Monday, February 03, 2025

San Francisco Ballet - "Manon"

San Francisco Ballet in MacMillan's Manon
Photo Lindsay Thomas

San Francisco Ballet
Manon
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
February 1st, 2025

I’ve never seen the full-length Manon before, and because of its difficult narrative themes, I was unsure about San Francisco Ballet’s first program of the 2025 season. As I expected, there were plenty of the scenes and interactions that were tough to watch. Inequitable class and gender dynamics, violence, abuses of power, passing women around like property – moments of shock, dismay and disbelief. But if ballet fans are being honest, most narrative ballets are full of these injustices. Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, Giselle - if you think about each story arc, rough themes are everywhere. Maybe with those ballets being so much more common, audiences have become somewhat anesthetized to the plotpoints. Make no mistake, they are ever present.

I could just leave it there, and maybe should leave it there. But on Saturday night, I also saw something happening with an institution I’ve written about for fifteen years: a clear and welcome expansion of SFB’s choreographic lineage. Not with the addition of Manon to their repertoire, but because the company is clearly taking a deeper dive into the choreography of Sir Kenneth MacMillan (who premiered Manon in 1974): steps, phrases, partnering and style. MacMillan’s movement and physicality very much suit this company, and I hope they continue to cultivate a richer relationship with it. So what follows doesn’t comment any further on Manon’s fraught narrative, nor highlight particular portrayals from closing night’s cast; and instead focuses solely on ballet vocabulary and physical syntax. 

As the ballet’s dance variations got underway, it was undeniable that footwork and foot placement are critical to any MacMillan repertory. Hops were buoyant yet taken from a flat position, or from demi-pointe; coupé positioning of the foot (in front and in back) was prevalent. Foot percussion abounded as well, again with the sole of the foot and with the top of the pointe shoe. At times, the petit allegro had a very Bournonville flair to it. 

High extensions and bravado jumps definitely occurred (hello Italian changement), but it was leg extensions that were much lower – in arabesque and in attitude – that were the norm. Positions weren’t meant to be showy; the movement and postures were all about elegance and grace. Directional changes were sharp, whether it be an arm, the head or the entire body in détourné or fouetté. Unison phrases impressed, though the men tended to be a little more together than the women. 

An overarching throughline from phrase to phrase, principal solos to corps ensembles, was how clean everything was. The choreography was clear and precise, and it was performed with the same exactitude. Sequences weren’t filled with extraneous stuff or fussy embellishments. And the movement demanded a special sustained control and attention to legato – the company was more than up to the task.

One last thought about production value. For some reason, the set changes on closing night (maybe throughout the run as well?) lacked a sense of urgency, to be sure. In fact, one scene change near the end of Act III went on so long that it almost seemed like the orchestra had run out of interlude music. Not sure what might have been happening but generally speaking, SFB excels in that arena. Perhaps an anomaly.

 

Friday, January 24, 2025

San Francisco Ballet - Opening Night Gala

San Francisco Ballet
2025 Opening Night Gala
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
January 22, 2025

It was not lost on San Francisco Ballet patrons that this year’s opening night gala fell on an auspicious date – January two, two. An ideal frame to launch the company’s 2025 season, under the Artistic Direction of Tamara Rojo. Gala performances often take a ‘sampler’ style format, allowing the audience to preview upcoming programs as well as experience works that won’t appear in the coming months. This latter set allows the viewer to see the breadth of style, genre and tone that comprises any group’s repertoire. We saw both camps on Wednesday night, and just like most seasons, there were noteworthy and less bright moments.

Jasmine Jimison and Max Cauthorn in MacMillan's Manon
Photo Lindsey Rallo

The opener, the pas de deux from Act I of Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, danced by Jasmine Jimison and Max Cauthorn was a highlight. MacMillan’s choreography has an understated elegance – clean, tidy lines, not an ostentatious or fussy motion in sight. Yet, it still manages to be undeniably charged with passion; certainly not an easy task to balance. The Hungarian Dance from Act III of Raymonda gave the corps de ballet their chance to shine, led by Kamryn Baldwin and Nathaniel Remez. Featuring ample body percussion, batterie, dramatic extensions and parallel positioning, the ensemble character work was delightful and fun. A great reminder for the viewer that ballet doesn’t have to be heady or heavy. 

Frances Chung and Harrison James absolutely charmed in Ben Stevenson’s Three Preludes, a duet that tells of a relationship based on shared experience and shared vocabulary. It’s a beautiful ballet and Chung and James were sublime. Both dancers were back on the War Memorial Opera House in later duets, Chung teaming up with Joseph Walsh in Liam Scarlett’s No Man’s Land and Harrison partnering WanTing Zhao in Christopher Wheeldon’s After The Rain. No Man’s Land was cinematic, epic, and sweepingly romantic. Yes, it was a tale of love, passion and desire, but it was deeper than that – a comment on total, resolute adoration. 

WanTing Zhao and Harrison James in Wheeldon's After the Rain©
Photo Lindsey Rallo

I have to confess that I haven’t been the biggest fan of the pas de deux from Wheeldon’s After the Rain. I couldn’t ever put my finger on why because everyone else seemed to love it. But whenever I saw the dance, I thought it to be pretty, but not transformational. Not exquisite. Turns out it just took the right combination of dancers, and it was Zhao and James. They were stunning, full stop. And their performance allowed the narrative tones and qualities of After the Rain to emerge. It read as a true personification of grace – sometimes small, sometimes vast; sometimes planned, sometimes by accident. Grounded or in flight. Beautifully ordinary and expansively extraordinary. 

Three of the offerings, while impeccably danced, were less successful programmatically. Esteban Hernández’ solo from Hans van Manen’s 5 Tango’s paired fierce technical precision with quiet pedestrianism. The pas de deux from Akram Khan’s Dust was full of contorted, tortured movements and pained contractions. Almost primal in nature, a tone of despair and disbelief soared, as did the magnetic pull between Dores André and Victor Prigent. A highly contemporary work, the robotic and angular choreography from Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, danced by Nikisha Fogo and Cavan Conley, took viewers toward the future. But all three needed a larger container. Without the whole of each piece, they were difficult to read. Not all excerpts work in isolation, and these three definitely needed more context. 

SFB’s Gala closed with a bang, the final sections of George Balanchine’s Symphony in C. Here was the epitome of neo-classical choreography. Virtuosic speeds alongside the marriage of movement and music. A truly ‘ta-da’ ballet. Symphony in C is a huge ensemble piece, and new entrances kept coming and coming and coming. Principals, soloists, corps, eventually totaling over fifty dancers on the stage. It did feel a little crowded, but at the same time, it’s hard to ignore the phenomenal attention to patterning and dance architecture when constructing a piece with such an enormous cast.


Monday, December 16, 2024

Smuin Contemporary Ballet - "The Christmas Ballet"

Smuin Contemporary Ballet
The Christmas Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
December 13th, 2024

Friday night marked an important milestone in the Bay Area holiday dance calendar: the San Francisco opening of Smuin’s The Christmas Ballet. The company has been touring the famed production for the past few weeks, but landing at home in San Francisco, where it has been a mainstay for the last three decades, must feel particularly special. The revue-style program, created by Founder Michael Smuin, offers wide-ranging choreographic genres - like pointe, clogging, jazz, Irish step, contemporary – and equally varied festive musical selections. The Christmas Ballet has appeared on Pointe Magazine’s list of alternate holiday dance shows, and opening night’s dazzling offering indicates why. Together, Act I’s Classical Christmas and Act II’s Cool Christmas mirror the blend of tradition and newness that is the holiday season!

Artistic Director Amy Seiwert shared in her welcoming remarks that over the years, there have been 115 different dances crafted for The Christmas Ballet, and what that means for Smuin’s patrons is that no year is ever quite the same. Yes, there are pieces that often appear on the program, but they are joined by many other works, old and new, including three world premieres this year. For 2024, fifteen dances were choreographed by Michael Smuin, Seiwert contributed six, with the remainder created by talented artists in the Smuin Ballet family. 

Smuin in Seiwert's Dona Nobis Pacem
Photo Maximillian Tortorielo Photography

Favorite scenes peppered Act I. Zither Carol’s quiet peacefulness and delicate intricacy. Nicole Haskins’ Fantasia, with its playful exuberance and partnered Italian changement. The pedestrian elegance of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel; the sky-high lifts in For Unto Us a Child is Born; The Gloucestershire Wassail’s graceful beats and courtly demeanor. Haskins’ Joy to the World brings epic fanfare, every move that the company made felt a punctuation of the brass instruments in the score. New moments greeted the audience as well. Framed by a banner of snowflakes, the debut of Seiwert’s Dona Nobis Pacem gave tones and qualities of a gentle snowfall; swirling arms and vignette changes evoking a light flurry.

AL Abraham in Wall's Last Christmas
Photo Maximillian Tortoriello Photography

Onto Act II’s Cool Christmas. Standouts included Rex Wheeler’s Silver Bells, a nostalgic, cozy romp, complete with swinging postures resembling merry bells. And Seiwert’s duet River with its stunning spins that seem to defy the laws of gravity and physics. Company artist Brennan Wall choreographed the second world premiere on the bill, Last Christmas, to the 1984 Wham hit recording. Primarily a solo, performed superbly Friday night by AL Abraham, it oozed an eighties vibe. Old school jazz was everywhere – pas de boureés leading into parallel turns, dive jumps, fouettés and axel spins. Most of the dancer pairings in The Christmas Ballet tend to be heteronormative, but Wheeler’s Someday Soon (premiere) brought another story to the stage. The duet for two women (Gabrielle Collins and Julia Gundzik) conveyed a narrative of yearning, longing, hoping and eventually, the realization of love and affection. It was beautiful.

Any commentary on The Christmas Ballet must acknowledge the incredible feat that Smuin’s artists accomplish with every performance. They navigate close to thirty different dances! The footwear changes alone throughout the production (ballet flats plus pointe, character, jazz, saddle and tap shoes) are absolutely astounding.