danceviewtimes

New Dancers in Old Roles

"The Nutcracker"
San Francisco Ballet
December 12, 2008
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, California

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2008

In its fifth season, Helgi Tomasson’s visually stunning “The Nutcracker” is as elegant as it was when it replaced Lew Christensen’s warm but by then dowdy looking 1986 version. There is a cool beauty to its fog shrouded Victorian exteriors that works its way into the gentle formality of the Christmas party where Edwardian ladies and gents stroll and gesture to each other as if on an outing in a public garden. It’s also a place where children are allowed to be children but manners matter. The second act’s setting is inspired by the glass-enclosed conservatories so fashionable at the time; it also looks like a translucent bauble taken from the Stahlbaum’s perfectly decorated and—a novelty at the time—electric-lit Christmas tree.

In and Out of the System

“Delinquent”
Circo Zero
November 13, 2008
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2008

What an odd place the Bay Area is for watching dance. One night you sit in an alley, under a full moon, and watch LEVYdance’s quintet of exquisitely volatile dancers in work that is so luscious that you can’t take your eyes of it even though most of it uncomfortably slithers over the surface of the issues it raises. The following evening there is a group of “graduates” from the Juvenile Justice System brought together by Keith Hennessey’s Circo Zero in an awkward, at times bumbling work that scrapes at you like sandpaper on the soul.

Flamenco—Looking for a New Road

“Canciónes”
Caminos Flamencos
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
November 1, 2008

by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2008 by Rita Felciano

Thankfully the buzz around Flamenco Nuevo has somewhat died down since the middle eighties when efforts to create a contemporary form of Flamenco--by introducing ballet and modern moves danced to everything from Rock to Baroque--too often resulted in razzmatazz performances delivered with the numbing uniformity of a well oiled machine. So when Yaelisa, an extraordinarily eloquent dancer, announced a program with pop songs from Rosemary Clooney to Led Zeppelin, one had every reason to fear that she had halved jumped on a bandwagon that already has lost much of its steam, most certainly its novelty factor.

Good Enough

The Mariinsky Ballet

Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA
Oct. 17 and 19, 2008

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

Just about all is well with the Mariinsky Ballet’s old-fashioned “Don Quixote”, a ballet which I didn’t think I needed to ever see again. The music is just so insufferably crude. Yet this past weekend I found myself twice trekking across the Bay Bridge to watch these dancers come alive in performances that were nuanced, delivered with gusto and whose choreography actually made sense.

Good but Good enough?

“Raymonda, Act 3”, “La Bayadère, the Kingdom of Shades”, “Paquita, Grand Pas”
The Mariinsky Ballet
Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall
San Francisco, California
October 15, 2008

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

It may not have been fair to have groaned when Cal Performances announced the programming for this season’s two all--Petipa evenings by the Mariinsky Ballet. It was to be excerpts of rarely performed or lost full-length ballets and “Don Quixote.” But shouldn’t simply having the Mariinsky back for the third time in five years—after an absence of eleven—be enough of an occasion for rejoicing?  In fact, it is not. We know that this is a great company. We have seen them in Balanchine and Petipa. Now it was time for Forsythe, perhaps even Roland Petit. And yet. . . .

Words and Dance—Sharing a Stage

“Off Book: Stories that Move”
ODC Theater Presents Festival 3
Theater Artaud
San Francisco, CA
Oct. 9 and 10, 2008

by Rita Felciano
copyright © by Rita Felciano

ODC Theater’s major overhaul of its physical plant necessitated temporarily locating its presenting functions to Theater Artaud, a few blocks away. Unfortunately, the venue proved to be too expensive. So until whenever its new home is finished the organization is moving its presentations into ODC Dance’s largest rehearsal studio, which can seat about a hundred. It is affordable but not ideal for Theater Director Rob Bailis’ ambitious plans. His collaboration with Litquake, the West Coast’s annual writers’ feast, was such an intriguing even though not entirely successful pairing of language and dance, that one can only hope that it will continue in a suitable, larger than a 100-seat venue.

The Music Has It

“In Fugue” and “Entrelazo”
Mark Foehringer Dance Project/SF
Jewish Community Center
San Francisco, CA
September 5, 2008

by Rita Felciano
copyright©by Rita Felciano

Right off the top Mark Foehringer’s most recent works,
“In Fugue” (2007) and the world premiere of “Entrelazo,” had two things going for them. The music for both pieces intrigued more than the choreography, and Foehringer one more time featured expressive male dancing like few others of his Bay Area colleagues do. But again and again, the scores exerted a stronger pull than Foehringer’s response to them. He skillfully deployed excellent dancers—drawn primarily from local ballet companies and ODC-- but the choreography rarely developed the kind of thrust that brings with it both surprise and inevitability.   

Born Again

WestWave Dance Festival
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
August 16-21. 2008

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © by Rita Felciano

In its seventeenth year, the 2008 WestWave Dance Festival resurrected itself from the ashes of a valiantly produced but long struggling yearly showcase of local dance. Ironically, last season’s single choreographer evenings—Amy Seiwert’s and Kate Weare’s among them—had held out hopes for a more consistent curatorial vision. It was not to be. Now in the hands of Dancers Group, in conjunction with YBCA and DanceArt, on paper WestWave’s rebirth did not hold out much promise. Three programs of twelve artists in five-minute pieces looked too much like dance for the sound bite generation. In fact, the evenings offered some gleaming jewels, a number of decent pieces but also amateurish work. Whether anything can be built on this foundation remains to be seen. The question remains the same. Can inclusiveness and quality coexist?

Whimsy Meets Formality

Ballet Boyz
“Broken Fall,” “Edox,” “Propeller,” ”Yumba vs. Nonino”
T.P.O. (Teatro di Piazza o d'Occasione)
“The Painted Garden,” “The Japanese Garden”
Jacobs Pillow
Becket, MA
July19, 2008

By Rita Felciano
Copyright © by Rita Felciano

The Berkshire summer people who go to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance festival expect both high art and high entertainment. This past weekend they got a little of both by companies who couldn’t be more different from each other. Whether the Ballet Boyz’ attempt to demystify ballet through introductory videos about the blokes who do the hijinks on stage actually fools people into thinking that dancers are just ordinary folk has to remain unanswered. And the fact that T.P.O. invites audiences to join its two dancers into exploring their “gardens” could not hide the sophistication and elegance of this Italian dance theatre company’s approach to expression through movement—both virtual and physical.

Welcome to the New, Farewell to the Old

Scott Wells & Dancers
“The Gym Mystics,” “West Side (story) Dances,” “Home Again”
Theater Artaud
San Francisco, CA
July 9, 2008   

by Rita Felciano
copyright © by Rita Felciano   

Watching Scott Wells’ dancers take to the air and throw each other and assorted pieces of furniture around fulfills secret childhood dreams. They get to do everything you were told not to. They knock each other down, jump on the sofa and interrupt up conversations. They also engage in these acts of defiance  with the greatest of good cheer. Their goofy risk taking becomes infectious even as the border between play and fight often blurs. Two partners rolling on the floor, limbs tightly interlocked, are they embracing or trying to kill each other? Isn’t there a whiff of self-destructiveness about dancers’ hurling themselves like missiles, or are they simply engaging in playful gravity-defying maneuvers?