Receiving a packet in the mail full of tickets for the 2010 season of San Francisco Ballet – which opens at the end of January – gave my spirits a huge anticipatory lift. But at the same time I found myself freshly missing the presence of Principal Dancer Muriel Maffre, who retired a couple of seasons ago after a long and inventive career. To compensate, I gathered together some of my favorite images of her work, mostly shot by the company's official photographer, Erik Tomasson.
Final image by Paul Chin is from an April 2009 profile by Sam Whiting in the San Francisco Chronicle of Maffre in front of the tiny 1907 cottage she shares with fellow San Francisco Ballet veteran Ben Pierce in San Francisco's Ingleside neighborhood.