San Fran Ballet ready to turn 75 in 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 (UPI) -- The San Francisco Ballet will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year with 10 world premieres by celebrated choreographers, the company announced Thursday.

The demisesquicentennial celebration also will include performances by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, The National Ballet of Canada and New York City Ballet, the company said. In addition, there will be a world premiere by San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, the company premiere of Jerome Robbins' "West Side Story Suite" and a revival of the American folk ballet classic "Filling Station."

The troupe's season runs from Jan. 29 to May 26, 2008.

In the fall of 2008, the company will embark on a national tour that will include stops at the Harris Theater in Chicago, New York City Center, Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, Calif., and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

San Francisco Ballet, founded in 1933, is one of the three largest companies in the United States. In 2005, it won the Laurence Olivier Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Dance" and last year was the first non-European company elected "Company of the Year" in Dance Europe magazine's annual readers' poll.