Smuin Contemporary Ballet - "The Christmas Ballet"

Smuin Contemporary Ballet
The Christmas Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
December 20th, 2025 (matinee)

Smuin Contemporary Ballet is a class act, in so many ways. Definitely for what happens onstage, but also in how the company values engagement and relationship with its audience and with each other. Saturday’s matinee of The Christmas Ballet drove that message home, starting with Artistic Director Amy Seiwert’s opening welcome. With such grace and authenticity, Seiwert remarked about the joy and complexity of the holiday season, the importance of all kinds of family and the power of art to simultaneously heal and celebrate. It was quite touching as well as a calming, centering moment ahead of the afternoon’s gorgeous performance.

Up first we had ‘Classical Christmas,’ a collection of fifteen more traditional vignettes, seven of which were choreographed by company founder Michael Smuin. Tess Lane was equal parts delicate and dreamy, ethereal and expansive in Zither Carol while the understated elegance of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel continued to astound. The sky-high split lifts in For Unto Us a Child is Born are always impressive, though this year, they were even more buoyant than usual. And the combination of upper body stillness and detailed footwork in The Gloucestershire Wassail has endeared it as a much beloved Christmas Ballet offering. 

Smuin Contemporary Ballet in Seiwert's Dona Nobis Pacem
Photo Maximillian Tortoriello

Former company artist Nicole Haskins always injects the wonderfully unexpected into her choreography, like the Italian changement in Fantasia and the low arabesque in Peaceful Prayer. And Seiwert’s Dona Nobis Pacem is a marvel of dance architecture with its twists, turns, level changes and weaving. It feels like you are watching snowflake fractals glisten before your very eyes. 

Each year, The Christmas Ballet adds a few new chapters to its large canon of work; the first coming right at the end of Act I – Seiwert’s Ma Navu. A sinuous pas de deux danced by Shania Rasmussen and Dominic Barrett, the duet unfolded like a gorgeous stream of consciousness; a fluidity that defied stops or breaks. Similar to how Baroque music has very few internal cadence points, Ma Navu was one continuous statement of spinal articulation, with a particularly sumptuous final pose.

Onto Act II’s ‘Cool Christmas,’ where thirteen different episodes bring together a vast range of movement styles and genres. In the cozy, romantic Silver Bells (choreographed by another former Smuin dancer Rex Wheeler), wonder, magic and whirling turns abounded. Val Caniparoli’s humorous Jingle Bells Mambo paired robotic, angular staccato movements with flirtatious, suave legato phrases. And percussive dance joined the party with the flat-foot waltz clog in Droopy Little Christmas Tree and Tessa Barbour in the epic tap solo, Bells of Dublin. Act II is undeniably fun and entertaining, though a few of its dances (even some longtime fan favorites), may be ready for retirement. 

Two more world premieres made their debut in the second half, Myles Thatcher’s My Gift, Your Presence and Julia Adam’s The Sweater. Filled with sweeping choreography, Thatcher’s contribution made a narrative impression, touching on the complexity of relationships and the inherent human desire to be fully known and fully seen. Then, Adam’s work took us to the ice. Danced Saturday afternoon by Marc LaPierre, the solo opens in the land of figure skating and then quickly and comedically pivots to the world of hockey. Sporting a double-sided jersey (also known as a hockey sweater) featuring two of the original six NHL teams, LaPierre cycled through penalty box shenanigans, even a ‘gloves off’ moment framed by strobe lights. The Sweater was a highlight of 2025’s Christmas Ballet, and I imagine there were many patrons in the audience who hope it returns next year!

San Francisco Ballet - "Nutcracker"

San Francisco Ballet
Nutcracker
December 6th, 2025 (matinee)
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco

When I first decided to pursue the dance writing game, seasoned and experienced colleagues had various pieces of advice for me. Including one very specific statement of caution (that came from multiple people), “you will have no option but to review Nutcracker every year.” Accurate, yes. Obvious, also yes. Though I have to admit that I was surprised by an assumed negative connection with the classic story ballet.  I mean to each their own of course, but I love the Nutcracker. The festivities. The magic. The childlike glee, onstage and in the audience. And here in San Francisco, we have a great Nutcracker, choreographed in 2004 by former Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson. Save for a puzzling narrative choice in the second Act, this Nutcracker has it all, including great choreography danced by superb artists. I think SFB’s production may even have the power to turn the grumpiest Nutcracker Scrooge into a fan.

San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson's Nutcracker
©San Francisco Ballet, Photo Lindsey Rallo

Act I has action to spare. From an elaborate Christmas Eve shindig to a magical transformation; a battle royal to a wintry blizzard, viewers are quickly invested in Clara’s (Luka Ganaden, at this performance) fantastical journey with her Nutcracker prince (danced by Max Cauthorn). And with all of that action came plenty of highlights. The SFB School students were great – super in sync. Sky-high extensions and over splits made Luca Ferrò’s jack-in-the-box fit the bill of that hyper-bendable character, while Seojeong Yun’s purposeful off-balanced-ness and angular port de bras truly brought a toy doll to life. 

My favorite moment in any Nutcracker is the snow scene, and SFB’s does not disappoint. Tomasson’s dance architecture is gorgeous and the precipitation envelopes the entire War Memorial stage. As Queen & King of the Snow, Isabella DeVivo and Joshua Jack Price were exquisite – stately, elegant and regal. This pas de deux is not particular lengthy, but it is packed with high lifts and carries, which the pair had well in hand. As with the spins, balances, Italian pas de chats and jeté entrelacé, making the brief duet as sweeping and billowing as the blizzard around them.

**Due to illness, I was unable to view the second act** 

Alyssa Mitchel - "ENDURE"

Alyssa Mitchel
ENDURE

Alyssa Mitchel's ENDURE
Photo Sean Anomie

Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco
October 4th, 2025

I am not a marathon runner. But over the last ten years I’ve lived in a marathoner’s orbit, so I know some things. The distance – 26.2 miles. If a race is longer than that, it is labelled an ultra-marathon. Up until just recently, there were six world major races – New York, Chicago, Boston, Berlin, London and Tokyo. Sidney is now the seventh. And there are so many training programs one can follow – a plan exists for every type of runner.

Alyssa Mitchel’s newest dance work, ENDURE, mines this beautiful, intense, crazy world. Running this past weekend at Dance Mission Theater, the piece joins six dancers, six marathoners and various multi-media devices to share the marathoning journey. ENDURE showed all the stops along the training path through movement and choreography, alongside poignant oral histories from the runners. 

ENDURE began with a set of videos introducing the six marathon runners to the audience, following which the cast entered the space to perform the first of many vignettes, a structure and form that would continue for the duration of the work. This first cast statement, a quartet titled “Track Tuesday,” explored warming up. Clad in athletic gear, sneakers and wearable wrist trackers, the four cycled through high knees, kick jumps, stretches and light jogging around the stage’s perimeter. They sank into deep lunges, like at the start of a race, and sprinted from one spot to another. Motifs repeated and Mitchel injected slow motion high attitudes to mimic the carriage of the legs when running. Mutual vocabulary and unison phrases reflected the sense of community, a narrative that would serve as a throughline in the composition. Shared physicality, shared goals, shared spaces, shared interest, shared passion. 

Chapters 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 14 (of 17 in total) each centered on an audio recording of one runner’s personal story while video of Zach Litoff’s drawings and visual art were projected on the backdrop. Simultaneously a soloist (occasionally joined by other cast members) would interpret the words through matching, literal choreography. Hands clasping indicating kinship; freedom by outstretched arms. I found a recovery sequence to be especially tender, with precise and measured movement noting the importance of rest in the sojourn toward a marathon. On the flip side, overtraining was represented as one dancer tried desperately to move supporting the entire weight of another. I also could have sworn I saw lots of tap dance steps – single backwalks, 5- and 6-beat riff rhythms and paddle rolls. After thinking about that on the way home, it made a ton of sense and was quite poetic. Investigating how the toe and heel of the foot must work in concert to create tap sounds shares a deep connection to how the different parts of the foot must function independently and interdependently when running.

I enjoyed ENDURE. It had solid choreography, talented dancers and integrated multi-media aspects. And perhaps most important, it was on track the whole time. Well done. But it was lengthy. Curtain was held for ten minutes (which unfortunately has become typical with San Francisco dance shows these days), and there were some brief opening remarks. But once the house lights did finally go down, it was another seventy-five minutes. For my taste, that’s too long for a stand-alone piece.