San Francisco Ballet School across the Bay Area. These matinees are shortened programs with excerpts of ballets the company is currently performing. After the retirement of Harold Christensen in 1975, Richard L. Cammack was brought in as School director by the SF Ballet Company’s new co-director, Michael Smuin. Under Cammack’s leadership, SF Ballet School was federally approved for foreign students and received authorization from the California Department of Education. Cammack also oversaw the School’s move to its current state-of-the-art facilities on Franklin Street in 1983. When Helgi Tomasson became San Francisco Ballet’s new artistic director and leader of the School in 1985, he appointed
Ballet San Jose 2006 shortened its name to simply Ballet San Jose. In 2003 the company gained benefactor and current chairman of the board John Fry, co-founder of Fry's Electronics.with a 1 million dollar contribution. Fry helped the company survive the dot-com crash and continued to support the company until he closed it in 2016. Over the years Fry became personally involved and Ballet San Jose faced increasing Fry's support, prompting Karen Loewenstern, founding board chair of Cleveland San Jose Ballet to say "...he bought himself a ballet company." By 2007, still lead by founding artistic director, Dennis Nahat, there was a resident