San Francisco Ballet Building Boston Globe" noted, "Dance people don't merely visit the San Francisco Ballet building: They make pilgrimages to it." The San Francisco Ballet was the first professional ballet company in the United States. The company was founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. In 1942, the ballet separated from the San Francisco Opera to become its own independent company. The company’s performances are currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco. It is among the world’s leading dance companies, presenting over 100 performances annually, with a repertoire that spans
San Francisco Bay arrived at a large arm of what is now called Drakes Bay. At the time, Drakes Bay went by the name "Bahia de San Francisco" and thus both bodies of water became associated with the name. Eventually, the larger, more important body of water fully appropriated the name "San Francisco Bay". The first European to enter the bay is believed to have been the Spanish explorer Juan de Ayala, who passed through the Golden Gate on August 5, 1775 in his ship the "San Carlos", and moored in a bay of Angel Island now known as Ayala Cove. Ayala continued