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Think Globally, Dance Locally

San Francisco International Arts Festival
Various Artists
Marines Memorial Theatre
San Francisco, CA
May 2-20, 2012

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano

On a still modest budget of around $200,000 for a three-week event, the San Francisco International Arts Festival has managed to jam our May calendars with dance, music and theater since 2003. For a variety of reasons, this year I had to miss two of the major dance events. "Raices Profundas" was an apparently rocking celebration of the history of dance and music in Cuba; Yaelisa and Caminos Flamencos' "Homenaje a los Flamencos de la Bodega", a memory-filled evening of the time when the now legendary Olde Spaghetti Factory in the City's North Beach was Flamenco heaven. Still, even the more modest productions, often seen as shared evenings, offered refreshing perspectives on new choreography.

Collaborating Genres of Movement

San Francisco 2012 Dance Film Festival
Ninth Street Independent Film Center
San Francisco, CA
March 15-18, 2012

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2012

Over the last fifteen year or so, several attempts -- most notably by choreographer/filmmaker Cynthia Pepper's FOOTAGE -- have been made in San Francisco to establish what New York and Los Angeles have had for years, a Dance Film Festival. So when Greta Schoenberg jumped into the risky business of producing this type of event in an underground gallery in 2008, she was in no way assured of success. But a success the Festival has become. This year included full-length films, primarily documentaries, in addition to the more experimental selections where, I think, the real innovation takes place.

R&J--For Ever and Anon

"Romeo and Juliet"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
March 6, 2012

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2012

It's been eighteen years since Helgi Tomasson has created his own version of the always beloved "Romeo and Juliet." Over time, the small adjustments that come with revivals have gradually streamlined the production until today this perennial is about as good as it can get. Beautifully cast with strong, articulate dancers even in minor roles -- Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun as a lovely Rosaline, fight instructor Martino Pistone as an Old Testament Prince of Verona, Pauli Magierek as a high-strung Lady Montague -- SFB's dancers gave the work a superb opening night performance. Small ensembles such as the trio outside the Capulet's home and the mandolin dance in Juliet's bedroom poured out as if from one mold. Stellar inputs came from everyone, including the orchestra under Martin West, who handled the masterfully orchestrated score but otherwise more than a little problematic score with verve and finesse.

Pure Dance, Pure Joy

"Chroma," "Beaux," "Number Nine,"
San Francisco Ballet
Program 2
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
February 14, 20

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2012

Sean Bennett, Apprentice dancer to San Francisco Ballet, could hardly control his smiles such was his delight performing in the world premiere of Mark Morris' incandescent "Beaux" with some of the company's finest male dancers. And why not? Morris has created an elegant, decorous nonet, suggesting perhaps an 18th Century garden party, perhaps an ancient Greek gymnasium. Basing the work on Bohuslav Martinu's lively neoclassical "Concerto for Harpsichord and Small Orchestra" and "Two pieces for harpsichord", he proposed a male community at ease with itself, though not without its moments when playfulness and gamboling reveal emotional undercurrents. Bracketed by fine performances of Wayne McGregor's "Chroma" and Christopher Wheeldon's "Number Nine," this was a program in which contemporary ballet -- at its purest and at its most diverse -- shone.

Good But not Good Enough

"Onegin"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 27, February 1 and 2, 2012

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2012

John Cranko's "Onegin" is brave but not first-rate. Cranko tried, and to large extent succeeded, in creating a character-driven ballet. But in some places "Onegin" feels like the work of a young choreographer who has models ("Giselle", "Romeo and Juliet", "Nutcracker") but who has not yet found a way to make them his own. This in spite of the fact that, when he made "Onegin" in 1965, Cranko had choreographed for over twenty years. Still the Pushkin adaptation was only his second three-act ballet, after the 1962 "Romeo and Juliet."

"The Dancers Have it"

Gala Performance
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 19, 2012

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2012

Besides filling the coffers of ballet companies, Galas serve a dual purpose: to see and to be seen, offstage and on. The San Francisco Opera House is a place of nonpareil elegance but the sea of black that filled the Lobby could have used a wider set of chroma. It was up to Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson to make this evening the colorful, festive and thoroughly enjoyable event it became. He chose wisely, cast beautifully and brought the package in at just under two hours.

As Time Goes By

""Nutcracker"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
December 9, 2011

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2011

Helgi Tomasson choreographed San Francisco Ballet's current "Nutcracker" in 2004; it took the place of a much beloved and tinkered with version that went back to Willam Christensen's 1944 first full-length American version. The "new" classic was elegant, exquisitely designed but also felt cool; the first act refined but mannered, the second act's divertissements having a preserved-under glass unsularity about them.

Nordic Choreographers Offer Scandinavian Pleasures

"Bournonville Variations," "Lost on Slow," "Alumnus," "Earth"
Royal Danish Ballet
Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA
June 3, 2011
by Rita Felciano

Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2011

For its second program in Berkeley, Artistic Director Nikolaj Hübbe presented a smartly chosen line-up that fulfilled two purposes: acknowledge Bournonville's heritage even as it places the company squarely into the 21st century, and throw the highlight on what the Danes have become so justly famous for: Male Dancing. If none of the works can be considered first-rate additions to the repertoire, the pleasant enough evening offered fine dancing of nicely varied choreography.

Regal Dancing from the Royal Danes

"The Lesson", "La Sylphide"
Royal Danish Ballet
Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA
May 31 June 1, 2011

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © by Rita Felciano, 2011

The Royal Danish Ballet is a rare visitor to the Bay Area. They were last here fifty years ago. A major problem is that the only venue able to accommodate most of their productions is the San Francisco Opera House unavailable these days except for its own use. So these Zellerbach performances would have been a treat even if they had not been as good as they were because for many in the audience this was their first live encounter with a ballet perspective that remains as unique as it is entrancing. Even as it was the Zellerbach fairly generous stage proved to be a tight fit.

De Rerum Natura

"Chapters from a Broken Novel"
Doug Varone and Dancers
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
May 22, 2011

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2011 

Doug Varone makes dances that matter. They do for a variety of reasons. Even as he is very much his own man, shimmering through his work is the humanism of Limon's heritage that has become so unfashionable in contemporary dance. Here too a mirror is being held up to nature. It may be fractured and half blind but we can't help seeing ourselves in it. Varone's vision is almost always dark. Sometimes I think his choreography is so full of tempestuous energy because, damn it, he tells us, we have to keep going; there is nothing else. His latest piece, "Chapters from a Broken Novel" abounds with the latter though not always with the best results.