Post-Show Talk: San Francisco Ballet

This Post-Show Talk is moderated by Scholar-in-Residence Janine Parker in conversation with Antonio Castilla and Tina LeBlanc of San Francisco Ballet. Recorded on August 7, 2026, following the company's performance in the Ted Shawn Theatre. Deemed “strikingly modern [and] technically stunning” (Daily Californian), the nation’s longest-running professional ballet company returned to the site of its heralded East Coast debut during Festival 2026 after a 70-year absence. Led by Artistic Director and former Artistic Director of London’s English National Ballet Tamara Rojo, San Francisco Ballet came to Jacob’s Pillow for the first time since 1956 to perform a mixed program featuring "Grosse Fuge" by Hans van Manen, "Don Quixote," "Act III: Grand pas de deux" by Helgi Tómasson after Marius Petipa, "Raymonda: Grand pas d'action" by Tamara Rojo after Marius Petipa, "Diamonds pas de deux" by George Balanchine, "Dust Duet" by Akram Khan, and "Prologue" and "The Barre Project" by William Forsythe with music by James Blake. In an exciting collaboration, musicians from the Grammy Award-winning Albany Symphony provided live accompaniment, as a 22-person orchestra, for select works. Video by Nel Shelby Productions.