San Francisco Ballet illustrious faculty includes Patrick Armand, Kristi DeCaminada, Karen Gabay, Yuko Katsumi, Tina LeBlanc, Jeffrey Lyons, Rubén Martín Cintas, Ilona McHugh, Pascal Molat, Wendy Van Dyck (Trainee Program Assistant), Jaime Diaz (Strengthening), Brian Fisher (Contemporary), Dana Genshaft (Contemporary dance and conditioning), Henry Berg (Conditioning), Leonid Shagalov (Character), Jamie Narushchen (Music), and Daniel Sullivan (Music). The guest faculty for 2017 includes Sofiane Sylve (Principal Guest). Founded in 1975 to serve as San Francisco Ballet's official permanent orchestra, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra (SFBO) holds the rare position of being one of three major orchestras in a single city. The orchestra debuted at the
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