San Francisco Ballet Building both classical and contemporary ballet. Along with American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet has been described as part of the "triumvirate of great classical companies defining the American style on the world stage today." With its origins in turn-of-the-century traveling companies, the San Francisco ballet routinely rented practice studios. In the late 1970s, the company was housed in a renovated parking garage on 18th Avenue, San Francisco, in a downstairs studio with ceilings so low that the dancers could not practice lifts for fear of hitting the beams. On the east coast, ballet companies
Soundwave Festival (San Francisco) Soundwave Festival (San Francisco) Soundwave Biennial Festival (formerly called the Soundwave Series) is a sound, art, and music festival that happens every two years for two months in San Francisco. Soundwave is produced by the 501(c)3 non-profit Mediate Art Group. The festival features diverse local and international multimedia artists working with sound including noise artists, sound artists, improvisers, experimental musicians, composers, avant-garde musicians, vocalists, electroacoustic musicians, classical musicians and rock musicians. The festival focuses on new and unusual performances and art works, often in untraditional environments. Soundwave primarily showcases "sound art," but also explores disciplines such as media art, performance