State Street Ballet’s 30th Anniversary Season Opens October 26!

Cecily MacDougall, Executive Director of the State Street Ballet, has formally announced its 30^th Anniversary Year, commencing with the season opening performance on October 26 and 27, at the Granada Theatre. 

This year proves to be its finest and the one for which you should purchase your season pas de deux tix early. The SSB has renowned choreographers working with the company, coupled with the grand jeté of live orchestral music for every performance. Being its 30^th anniversary, I couldn’t help but wonder, shall we all wear pearls when we attend?!

Season sponsors thus far are Nicole Callahan, Roger and Sarah Chrisman, Margo Cohen-Feinberg and Robert Feinberg, the Ann Jackson Family Foundation, Tim Mikel, Sara Miller McCune, Marc and Pauline Sylvain, Carrie Towbes for the Michael Towbes Fund,and Richard Watts. Live music sponsor is Nora McNeely Hurley and her Manitou Fund. 

To bring these insider details to our readers, I attended the invite-only preview of the season’s ballets in their main rehearsal studio at the Gail Towbes Center for Dance on Wednesday, October 16. There I met with MacDougall, Founding Director [1994] Rodney Gustafson, Resident Choreographer William Soleau, Artistic Associate Nilas Martins, Artistic Director Megan Philipp, and of course, the company dancers. MacDougall and I talked shop; the hard work behind the scenes, the need for ballet performance shoes, professional costuming, set design, and of course, sponsors. Which indeed brought the convo around to foundational ballet patron, Baroness Léni Fé Bland… if you know, you know. From there it was time for the presenters and dance teaser performances.

Soleau, a renowned NYC-based choreographer, spoke on the historic firsts of the Firebird ballet, from the powerful lead being a female ballerina to its new music composed by Igor Stravinsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, at a time when political tensions abounded concerning France and Russia. Soleau is choreographing this ballet and Scheherazade for SSB with Autumn Eckman. Live music is by the Santa Barbara Symphonyconducted by Nir Kabaretti.

Former NYC Ballet principal dancer Martins shared about his directing and interpreting the choreography of George Balanchine’s “Who Cares?” which is part of a trifecta performance titled, The Brilliance Program: Balanchine, Arpino, And Beyond, slated for May 2025. He himself has performed Balanchine, and directs one to note the technical complexities for the dancer using interchangeably jazz and ballet positions. The performance will showcase music by George Gershwin and Giuseppe Verdi, played by the Opera Santa Barbara Orchestra and conducted by Kostis Protopapas.

Gustafson is choreographing The Nutcracker, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, featuring the Opera San Luis Obispo Grand Orchestraconducted by Brian Asher Alhadeff.

The Little Mermaid, choreographed by Philipp and MacDougall, is their first full production ballet since 2019. We were shown its “costume bible” and listened to an in-progress composition [World Premiere] for it by composer Charles Fernandez. Fernandez is an award-winning Emmy-and-Annie-nominated composer, orchestrator, arranger, teacher, and bassoonist based in Los Angeles, who has scored for Disney’s The Little Mermaid TV series and others. When performed in March 2025, The Little Mermaid will once again feature the Opera San Luis Obispo Grand Orchestra conducted by Brian Asher Alhadeff.

The event concluded with photo ops, wine, and mingling with the SSB team and dancers. Preview attendees included SSB Board Member Alex Nourse, Barbara Bergman, Andre Yew, andRichard Watts.

411: https://statestreetballet.com/