ANGELA WATSON TEEN BALLERINA OF OAKLAND CALIFORNIA RECEIVES COMPANY APPOINTMENT AS APPRENTICE WITH PRESTIGIOUS SAN FRANCISCO BALLET

ANGELA WATSON AMERICAN BALLERINA of OAKLAND, CA, and former student of Reginald Ray Savage Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer of Oakland’s Chartered Arts School of Dance program (2012-2017), has landed a spot as one of the newest Season 2022-2023 professional company members of America’s oldest professional ballet company after joining the San Francisco Ballet School year-round full-time program in 2016 on a full scholarship. Beginning on July 5, 2022 Angela Watson, American Ballerina, will step into the studios at the Chris Hellman Center for Dance as a member of the professional company at San Francisco Ballet. During the 2021-2022 SF Ballet School Season, Watson was hand selected to trained as 1 of 12 Top Tier Members of the SAN FRANCISCO BALLET SCHOOL’s coveted International Trainee Program, the official second company of SF Ballet. The SF Ballet School trains over 400 students each year and it operates under the tutelage of Patrick Armand Director and the 37-year reign holder and now retiring Helgi Tómasson Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer of San Francisco Ballet, one of the greatest neo-classical ballet companies in the world. Mr. Tómasson’s position will be filled by Tamara Rojo of Spanish descent and the first female director of SF Ballet in the past 90 years since its inception. Of the 12 Top Tier Trainees, 7 were hand-picked to step up to the company level representing the new international emerging professionals of the future who exhibit the greatest caliber of artistic skill in the world of ballet. The 7 “students now professionals” will represent global interests from Brazil, South Korea, Belgium, North Carolina, and 2 Bay Area Natives including Watson from Oakland, California. Angela is the new future you can expect to see during the SF Ballet’s “next@90” 2023 season of performances, featuring 9 world premieres from 9 choreographers.

Watson received the 2021 National YoungArts Foundation Award in Ballet for her superior level of artistic skill and achievement, joining the elite group of 659 of the nation’s most accomplished artists in the visual, literary, and performing arts. In 2019, the Anthony Quinn Foundation named WATSON as the Artistic Scholar in Ballet after demonstrating exceptional talent, dedication, and a strong commitment to personal artistic growth, joining yet another extremely elite group of 129 students from across the U.S. and abroad who are the epitome of excellence in visual, performing, media and literary arts. She is also a two-time Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) Scholar for 2017 and 2019, and as a YAGP Scholar she trained on scholarship at Bolshoi Ballet Academy (BBA) for both years. BBA is said to be one of the most vigorous training grounds in the world for aspiring young dancers. YAGP is the world’s largest global network of dance and supports and develops world-class dancers. Miss Watson also trained on a scholarship from scholarship from American Friends of Paris Opera & Ballet with the Paris Opera Ballet School in France. She also trained with the Royal Opera Ballet School of London, UK as well as American Ballet Theatre and Joffrey Ballet NYC Summer Intensives. Among the people who have supported her efforts, as previously mentioned, her initial training in ballet technique was with Reginald Ray-Savage Director of Savage Jazz Dance Company who has been training students for the past 20 years with many transitioning into world renowned training programs, professional careers and higher educational programs such as School of American Ballet, Boston Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Ballet, USC Gloria Kaufman School of Dance, UNCSA School of Dance, NYU Tisch and others.  She has also received career coaching from Dance Theatre of Harlem former Principal Dancer Karlya Shelton-Benjamin who is chair of the 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy Council commissioned to rediscovery and preservation of the history of Blacks in ballet and ensures that the history of Blacks in Ballet stay in the forefront of the industry. Also a major influence is Alison Hurley, Ballet Mistress/Rehearsal Director and Repetiteur at Oakland School for the Arts School of Dance and Savage Jazz Dance Company. Ms. Hurley serves as the Assistant Chair of the School of Dance at Oakland School for the Art and has been a great catalyst for Miss Watson’s directions in ballet.Angela, whose Indigenous mother is a Shinnecock First Nations Woman from the Montaukett Tribal Nation Long Island New York, the first known inhabitants of East Hampton, began her training as a 6th grade student of the great Reginald Ray Savage School of Dance. After training for just 1 year, Angela competed in the National Ballet Summer Intensive Tour Auditions and was hand-picked by numerous world-renowned ballet training programs from across the globe to study ballet on a full scholarship, including a full scholarship from SF Ballet School. After her intensive with SF Ballet School, Watson was offered to train year-round on the David Palmer Artistic Merit Scholarship sponsored by Carol Emery and the Wingate Foundation. Miss Watson has trained with SF Ballet School for the past 6 years dancing the roles of Clara, Snowflake and Waltzing Flower in the Nutcracker, becoming the first African-Indigenous American to dance the leading role of Clara for two consecutive seasons and the only single featured Clara who also graced the cover of the 2017 Nutcracker Ballet Program Book. Watson has since danced alongside the company as a student in Mid-Summer Nights Dream, Don Quixote, Symphony in C, La Sylphide and the Swan Lake Ballets which wrapped up the 2021-2022 Season as well as Helgi Tomasson’s career as SF Ballet Artistic Director.

As a member of the SF Ballet School International Trainee Program, Angela was hand-picked as the 2021-2022 Helgi Tomasson Choreographic Workshop Fellow. The Fellowship supports young emerging ballet dancers who also have an interest in choreography and who demonstrate high potential in sustaining a successful career as a Global Touring Principal Choreographer. Out of the 8 choreographic workshop projects, Watson’s choreographic project, Reciprocity, was hand-picked to debut as the World Premiere during the SF Ballet School Dance Festival opening night program May 25th at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Blue Shield Theatre which was very well received by all who attended and received raving reviews.

Watson has discovered that her greatest muse in creating choreographic work relates to motion picture scores. The music she has selected for Reciprocity is composed by the major Disney, Emmy Nominated/Annie Award Winning composer, Christopher Willis, best known for his work on The Death of Stalin, The Lion Guard: Rise of Scar, Veep and a myriad of Disney Shorts and other projects. The music behind Reciprocity comes from the soundtrack to the major motion picture The Personal History of David Copperfield (a Charles Dickens Novel about a young man who loses himself in life and finds himself in literary writings) composed by Mr. Willis and granted a Grand Release License by publisher FilmNation/Film4Productions (a Channel Four Television Corporation subsidiary). Willis’ other projects include Breaking Dawn, X-Men First Class, Cowboys & Aliens, Bedtime Stories, Zookeeper, Shrek: The Final Chapter and many others. Mr. Willis and other members of the Disney organization were in attendance for Watson’s World Premier on May 25th as well as the Fund-A-Need special dinner event held post performance on May 26th at the Four Seasons San Francisco where these two emerging artists met for the first time. Angela performed in several other choreographic works throughout the Festival from May 25th through May 27th, including 4 other significant new works from worldly established and emerging choreographers (Graces by of Kharkov City Ukraine, Future Paper by Dana Genshaft of Moscow Russia, Sunhead by Davide Occhipinti of Rome Italy, and Her Gambit by Pemberley Ann Olson of California USA, as well as Helgi Tomasson's Haffner Symphony Ballet which wrapped up each evening of performances very nicely.

The accomplishments Watson has made up to this point and those that will follow represent a powerful contribution to the City of Oakland and the entire East Bay community, her alma mater San Francisco Ballet School, the oldest professional ballet school in America, the State of California, the Nation and the World of Classical Ballet. This young emerging Indigenous First Nation African American Ballerina is a great asset to SF Ballet and its history of firsts and we expect that she will be for a very long time to come. Angela Watson's achievements demonstrate that the work to diversify classical ballet is being done and she will be included in the history of African Americans and Indigenous First People who are considered trailblazers in the arts as she journeys through her ballet career. Plan to come out and support her in the 2023 San Francisco Ballet Season "next@90" and celebrate 90 years of excellence that now incorporates "Our Very Own Oakland Bay Area American Ballerina Angela Watson, Apprentice San Francisco Ballet." The 2023 Season will include 3 beloved story ballets: Cinderella, Gisele, and Romeo & Juliet and 9 contemporary world premieres offered by 9 choreographers. The season will also include the live stage debut of Myles Thatcher’s COLORFORMS, the hit of the 2021 Season filmed during the pandemic. Season Ticket Renewals are available now at www.sfballet.org.

ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO BALLET 

San Francisco Ballet, long recognized for pushing boundaries in dance, has a history of making history. Founded in 1933, the company staged the first full-length American productions of Coppélia (1938) and Swan Lake (1940) and, in 1944, SF Ballet launched an annual holiday tradition when they produced the first full-length production of Nutcracker in the US.

Led by Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer, Helgi Tomasson, SF Ballet is accompanied by its own orchestra and operates one of the country’s most prestigious schools of ballet. Today they build on their heritage by commissioning groundbreaking dance from today’s top choreographers, by uncovering new choreographic talent, and by staging modern classics and the works that make up the canon of classic ballet. Their approach defines ballet in the 21st century, and it makes San Francisco Ballet the essential place to see the most adventurous dance in America. (www.sfballet.org)

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