San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) Principal Dancer Yuan Yuan Tan will give her closing efficiency with the Firm on February 14, dancing the position of Marguerite in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand on the Conflict Memorial Opera Home.
“I’m indebted to my mentors and academics, whose knowledge, encouragement and perception in my potential have been instrumental in my success,” mentioned Tan. “To my dancer colleagues and collaborators, thanks for the shared moments of triumph. By collective dedication and laborious work, we now have created a legacy that goes past particular person accomplishments. Lastly, to the San Francisco audiences during the last three many years, I categorical my honest thanks. Your perception in me has been a driving power, and I’m grateful for the inspiration you have got offered. As I replicate on the years passed by and enter the subsequent stage of my profession, I’m reminded of the significance of contributing to the expansion and success of others and impressed to proceed making a constructive affect in ballet and past.”
Yuan Yuan Tan. Photograph by Chris Hardy.
“Yuan Yuan has made a unprecedented contribution to San Francisco Ballet and to the worldwide group of artists and has impressed generations of ballerinas and viewers members. I sit up for following her future endeavors,” mentioned SF Ballet Inventive Director Tamara Rojo.
Born in Shanghai, Tan joined SF Ballet as a soloist in 1995, and was promoted to principal dancer in 1997, making her the youngest and first Chinese language principal dancer within the firm’s historical past. Her unprecedented 29-year profession at SF Ballet has exemplified her devotion to bop and a ardour to create artwork that’s elegant, human and astonishing. Her repertoire encompasses practically 100 classical, neoclassical and modern ballets choreographed by George Balanchine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier, Christopher Wheeldon, Helgi Tomasson, Yuri Possokhov, Edwaard Liang and Wayne McGregor, amongst others. Most notably, she has memorably interpreted classical characters comparable to Giselle, Aurora and Odette/Odile, in addition to modern characters such because the Little Mermaid, Tatiana and the Princess (RAkU).
As a world ambassador of ballet, she is a task mannequin for and image of ballet the world over. Since 2002, she has served because the creative director and co-choreographer for the Tan Yuan Yuan and Her Mates manufacturing in China. In 2016, she established the Tan Yuan Yuan Worldwide Ballet Artwork Studio in partnership with the Shanghai Theater Academy, devoted to constructing a group of ballet change, creation, educating, and efficiency. This group of patrons promoted ballet as a preferred artwork kind in China, enhanced cultural change between the USA and China, and gave rise to SF Ballet’s first two excursions to China in 2009 and 2015. She has revealed ballet books; served as a dance teacher coaching kids, adults, professionals and amateurs; and given quite a few lectures and seminars on ballet — touching audiences globally.
Yuan Yuan Tan in Liam Scarlett’s ‘Hummingbird’. Photograph by Erik Tomasson.
Tan’s exceptional artistry and the inspiration she imparts on aspiring dancers proceed to outline the position of a principal dancer. She has been awarded the Mayor of San Francisco Artwork Award on two separate events, in 2018 and in 2022. Former San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell famous, “Her grace, ability, versatility and power have helped her change into the primary Chinese language prima ballerina in the USA and one of many biggest Chinese language ballerinas of all time. She has gracefully served as cultural ambassador for San Francisco and the USA. We’re immensely grateful for her contributions to our metropolis’s cultural historical past.” Tan acquired SF Ballet’s inaugural Silver Artists Society award in 2022, recognizing her 27th anniversary with the Firm and longstanding contributions to SF Ballet.
Tan was the primary Asian dancer showing within the World Star Present in Prague. Her look on TEDxShanghai in 2016 titled “My Life as a Ballerina” was critically acquired and garnered her the status because the “irreplaceable pleasure of China on the worldwide stage.” In 2004, Tan was featured on a canopy of Time as a “Hero of Asia;” named one of many world’s most influential Chinese language individuals for her contribution to the humanities by Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV in 2015; was honored with the “You Deliver Allure to the World” award from HKSTV in 2017; and in 2018, appeared on the Chinese language cultural program The Reader. Chelsea Clinton featured Tan in her 2018 kids’s e-book, She Persevered Across the World, alongside different feminine leaders in science, the humanities, sports activities and activism who’re position fashions of their willpower to interrupt obstacles and alter the established order.
Tickets to Tan’s farewell efficiency on February 14 could also be bought on-line at www.sfballet.org.
