THE SPIRITED REVIVAL OF BALLET IN OAKLAND
                    Overcoming Several of Many Hurdles 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of May 21-28,  2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 102 
            OAKLAND---It was the dance equivalent of a boxer-----down for a nine count earlier on, but bouncing back to carry out the fight of his life.
            In many ways, the Oakland Ballet, founded in 1965,  has been fighting for its life and has bounced back onto its feet more often than the nine-lived cat.
            Once the reigning East Bay company performing with orchestra at the huge Paramount Theater, it fell on hard financial times. It was now giving its only repertory program of the year in the bare-bones Laney College Theater surrounded by concrete floors, before an audience not much above 100. 
            But I checked the pulse. Whatever the financial pinches or the audience lags, the OB performers are very much alive and kicking. The surgeon for this spirited revival is the polished British veteran Graham Lustig, former soloist with two European ballet companies and now the OB’s artistic director and dynamo. Two of the four works on view are by Lustig, and two others by women choreographers---an avowed  focus of future Oakland Ballet programming. And overall, two of the works were brand new. 
            The performing ensemble of 12 is still in a state of evolution, with the male group not yet jelled. But there is continuity---three of the 12 were OB members before company shut down (which it was forced to do  twice, in 2006 and 2009). The keystone player here is the ex-ODC veteran Brandon (“Private”) Freeman, whose maturity and partnering prowess lifts the whole ensemble. A strong, attractive figure on stage, he paired very compatibly with the much younger Sharon Wehner, a sylph-like figure around whom entire repertoires could be built.
            These two blended in Sonya Delwaide’s comic world premiere “…” (pronounced “dot-dot-dot”), a delicious trifle about partying people who have consumed a bit too much. There’s the obvious disheveled staggering about, and the holding on for dear life. But a lot of puckish, whimsical touches too. And one grand surprise, when another  inebriated lady sinks to the floor and does a perfect split that would be graded A in any ballet class. 
            Amy Seiwert’s “Response to Change” led off with a vigorous solo by Stephanie Salts and continued displaying various intriguing pas de trois---sometimes two men, sometimes two women. A clever notion. However the numerous lifts served mostly to show up the shortcomings of the male contingent, lifting the ladies with little delicacy. 
            Lustig’s new “wordswithinwords” for Freeman and Wehner was no more successful than 101 earlier dance works having the performers recite texts while dancing. Poetry by the prize-winner Robert Duncan was largely unintelligible, suggesting that “syllableswithinfragments” would have been more apt as a title. The dances varied between lyrical and spastic. 
            I liked the savvy and self-confidence of the women in Lustig’s beach scene “Vista,” where every one cavorts in bright pastel bathing suits. In case you missed the racy theme, three women wave their posteriors at the audience, and dancers roll around provocatively. Particularly effective in this romp  was Amber Merrick, a tall, imposing woman of color reminding you of Judith Jamison, that Alvin Ailey Dance Company legend.
            BALLET NOTES---The May 20 performance was bathed in nostalgia, with close to 10 former OB dancers in the audience, along with founder Ronn Guidi, who had led the group off and on 1961-2009. In his last attempt to revive the OB, Guidi hoped to do a centennial tribute to Diaghilev's  Ballets Russes  but was stymied when learning that all the accumulated OB costumes and sets had vanished from the warehouse….Dance and dance directing in the Bay Area evidently enhances  longevity; the attendees included, besides Guidi, Carlos Carvajal and Frank Shawl, all ex-company heads, all at or close to 80 years of age, and all looking enviably hale and hearty....The OB has already announced returning the to the Paramount with Lustig's "Nutcracker" production Dec, 22-24, expanded to five performances.   
            OAKLAND BALLET, Graham Lustig artistic director, four performances concluding May 21 at the Laney College Theater, Oakland. For info: (866) 711-6037, or go online.

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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