In expansive company

The banners lining boulevards around town say it all. Emblazoned with a photograph of a couple cruising down a nighttime city street in a vintage convertible, they conjure the ultimate ride: Red leather seats. Gleaming chrome tail fins. Her blond curls tossed back midlaugh. His lips meandering down her neck. His hand caressing the long, liquid line of leg she has draped seductively across his lap -- wait a second, are those toe shoes she’s wearing?

Designed to provoke a double take, the sly advertising campaign announces San Francisco Ballet’s engagement this week at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The six-day run marks the return of the company to downtown Los Angeles after nine years and inaugurates the Music Center’s first full season of dance presentations. More important, in the flash of an eye the banners make clear that this is not your grandmother’s classical troupe.

“I just felt that the time had passed where you had to put two dancers in a classical pose -- in an arabesque or whatever,” company artistic director Helgi Tomasson said recently at the Music Center. “People don’t identify with any of that.”

Tomasson doesn’t, either. An animated speaker, the native Icelander peppers his conversation with vivid, fleeting gestures as he discusses why dance should matter to the hipoisie.

“I have never met a person who didn’t like to dance at one time or another -- in high school, at a club. Everyone likes to swing a little. That’s what a dance concert, whether classical or contemporary, is. It’s not something people should be afraid of. You listen to music all day long -- do you know how it was put together or what it’s about? Probably not, but who cares? The sound is great. Dance is the same. Take it for what it is. Just enjoy it.”

Tomasson’s enthusiasm pervades every aspect of San Francisco Ballet, from its salesmanship to a repertoire that ranges from 19th century story ballets to the cool, neoclassical works of George Balanchine to world premieres by modern dance choreographer Mark Morris and rising talents such as Christopher Wheeldon, the ballet world’s current It boy.

Since taking charge of the company in 1985, Tomasson has given it a distinctive profile by balancing classical virtues with contemporary appeal -- a formula that has proved highly successful. Although it’s the nation’s oldest professional classical troupe, the message San Francisco Ballet sends is fresh, youthful and stylish.

Under Tomasson’s leadership, the company has also risen from the ranks of regional troupes to become a formidable player on the international touring circuit. For more than a decade, critics have regarded it as one of the three best ballet companies in the United States, alongside American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet. An appearance it made over the summer at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland prompted British critic Alastair Macauley of the Financial Times to call it “the most present-tense major-league company in the world.”

Tomasson’s expansive notions about the art of dance are the product of a distinguished performing career that included stints with a broad range of choreographers, from Alvin Ailey to jazz dance showman Jack Cole to the expressionist modernist Anna Sokolow. In the 1960s, he joined the Joffrey Ballet just as founder Robert Joffrey was beginning to bring modern dance choreographers in to experiment on the company. At the time, breaking the invisible dividing line between classical and modern idioms was all but unheard of. Tomasson found the process stimulating.

“Even though I had been trained as a classical dancer,” the youthful 60-year-old remembers, “this was fun. When the Joffrey became the Harkness Ballet, for the next six years it was a similar format. Choreographers were brought in from different fields.”

A historic time

In 1970, Tomasson joined New York City Ballet, where he remained for 15 years. His eyes light up when he recalls the electric atmosphere in the studio during that time. “It was a golden age for New York City Ballet. Balanchine was at his most creative. He and Jerome Robbins were just turning new ballets out.

“That’s my background. So when I came to San Francisco to direct a company, I thought this was what was normal. I think people first thought that I was going to create a second City Ballet, which was the farthest thing from my mind. Balanchine was gone. I could only be a bad copy -- why do that? But it has always been important for me to be part of that kind of creative process.”

Now, in addition to sustaining long-term working relationships with Morris and Wheeldon, Tomasson choreographs an average of two ballets a year for the troupe, which presents three to six world or company premieres during its spring home season. This year, it celebrated its 70th anniversary season with seven premieres -- three world and three company firsts plus Tomasson’s new production of the Spanish-inflected comedy “Don Quixote,” another bead in a string of classics he has revamped for San Francisco (and the sole work on the bill for five of the seven Music Center performances).

In the last few years, Tomasson has also begun cultivating talent from within his own ranks. Former principal dancer Julie Adams has created two ballets for the company and recently retired from performing to focus solely on choreography. Tomasson chose Yuri Possokhov to choreograph “Don Quixote” with him; the lead dancer is continuing to perform while developing a third work for the 2004-05 season.

Tomasson explains that his criteria for selecting choreographers are simple: “They have to have a good knowledge of classical technique and preferably keep the women in pointe shoes. But however far they want to stretch and pull and challenge the form after that, by all means go ahead.”

Over the years, San Francisco Ballet’s programming has provided a model for other regional troupes and been instrumental in cultivating a deeply loyal hometown following. While ballet companies across the nation are watching support and audiences dwindle (Ohio Ballet’s subscribers have fallen from 3,500 to 848), San Francisco saw its subscription base in the 2002-03 season reach 17,500, a company record.

Last spring, though, for the first time in a dozen years, the company faced a projected $1-million shortfall for the season. Immediate steps were taken: Touring schedules were adjusted, seven lower-level administrative positions were eliminated, and the company was pared from 71 to 69 dancers. As a result, executive director Glenn McCoy explained recently by telephone, it averted a crisis. McCoy also noted that while major giving from corporations and foundations was down last year, the number of individual gifts rose.

McCoy and Tomasson agree that the bleak economic environment has sent a chilling message to arts organizations. But while many ballet companies have resorted to programming more and more reliable classical warhorses, McCoy and Tomasson also agree that continued innovation has to be their top priority. For Tomasson, that means refusing to mount a production solely because it might sell well.

“It’s a fine line to walk,” he says. “Yes, you need to get people into seats, but I want to get them there because I’m giving them something that is not only great but interesting and at times challenging.”

So although the 2003-04 fiscal year has necessitated an $800,000 transfer from a reserve account, the company is proceeding with plans for a new $2.5-million production of “The Nutcracker” and a $1-million, full-evening work by Mark Morris, both of which are slated to premiere in 2004.

If the Music Center is going to succeed at making dance a regular part of its cultural offerings, in fact, it might consider taking a page from San Francisco Ballet’s playbook.

“The more dance an audience is able to see, the better,” Tomasson advises. “Not everything is going to be successful or live up to one’s expectations. But in the long run, that doesn’t mean anything. Look at winemakers. They harvest the grapes and hopefully, after it comes out of the barrel in five or even 10 years, the cabernet is going to be good.

“You need patience. You need money too, but most of all you need patience and to believe in what is possible.”

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San Francisco Ballet

When: Tuesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m.

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave.

Price: $25-$85

Contact: (213) 972-0711