San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Ballet Spring Festival showcases students ready to go pro
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company and school in the country. This year, it is celebrating its 90th anniversary and, next week, its students will take the stage for a very special presentation called Spring Festival.
Trainee Jacey Gailliard, age 18, has been preparing for the big showcase since the school year began in August.
She spends six days a week, nearly eight hours a day, perfecting her moves at the San Francisco Ballet School.
The Pennsylvania native said she has dreamed of attending the school since she was 12 years old after she completed a summer program here.
Her mother finally agreed to let her make the move alone when she turned 15.
“It’s really been a part of my life since I was three years old. I always knew that I loved to dance and I just wanted to be on stage,” Gailliard said. “I think a lot of people don’t realize how many sacrifices it takes.”
Some of her greatest challenges include taking academic classes at night after a full day of ballet school and moving away from her parents.
This year Gailliard auditioned to join the company as an apprentice and she made the cut. Only half of the twelve try-outs were accepted.
“Ultimately, the dream for me is to inspire young girls — especially African American ballet dancers who really aren’t represented as well as other ethnicities within the ballet world,” she said. “And just be able to dance as many works and styles as I can while my body allows me to.”
Gailliard is among dozens of S.F. Ballet School students whose yearlong work culminates in this year’s 30th Spring Festival.
It will be the final performance for S.F. Ballet School and trainee program director Patrick Armand, who started with the company in 2010. In 2012, he became the school’s associate director.
“As a performer, I always wanted to have people moved and then be transported the way we do on stage,” Armand said. “With the Spring Festival, it’s even more kind of emotional because it’s younger people. They’re not adults yet but they are absolutely unbelievable dancers already.”
Armand has been dedicated to making the art form more inclusive and approachable.
Among his accomplishments: creating a special dance program for people living with Parkinson’s Disease. Armand said his mother had Parkinson’s and he wanted to create a space in the community in her honor.
“Ballet is for everyone. Ballet can be therapeutic, can be just life-changing,” he said.
During his tenure, more than 70 percent of the school’s students have gone on to become professional dancers with the S.F. Ballet.
“I just really love the work in getting to the stage and you can really feel the preparation and the blood, sweat and tears that these dancers put themselves through to show you something that’s really beautiful,” Gailliard said.
The Spring Festival will feature performances over three nights at the Blue Shield Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts May 24-26.
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San Francisco, CA
San Francisco families buy Christmas trees in Thanksgiving holiday tradition
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — At Clancy’s Christmas Trees in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood, two holidays meshed perfectly together on Thursday.
With a little holiday cheer and even singing present in the background, Stephen Clancy sat down with his family and staff to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.
“It started when we used to get our first load of Christmas trees on Thanksgiving and we’d have customers start coming in, oh we can come buy a tree. And so that just turned into us having Thanksgiving here,” Clancy said.
MORE: Decorating early for Christmas can boost your happiness, even science shows it
But that’s not the only tradition happening here.
Since opening in 1949, Clancy’s has welcomed thousands of people looking to buy Christmas trees on Thanksgiving night.
“We have customers that bought trees from my grandfather, from my father and from myself. And it’s so fun seeing new faces and same faces that we see every year,” Clancy said.
Two familiar faces are Sophie Gregory and Yikoshi Yotake, who found their special tree Thursday night.
“We’ll see if it fits in our apartment. We live in a small apartment so it might be a bit of a struggle,” Gregory said.
MORE: Disney and Toys for Tots spread holiday cheer with Disney’s Ultimate Toy Drive
The pair say they’ve been coming to Clancy’s for years and value the family run business in the heart of San Francisco.
They also tell us they’re wasting no time in starting their decorating.
“Oh no, right after. As soon as we get home…It’s what we like to do because you’ve got the Thanksgiving meal and then you come home and you want to lounge around, play some movies and set up for Christmas,” the two said.
With less than four weeks to go until Christmas, Clancy says he’s expecting a busy season.
And for everyone willing to stop by, he just wants to say thanks.
“We always have fresh trees for you and we just really appreciate you guys. And come start a tradition with us, we appreciate it,” Clancy said.
Creating memories, one family tradition at a time.
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San Francisco, CA
San Francisco firefighters help cook family's turkey following oven fire
A family in San Francisco had an unusual ally in getting their turkey cooked on Thanksgiving — the fire department.
The fire crew at Engine 28 got a call midday Thursday for an incident just a block away in the North Beach neighborhood.
“Everybody in San Francisco is your neighbor, but being a block up the street this really is one of our neighbors,” explained Osayande Aikhionbare, a firefighter on the engine that responded to that call.
“So we pulled up on scene, the family was outside and they said they had a fire in their oven,” Aikhionbare said.
The family of four included a mother, a father, and two children.
The fire was out at that point but still smoking. Fire crews wiped down the oven, but then, it reignited.
Crews were able to put out the fire again and save the turkey which the family had just started cooking. However, Aikhionbare said grease from the turkey had leaked down near the oven’s heating element, which fire crews wouldn’t be able to clean without taking the oven apart.
At that moment, Aikhionbare said he and his colleague came to the same conclusion.
“Let’s just take it back to the firehouse and cook it for them as we had another side of our oven that is available,” he said.
It just so happens that the Engine 28 firehouse is one of the stations with two ovens, and the crew had a spare oven available to help this family.
The family accepted the firefighter’s help with their Thanksgiving meal and the crew brought the turkey back to their firehouse oven to cook.
“Two and a half hours later, the turkey was brown and crisp and delicious looking,” recounted Aikhionbare. “We were very happy and honored to be able to take it back up to them and to make sure that they were able to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.”
“When we have a fire, no matter how big or small it is, it’s devastating, and anything we can do to alleviate that stress and put a smile on somebody’s face is what we do,” noted Captain Jonathan Baxter with the San Francisco Fire Department.
He noted that this fire was actually one of many oven fires SFFD helped put out during the holiday.
Firefighters say they don’t typically cook food for others in their firehouse ovens, but on this occasion, they were happy to do it to help out their neighbors.
“We’re firefighters, we’re known for saving people from car accidents, burning buildings et cetera, and that’s not always the call, sometimes the call and the way you can make the biggest impact in someone’s life is by offering to take their turkey back and cook it,” Aikhionbare said.
San Francisco, CA
Hotel workers strike in San Francisco on Thanksgiving
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