San Francisco Ballet slid into a slump just after the season opened, with two programs of mixed bills, one of them above average and the other - well, the best said about Program 3 is that the dancers saved it.
San Francisco Ballet opened their winter season with the greatest of all classical ballets, The Sleeping Beauty, in a thrilling show that continues through this weekend.
San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker, the longest-running complete production of this ballet in the country, opened its umpteenth annual run last week at the Opera House.
In a New York Times piece given the headline "10 Ways to Tell If Your 'Nutcracker' Is True to Tradition," dance critic Alistair Macaulay laid down the law about what does and does not constitute an authentic "Nutcracker."