francisco are excited by the unexpected.
“We have [George] Balanchine and [William] Forsythe programs back-to-back, whose work I see in conversation. There’s a through line of contemporary music with James Blake’s [songs featured in] The Barre Project [now set for its San Francisco premiere] and Floating Points [having scored] our 2024 commissioned work Mere Mortals, which really wrestles with AI and new technology [and returns in 2026]. And I’m so excited to have the amazing Yuri Possokhov, our resident choreographer, realize his vision for a new Eugene Onegin.
“The dancers’ talent and approach to different styles has been so inspiring to me, and 2026 will be a great showcase of the range and vitality we have to offer as a company.”
Assuming a contract is reached with the SF Ballet Orchestra, whose current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of November, the company’s monthlong run of The Nutcracker is slated to begin Dec. 5. Here again is Helgi Tomasson’s spectacular production, now in its 21st year. The season also marks the orchestra’s 50th anniversary — it was created in 1975 by the late Denis de Coteau.
After the opening gala on Jan. 21, 2026, the season proper begins with Possokhov’s Eugene Onegin, a world premiere co-commissioned by SF Ballet and The Joffrey Ballet and sporting an original score by Ilya Demutsky. The production plays Jan. 23 – Feb. 1, 2026.
Next, “Balanchine: Father of American Ballet” (Feb. 10–15, 2026) features the iconic 20th-century choreographer’s Diamonds, Serenade, and Stars and Stripes. Forsythe’s “The Blake Works” follows (Feb. 27 – March 8, 2026) and includes his Prologue, The Barre Project, and Blake Works I.
The Tomasson/Possokhov revival of the classic Marius Petipa story ballet Don Quixote runs March 19–29, 2026. Another grand classic, La Sylphide, is scheduled for April 10–16, 2026.
The season closes with the return of Mere Mortals (April 24 – May 3, 2026), billed as a “fully immersive sensory experience.” The work was commissioned from choreographer Aszure Barton for Rojo’s inaugural SF Ballet season and is inspired by the myths of Pandora and Prometheus.
SF Ballet also plans to travel, following up its acclaimed 2024 performances at Madrid’s Teatro Real. The company tours to Southern California later this year, appearing at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in July and Orange County’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts in October. Other locations and venue are expected to be announced soon.
It’s a “known unknown” if travel and immigration restrictions in the current political climate will have an impact on SF Ballet, traditionally a magnet for dancers from around the world.
Founded in 1933 by the Utah-born Christensen brothers and first under the direction of German Russian choreographer Adolph Bolm, SF Ballet has long been as international as dance itself.
In recent years, the company has been home to Chinese superstar Yuan Yuan Tan and to principal dancers from Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere in Asia. Tomasson, an Icelander, was at the helm for more than three decades. Rojo is a Quebec-born Spanish dancer who had a lengthy career in London. And Branislav Henselmann, SF Ballet’s current executive director, was born in Belgrade, trained in Munich, and previously worked in Canada.
Last month, at the close of the 2025 season, SF Ballet announced the appointments of Francesco Gabriele Frola (English National Ballet), Patricio Revé (Queensland Ballet), and Madeline Woo (Royal Swedish Ballet) as principal dancers and Ángel García Molinero (Boston Ballet) as soloist.
With the roster becoming effective on July 1, the company has also announced the promotions of soloist Cavan Conley to principal dancer, soloists Katherine Barkman and Joshua Jack Price to first soloists, and corps de ballet members Jihyun Choi, Luca Ferrò, Nathaniel Remez, Mingxuan Wang, and Seojeong Yun to soloists.
