Smuin Contemporary Ballet - "Extremely Close"

Smuin Contemporary Ballet
“Extremely Close”
Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA, San Francisco
September 27th, 2025 (matinee)

Smuin Ballet’s 32nd season opener, currently in the last leg of its Bay Area tour at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, might be one of the most contemporary programs I’ve seen from the company in a long time. And it was terrific. The Smuin institution has long been committed to investigating the range that is contemporary ballet. After all, the word ‘contemporary’ is in their company name. But past mixed repertory offerings have also tended to include something a little more traditional, familiar, or even classical in the mix. Saturday’s matinee of “Extremely Close” was all contemporary, all the time. Also, it was a celebration of newness – a West Coast premiere of a sneaker ballet, a second West Coast premiere from Artistic Director Amy Seiwert and a Bay Area premiere of a contemporary tonal masterpiece. A dazzling start to what is sure to be a standout season!

Ahead of curtain, Seiwert noted that Justin Peck’s Partita (2022) was going to have some elements of instruction. As the octet began, eight a cappella voices did indeed instruct the dancers which way to move. Costumed by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung in athletic gear, tube socks and sneakers, the dancers stepped out to the side and back responding and engaging with the vocal score. As with many sneaker ballets, there was an overwhelming sense of the present-day, of youth, vitality and community. The stage was so alive with ebullience and yearning.

João Sampaio and Cameron Confrancesco in 
Peck's Partita
Photo Chris Hardy

Phrases were skillfully woven together – footwork patterns blended with speedy arm sequences, picturesque imagery with clean, elegant diagonals. Palms pierced the air as legs subtly moved from extension to flexion, knees bending ever so slightly. Yoga vocabulary was everywhere: deep lunges, half splits, warrior two, extended side angle, mountain pose. And like in yoga practice, there were distinct moments where movements connected with breath, particularly in a duet for Cameron Cofrancesco and João Sampaio. Each step linked directly to an inhalation/exhalation in the score – very similar to how movement is tied to musical rhythm and structure in neo-classical ballet. A late group section felt like a children’s game; super playful and fun-loving. Peck also isn’t afraid to stop the choreography and let the audience sit with absence. There were even a number of seconds where the stage glowed blue but remained completely empty. Partita is deliciously unpredictable and I cannot wait to see it again. 

Only recently did I read the entirety of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. What a wild comedic ride: intertwined narratives, relationship status changes, spells, potions, animals, fairies, mistaken identity and so many different characters. Distilling or abridging that broader source material into more manageable pieces seems a helpful and valuable exercise!

Enter Seiwert’s 2023 A Long Night, a one-act ballet that centers around Puck, Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius and as the program states is “inspired by a Midsummer love affair.” A Long Night takes a humorous, current look at these five characters from the play. We see Puck as the mischievous orchestrator of events and circumstances. We see the use of magic. We see the complicated, entangled existence of the story’s two main couples. Infatuation. Unrequited emotion. Youthful desire. While pointe shoes were part of this picture, the viewer also sees Seiwert’s forward-thinking, contemporary approach to the possibilities within ballet vocabulary. Flexion in the limbs and joints. Use of the demi-pointe elevation while in those pointe shoes. Uneven groupings, like the fascinating pas de cinq. Benjamin Burton’s costumes were spot on and Seiwert cleverly set the piece to popular songs featuring the word ‘dream.’ Though I did long for some kind of forest-y scenic design or backdrop.

Yuri Rogers and Maggie Carey in 
Cerrudo's Extremely Close
Photo Chris Hardy

Closing the bill was Alejandro Cerrudo’s Extremely Close, a 2007 octet which also titled the entire afternoon’s program. The stage was strewn with feathers, while still more descended from the rafters (a great warm-up for the Smuin audience members who are eagerly anticipating the snow scene in The Christmas Ballet). Three flats rolled and traversed the stage space. The mood was somber and serious and there was a keen sense of urgency, especially in the magnetic, emotionally potent pas de deux between Maggie Carey and Yuri Rogers. The ending of which can only be described as unexpectedly foreboding.

But I think the genius of Extremely Close is its study of textural contrast. The billowy flowers opposed with the stark square stage flats. The lightness of the design elements experienced with the darkness of Janice Pytel’s costumes. Unison phrases and canon. Presence versus absence. Some dancers were visible onstage while others were hidden behind the flats. Suspension then grounding in Cerrudo’s choreography. Slow tempos amidst frenetic paces. Silence and sound. Equal moments of passion and suspicion.