"Cinderella"

Sascha Radetsky & Alexsandra Meijer in Ballet San Jose's production of Ben Stevenson's "Cinderella".
Photo: Robert Shomler

Ballet San Jose
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
May 5th, 2012

Ballet San Jose has been all over the dance media in the past five months.  A sudden shift in artistic leadership led to articles, speculation, an abundance of gossip and in this writer's opinion, an email campaign that was ill-conceived, and frankly, a little crazy.  Only a few insiders truly know what happened or how it happened and what's done is done.  Change is hard, but the time has come to leave the past behind, move forward and re-focus the attention on the company's future.  The goal of this season has been to do just that and the final program of 2012 (the company premiere of Ben Stevenson's "Cinderella") confirmed a brilliant future for this South Bay institution.  

Act I introduces the colorful and vibrant cast of characters, including Beth Ann Namey as the Stepmother, Maximo Califano and Ramon Moreno as the Stepsisters and of course Alexsandra Meijer as Cinderella.  The acting parts are so rich in Stevenson's version of "Cinderella" and the company rose to the occasion with full physical and gestural immersion into each and every role.  Cinderella's first solo captured her dualism with inventive boureé sequences that mimicked her chores (using her broom down toward the ground) coupled with multiple attitude piqué posés as the broom soared above her head into her dreamworld.  Stevenson's choreography delved into the two sides within her persona, though the attitude step was perhaps a bit overused. 

At the end of the first Act, Cinderella encounters her fairy godmother and begins her transformation from peasant girl to grand courtier, at which point we also meet four additional fairies, one for each season - spring, summer, autumn and winter.  The autumn fairy's variation was the most interesting choreographically and the best danced of the bunch.  Amy Marie Briones' dramatic and flawless turn combinations altered Cinderella's reality with a rich palette of excitement.

Act II mixed the grand and beautiful of a celebratory ball alongside the odd and comical of the jester and the cross-dressing stepsisters.  The corps couples all moved with a floating quality: turning lifts; and trios off-set by low movements on one side and high relevés on the other.  Act II also ushered in the first appearance of guest artist Sascha Radetsky as Prince Charming.  Radetsky doesn't just play this part, he really is Prince Charming, easily displaying the required regal demeanor and technical virtuosity.  The first pas de deux between Radetsky and Meijer expressed elated joy and utter bliss and it was wonderful to see that the choreographic highlight of Radetsky's solo variation was not a grand jump, but rather his perfectly sharp batterie.

The final short Act follows Prince Charming's search for his true love and after finding Cinderella, their marriage.  Prior to that last vignette, Radetsky and Meijer danced a second pas de deux that spoke to both the course and journey that they had traveled thus far as well as the promise of their future (very a propos for Ballet San Jose).  Even though not much time elapses in their story, here they looked older, assured and much more secure in each other.  A purposely different feel than their initial meeting, Stevenson has the two characters creating shapes in space as equal partners; a true team.  Aside from this nuanced narrative, this final pas de deux was incredibly demanding from a technical perspective, much like true love.  It is difficult, complete, complicated and transcendent.   

Soul Project

Photo: Anja Hitzenberger

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents
David Zambrano - "Soul Project"
Yerba Buena Forum
April 27th, 2012

Post-modern conventions meet twenty-first century movement; chance methods meet 1970s decor; mobile performance meets a single gallery space; all while challenging accepted notions of dance/music yet still celebrating those entities.  Sounds like an impossible artistic prescription for a single evening's event.  Yet, David Zambrano and the six performers in "Soul Project" accomplished each of these goals, and they managed to do it all while making their performance fun, astonishing and completely accessible. 

"Soul Project" came to San Francisco as part of Yerba Buena's 'DARE: Innovations in Art, Action and Audience', and with its examination of artistic presumption, it was a perfect choice to conclude the program's 2011-2012 season.  A collection of solos set to soul music hits, Zambrano's piece unfolds in a large empty room, demarcated only by large pools of psychedelic light.  Each dance emerges organically in the space, without announcement.  And over eighty minutes, the audience moves about the room trying to catch the best view of whichever dance has come next - no directions leading to each sequence nor any warning that the next solo may start right next to you.  The audience is encouraged to stand, sit, dance - however they feel moved - as the seven performers go full out for each of their technically difficult variations.

Boundaries and lines were conquered and erased in "Soul Project"; making it a true experiment in egalitarianism.  With the set-up, the audience and the dancers became more of a singular group.  Instead of the separation that occurs in traditional stage/seating arrangements, the audience were active participants in the event, moving from area to area and mixing with the soloists.  This tested the accepted notions of what a performance entails, where and how it can occur, and succeeded in blurring the line between viewer and artist.  Because chance methods are used to determine the order of the solos at every performance, each viewing experience is unique, which makes another egalitarian statement: every solo is of equal importance.  

Choreographically, each vignette expressed a different movement style and genre, though a common denominator of torment was present throughout, bonding the solos together in cohesiveness.  The powerhouse "And I am Telling You, I'm Not Going" from "Dreamgirls" brought contemporary, modern choreography to light with an extended use of the torso alongside the notion of stillness; "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" journeyed to the seventies with pas de boureés and jazz splits a plenty; "Night Life" incorporated yoga/acrobatics with an extensive opening head stand; and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" added a hip-hop essence - staccato isolations juxtaposed with a legato melody.  The most powerful sequence, for me at least, accompanied "At Last".  Working against typical expectations, here was a percussive expression of the sumptuous ballad.  Foot and body rhythms revealed a layering within the song, and provided a multi-dimension sense of abandon and desire. 

Labayen Dance/SF - Spring Season 2012

Photo: Andrew Faulkner

"Revivals & Premieres" - the choreography of Enrico Labayen
with guests Brendan Barthel, Frederick Gaudette, Daiane Lopes da Silva & Laura Bernasconi
ODC Theater, San Francisco
April 21st, 2012

The juxtaposition of old and new in dance performance is very special.  Any opportunity to honor choreographic past while simultaneously looking toward the future is a rare gift to share with any audience.  Labayen Dance/SF's spring program at ODC ("Revivals & Premieres") offered a unique and exciting chronology, pairing four new works alongside 2010's "en-Gulf-ed", "Glass" and 1996's "Cloth".  The evening was a triumphant testament to this modern dance company's eighteen-year history.

Six shorter compositions comprised the first half of the program, four of them choreographed by Artistic Director Enrico Labayen.  "en-Gulf-ed", Labayen's response to the Gulf Coast's environmental catastrophe, is stunning.  An ode to Pina, the stage was covered in dark green trash bags that were transformed into moving water by Jose Ma. Francos'  lighting design.  From beneath the set, a single dancer (guest artist Daiane Lopes da Silva) emerged; her costume adorned with the same trash bags.  Her trudging movements challenged the space around her as she searched for a way to extend out of the muck; a living being forced to exist in oppressive surroundings.  Fittingly, the work was without resolution, as is the case with environmental disasters - we often do not know what the true consequences will be.  Labayen's new work, "Alone", followed dancer Laura Bernasconi as she slowly and methodically navigated a rectangular-lighted pathway.  The short, minimalistic work celebrated the beauty in simplicity - as Bernasconi walked, the arch of her feet and the articulation in her metatarsals astounded and amazed.  2010's "Glass" took on the multi-faceted dimensions within a single entity, wherein individuality reigns supreme.  The choreography itself chased a true fusion of genres with a modern take on traditional, and at times almost classical, technique.  The second section featured Jillian Davis, a statuesque dancer who easily adapts to any genre.  She has an overwhelming presence on stage though in "Glass", her arms were a bit distracting; almost a mis-match/disconnect between her upper and lower body.  "Cloth", choreographed in 1996 and the winner of The Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography, was by far my favorite piece of the evening.  Labayen's dance for two men (Victor Talledos & Brendan Barthel) was not what we expect from a duet, and in a good way.  Pas de deuxs tend toward romantic attachment, whether the pairing is between two women, two men or a man and a woman - this is what we look for when any couple is dancing together.  But, relationships are so much more than that and "Cloth" spoke to tension rather than affection.  It had an edge to it where, for whatever reason, these two men were obviously keeping each other at arm's length.

Premieres by guest choreographers Laura Bernasconi and Frederick Gaudette rounded out Act I, each speaking in its own way to the idea of two becoming one.  Bernasconi expressed her concept in "Marriage Song", a duet danced by Talledos and Lopes da Silva.  And, Gaudette's "For 2", elegantly expressed a complete notion of soul mates - the good, bad, easy, difficult, playful, sorrowful and joyful.  Reflecting a detailed understanding of love, dancers Jaidah Terry and Gaudette were well-matched - the electricity between them palpable. 

The world premiere of "Kulang Ang Dasal" comprised the whole of Act II.  A five movement, haunting narrative work, the piece combined different groupings of the entire company while images of children in concentration camps were projected on the back scrim.  Every aspect of the piece emphasized and spoke to Labayen's interpretation of imprisonment.  The cast were costumed in striped leotards and the choreography was constrictive.  Dancers continually tried to reach out and extend, only to be pulled back to the place where their movement had originated - they simply could not get out.  With imprisonment at its core, "Kulang Ang Dasal" journeyed through human emotion.  What stood out to me was how the dancers seemed alone even amidst a crowd around them; a solitary sadness weeping from the performance space.  The unison sequences were technically challenging - the cast of fourteen attempting double promenades in attitude all at the same time - a bold move from a bold choreographer.