San Francisco Ballet from American popular culture, Harold and Lew joined George Balanchine's new company, American Ballet, in 1935. In 1932, Willam formed a ballet school in Portland, Oregon; in 1937, he was engaged as principal male soloist by San Francisco Opera Ballet. He became the company's ballet master and choreographer in 1938. With his brother Harold, he purchased the company from the Opera in 1942, renaming it San Francisco Ballet. In 1951, Willam retired as director of SF Ballet and moved to Utah, where he started teaching ballet in the country’s first university ballet department at the University of Utah. With a
Pirates of Penzance – The Ballet! which the company took it on an extended tour to the United States presented by Columbia Artists Management. Gray largely re-choreographed the work for Ballet San Jose for a 2004 revival and retitled "Pirates of Penzance – The Ballet!". In 2008, Orlando Ballet, under the direction of Bruce Marks, toured the ballet in Florida. It was again revived in November 2009 at Ballet San Jose. The "San Francisco Chronicle" reviewer wrote of the revival, "the show is a perpetual motion machine. ... Ebullient, athletic, bright as a picture book and blurrily overstuffed, Ballet San Jose's "Pirates of Penzance" is a