FROM SANITY TO NUTTINESS IN MINUTES
Going from total sanity to insanity, all in a matter of minutes?
The San Francisco Ballet achieved just that in Program 5. Sanity was provided by the reliable Helgi Tomasson, retiring as artistic director after 37 years, in his creative works. Followed by the enigmas and insanities of the painter Magritte from a century ago, transferred to the ballet stage by the zany idea man, choreographer Yuri Possokhov.
Which of the two you prefer depends a lot on which side of the sanity divide you lean toward. Ah, ah, ah, you’re tipping, you’re falling!
Magritte comes out of the surrealistic and nihilistic era of Cocteau, Duchamp and Satie when everything, however humble or illogical, could qualify as art, in reaction to prevalent artistic snobbery. Converting all this to a ballet called “Magrittomania” was ingenious, where giant floating apples before a landscape or dozens of derby hats (bowlers) out of nowhere become appealing juxtapositions in art.
While ballet usually spotlights the women, Possokhov’s piece is male-dominant, even in ensembles, as on this night (April 4) it was led by Tiit Helimets, slightly mad dancing all over the stage, or at least acting as if an army of ants had invaded his black suit. And did I mention the two-man Pas de Deux, both in dark business suits, and one struggling mightily to lift the other?
When a woman (the ubiquitous Dores André) finally appears, she is herself an enigma, devoid of all emotion in her flaming red dress, occasionally attempting all manner of maneuvers with one arm tucked behind her back. Eventually the two tie shrouds over the heads and dance on, as if zombies.
“Magrittomania” is exactly the work to silence those critics complaining about how all the modern ballets nowadays look alike. It’s weird, it’s daring, it’s iconoclastic, a howl. And save some applause for the Magritt-bitten and perceptive scenic designer Thyra Hartshorn.
Helgi Tomasson’s greatest achievement here has been growing the troupe into a major international company, recruiting principals from all over (Cuba, Russia, China) while engaging some of the world’s leading choreographers. His choreography in works like his new “Harmony” shows off the dancers beautifully, whether it’s the important relative newcomer Wona Park in faster-than-the-eye, mincing steps of a solo, or a male with the ceiling-high leaps, Angelo Greco, bringing the house down. It’s fine to have a ballet set to baroque music of Rameau—but the SFB missed a good bet in doing it all on piano, instead of an amplified harpsichord consistent with Rameau’s instrumentation.
His earlier “Fifth Season” with its busy Karl Jenkins score contained one of the most ardent Pas de Deux yet (Sarah van Patten, Luke Ingham), ending with the two seriously knotted up. Conductors Martin West and Ming Luke shared podium duties before the habile orchestra.
SAN FRANCISCO BALLET’S program 5, works of Tomasson and Possokhov. Through April 16. Opera House, S.F. For info: (415) 865-2000, or go online: www.sfballet.org.
