And the Ballet Crowd Will Go Wild Two modern pieces, a world premiere that roused the crowd, and a throwback to the glories of St. Petersburg studded the S.F. Ballet’s latest program April 7 at the Opera House. However you may relish the new pieces, I don’t think you can dismiss recalling old St. Petersburg and the 19th-century Mariinsky Theatre, though you had to be troubled here by immense waves of applause at the first up-curtain on merely viewing the…
If you’re looking for sheer technical perfection, you cannot excel or exceed the newly revamped version of the Helgi Tomasson “Swan Lake” that opened at the S.F. Ballet. From that first ingratiating flow of 30 swans in an arrow-straight line (opening the so-called White Act) to the lovers ultimately hurling themselves lakeward in a Russian Liebestod, this is the most romantic story ballet of them all. In between, the lines of swans were as letter-perfect as the cadet drill teams…
By D. Rane Danubian artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of Jan. 29-Feb. 5, 2016 Vol. 18, No. 42 The new Forsythe ballet is like a 1,800-second group max-out-workout regimen at the gym, to see which dancer would drop first. No one did, happily. Only that at the end I left my Row N seat feeling totally exhausted. Modernist William Forsythe, an expat who has enjoyed a huge career in Europe, is presenting…
‘Fearful Symmetries,’ with J. Adams score A ho-hum S.F. Ballet night burst into flame figuratively with a world premiere created by a man last seen in the low-profile corps de ballet. The Opera House crowd stood spontaneously to applaud and cheer choreographer Liam Scarlett’s “Fearful Symmetries,” a high-energy pulse-quickening modern ballet. Doing his second work for the SFB, Scarlett shares the current bill with Balanchine and Mark Morris—-pretty good company!! The flamboyant, fast-flying piece for 16 is sexy and contemporary,…
Smuin Ballet Pursues a New Tack in Premieres By Paul Hertelendy artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of Sept. 19-26, 2015 Vol. 18, No. 15 WALNUT CREEK, CA—Inspiration from writers is the driving force behind two arresting premieres offered by the stylish Smuin Ballet to open its 22nd season. As always, the 16-member company offers an array of extra limber dancers, athletic, yet unified in closely coordinated group moves in a chameleon mix…
14 Ballets Mark the 50th’s Ambitious Concert Program OAKLAND—The classic bedtime story has a young girl beset by all manner of hardships having the perfect dream. The Oakland Ballet had its perfect dream with its gala 50th-anniversary performance at the Paramount Theatre May 23. The troupe laboriously put together a program to top all pot-pourri ballet programs, spotlighting 15 snippets of its ballets new and old showing off a smart, and thoroughly integrated ensemble. Included were six (!) short world…
But Will It Have Legs (or Fins?) to Endure Vol. 17, No. 52 Computer animation in live ballet took a quantum leap with the premiere work “Swimmer,” at the S.F. Ballet through April 21. Techno-enhanced ballet will never again be the same. The blending of projections with live dancers was so well done (by Kate Duhamel, the trompe-l’oeil video designer) that you were never quite sure where one ended, the other began. Live strap-hangers peopled a projected commuter bus. Dancer…
The brilliance and imagination of choreographer Alexei Ratmansky flows abundantly over the stage, where the San Francisco Ballet performed his arresting “Shostakovich Trilogy,” honoring the composer through a trio of works co-produced with the American Ballet Theatre. Whether it’s the feathery-light steps of the dancers giving the illusion of floating, or the corps’ arms undulating overhead in unison like willows in the wind, Ratmansky takes dance to a new level quite different from Balanchine (though both emerged from St. Petersburg,…