SMUIN BALLET: SOPHISTICATED, SEXY PIZZAZZ 
                                              By D. Rane Danubian
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of May 25-June 2, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 11, No. 105
          WALNUT CREEK---No brow-furrowing drama in the spring program of the Smuin Ballet; it’s all about entertainment, in a joyous, sexy, even glitzy  way, strongly influenced by Broadway, where the late founder Michael “T.E.O.” (Tony, Emmy, Oscar) Smuin spent much of his career. The 16-member troupe is habile, attractive  and well-trained, and the choreography remains mostly Smuin, even two years after his death, emblematic of the fact that he never ever retired. The company is now run by ex-dancer Celia Fushille, with the most arresting new works coming from Amy Seiwert.
            The Smuin Ballet plays regionally—first San Francisco and here, to be followed by Mountain View and Carmel.  
            An astute invention on this program was Trey McIntyre’s “The Naughty Boy” (2008). Woven in among the dancing couples is the title character (Terez Dean), a petite woman who is nimble and agile, much more like a court jester or jack-in-the-box than a nuisance. The fluid modern-ballet  choreography fit well into the Smuin repertory. The culmination is a nonet, with the soloistic Naughty Boy producing a type of musical chairs with the four couples, grabbing a male hand where stretched out and displacing the partner, however briefly. It’s a charming work, deserving of a better title such as “Jester,” “Prankster,” “Comic Intruder,” or simple “The Odd One Out.” Dean played this adroitly at the Lesher Center finale May 24---the outsider who is intermittently in.
            The big production number was Smuin’s gentle story-ballet finale for 14 couples, “St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet” (2003). The 40-minute piece set in a slightly sleazy men’s club circa 1946 had its share of shimmies and boogie-woogie numbers, with Brooke Reynolds playing a burlesque-queen role of Della (without the strip-tease), enticing both club owner Biglow and the clean-cut jockey. Dancing with Biglow, Della clings to him like an octopus, wrapping her legs around his, in a role far more virtuosic than virtuous.
            Enter the “nice girl,” Lila (Erin Yarborough-Stewart),  who takes turns with both partners, the tall, tough Biglow (Aaron Thayer) and the jumping jockey (Shane Tice). It was all smartly, shrewdly played, sugary and colorful enough to serve even to non-balletomanes.
            What impressed me most was the depth of personnel in this company; the so-called second casts on view at this matinee accredited themselves well, even as company stars like Yarborough-Stewart and Shannon Hurlburt took subordinate roles. Whatever bleats I voiced about the overdriven prerecorded music were more than compensated for. And in the perennial company searches for strong male performers, this company has an abundance---strong, tall, muscular, agile.
            Smuin’s “Bouquet” was much less successful---semingly two mismatched chamber ballets forced into a merger. Furthermore the leading lady is mostly carried around by three men, in the manner that John Cranko conceived  for the late-late-career ballerina Margot Fonteyn. In addition, the one memorable image of multiple legs emanating like radial spokes is straight out of Balanchine’s “Apollo.”
            Next season Smuin Ballet promises to be exciting: two works by Seiwert, who is one of the most eagerly watched West Coat choreographers, one by Jiri Kylian, and of course Smuin. The beat goes on, undiminished, in SB’s third decade.
            Smuin Ballet in its spring program, May 29-30, Mountain View. June 4-5, Carmel. For info, go online. 
        ©D. Rane Danubian 2009
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        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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