JURY'S OUT ON POTPOURRI FURY
By D. Rane Danubian
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of Jan. 23-30, 2010
Vol. 12, No. 53
Unbridled nuttiness breaks out in this town two or
three
times a year, and one of them is the season-opening gala-potpourri of
the San
Francisco Ballet.
A city overrun
with balletomanes loses all rational thought
when the black-tie swells turn out (this time on Jan. 20) and delay the
curtain
because they are out in the lobby, ogling the beautiful people arriving
(to say
nothing of ogling ladies’ gowns to die for).
Then speeches,
a National Anthem, and finally 16 ballet
excerpts, after which, with the Opera House curtain barely thudding
down, the fans go sprinting and
jay-walking across Van
Ness Avenue to
the after-party. Hello!!
This however
was more momentous than most. 2010 marks the 25th
year here of Helgi Tomasson---artistic director, choreographer,
minor-miracle
worker. If he’s not much of a public speaker, and if his choreography
is not
world-leading, at least he has turned out some good dances, he has
gotten his
teeth into modern ballet quite nicely. Ultimately, he has transformed a
middling company into a world-class one that even tours the European
capitals---a
shift that 30 or 40 years ago would have been absolutely inconceivable.
The
gala-potpourri is, despite the distractions, a boon for
the true ballet devotee, permitting looks at the new dancers and dance
pieces
scheduled this season, such as the full-length “Romeo and Juliet”
(slated to share
the 2010 spotlight with “Swan
Lake” starting
this
weekend).
Twelve of the
16 gala selections are pieces you won’t view
this season; 10 of them are Tomasson’s choreography. Tomasson’s modern
work
continues to surprise in works like the Chinese “Flute Moon” (from
“Shi-Lin”)
mounted for the ultra-flexible ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan, where the
staffs of her
acolytes form a platform on which she lies and does further acrobatics.
His Pas
de Deux from “The Fifth Season” (2006) is quite amazing, a virtuoso
piece for
Tan again, with Damian Smith, full of unusual holds that get them
knotted up
and miraculously detached. The “Winter” from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”
(1992)
has a dozen crouching men coming on in a phalanx, to me suggesting a
troop of
sheep. Then they start whirling about the stage virtuousically, in a
way that only a supremely
well endowed international company's roster could carry off.
Perhaps this was also the
taciturn Tomasson’s way of saying that ballet is not just about
ballerinas.
This was a
night to spot the newer SFB talent, with Taras
Domitro smartly leading the men in
“Winter.” And the Brazilian newcomer, Vitor Luiz, partnered Lorena
Feijoo and
on the side executed some arresting jumps. He is tall, like most of the
other
SFB men, and will fit in superbly with this group.
The only
shorter male in fact is arguably the best of the
lot---the Frenchman Pascal Molat, something of a heartthrob besides the
danseur noble bringing to
life the fastidious Tomasson choreography of the pseudo-baroque
“Concert
Grosso,” with an all-male corps.
Gala programs
are about entertainment, and here the SFB was careful
to include two comedy ballets, both large-ensemble pieces in which one
dancer
is always deliberately out of place, to widespread mirth: the greenies
from
Mark Morris’ “Sandpaper Ballet,” and the student-grade would-be
ballerinas of
Robbins’ very clever “The Concert.”
Foreshadowing
this repertory season was “Rush” by the stellar
Christopher Wheeldon offering arresting
lifts and a poetic flow emanating from Katita Waldo and Damian
Smith. Wheeldon is one of the hottest properties
in the
choreographic world today.
The ballerinas
theses days must be portable. In the “Romeo”
Balcony Scene, Joan Boada held petite Maria Kochetkova aloft with one
hand in
the small of her arched back, the most memorable image of this famous
love scene
as conceived by Tomasson. In this version, Boada the male has as
important a dancing role as the female partner.
The night’s
only true misfire was a badly underrehearsed Pas
de Six from “Sleeping Beauty.”
Martin West’s
pit orchestra was on top of it, from start to
the confetti-cum-balloon-drop ending the show jubilantly received by
the
relatively large audience.
S.F. Ballet, at the Opera House,
San Francisco. Repertory
season Jan. 23-May 9. For info: (415)
865-2000, or go online.
©D. Rane Danubian 2010
#
D. Rane Danubian 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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