Joanna
Berman

Benois de la Danse nominee

Joanna Berman was born in San Rafael, California (USA). Training in Marin Ballet School — Maria Vegh and San Francisco Ballet School. In 1984 she became an apprentice in San Francisco Ballet Company. The same year she joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet. Joanna Berman was promoted to soloist in 1987. Promoted to Principal Dancer in 1988.

Among the roles in her repertoire in San Francisco Ballet are the following: Giselle in Giselle (Tomasson), Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (Tomasson), Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (Tomasson), Odette/Odille in Swan Lake (Tomasson), Sugar Plum Fairy and Butterfly in Nutcracker (Christensen/ Tomasson).

Joanna Berman created principal roles in Chaconne for Piano and Two Dancers, Twilight, Schoenberg movement of Criss-Cross, Con Brio, Handel — a Celebration, Two Plus Two, and Con╛certo in D: Poulenc. Danced principal roles in Valses Poeticos, Sonata, Die Fledermaus, Giuliani: Variations on a Theme, Bizet Pas de Deux, “Haffner” Symphony, the Autumn section of Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons), Quartette and Forevermore (Tomas╛son). Lead in Emeralds, Waltz Girl in Serenade, Liebeslieder Walzer, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, first and second movement principal in Sym╛phony in C, Ballo della Regina, Rubies, Tarantella, Who Cares? (Balanchine), Green Girl and Pink Girl in Dances at a Gathering (Robbins). She created many roles in ballets by Bintley, Duato, Caniparoli, Wheeldon, Tudor, Kudelka, Morris, Forsythe, Seyffert, Welch, de Mi He, Lander, Taylor, Kylian, Stevenson.

Awards: Isadora Duncan Dance awards — for her performance as Aurora in Tomasson's The Sleeping Beauty (2001) and for Outstanding Individual Performance (1994). A member of the American team at the 1981 International Ballet Competition in Moscow and placed as a semi-finalist. Recently she started coaching at the San Francisco Ballet.

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