San Francisco Ballet Ballet dancers received some training at San Francisco Ballet School. The school was founded in 1933 as part of the San Francisco Operatic and Ballet School when Gaetano Merola, the founder of the San Francisco Opera, perceived a need for an institution where dancers could be trained to perform in opera productions. The school was under the direction of ballet director Adolph Bolm from 1933 to 1938. Willam Christensen became director from 1938 to 1940, followed by his brother Harold Christensen from 1942 until 1975. Richard L. Cammack directed the school from 1975 to 1985; he oversaw the move to
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