San Francisco Ballet
Program 1
"Serenade," "Raku", "Lambarena"
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 27, 2015
by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2015
Why not start a new season with the best of the best, follow it with a blockbuster and close with a bow to cross-cultural communi- cation? For the balleto- mane, the triple bill that opened Helgi Tomasson's 30th year as Artistic Director offered the assurance of first class performances. They were not disappointed even though it was the blockbuster and not the best of the best that garnered the most applause.
Maria Kochetkova and Vitor Luiz in Balanchine's Serenade. Photo © Erik Tomasson
First performed by SFB in 1952 (with guest artist Alexandra Danilova), "Serenade" these days is entrusted to the hands of master stager Elyse Born. The company women did themselves proud in whatever the configurations were -- in fours, in eights, on diagonals, in garlands or that glorious circle. Dancing as one body, Martin West's sensitive conducting of the Tchaikovsky score carried them along.
As the Waltz couple, Maria Kochetkova and Joseph Walsh, in his first "Serenade," worked well together despite their difference in height. He is musical, sensitive and seemed utterly secure in partnering her in those direction-switching traveling steps. Skimming the floor with crystalline feet, quick silvery in her attacks and impressive in her speed, Kochetkova also brought an affecting vulnerability to the Waltz Girl from the moment her wide-open arms appeared to pull in strength from the air to the moment when she disappeared into the dark.
With her scintillating footwork and glamorous striding through the air, Mathilde Froustey's Russian Girl sparkled with charm and self-confidence. I couldn't help but think of her having brought along some very French sense of chic. Frances Chung, such an under-appreciated dancer, looked calm and serene in those difficult balances, flapping huge angel's wings for Vitor Luiz's Dark Angel.
Despite its considerable positive assets, Yuri Possokhov's "RAkU" has yet to convince me as a ballet. Stunning designs by Alexander V. Nichols, including a huge conflagration, a serviceable but at times blatantly obvious score by Shinji Eshima, and exquisite costumes by Mark Zappone, "RAkU" more than anything is a starring vehicle for ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan. As the general's wife and rapist's victim, she wrung every ounce of emotion from Possokhov's problematic choreography.
"RAkU" is based on a Japanese story of a monk who -- in an act of madness, or perhaps revenge -- burnt down Kyoto's Golden Pavilion in 1950. Possokhov built his ballet around two long, turbulent pas de deux. They were theatrically so overwrought that they toppled into bathos. Instead of creating a sense of real tragedy of what that woman's story suggested, we ended with despair that should have been existential but was melodramatic. Yet Tan deserved the enthusiastic acclaim that much of the audience gave her.
Stepping out of a Japanese popular tradition in which eroticism and violence comfortably exist, Pascal Molat's shifty, slithering villain was stellar. Carlos Quenedit's General, however, lacked both the physical and emotional heft that the role demanded.
At twenty, Val Caniparoli's "Lambarena" has lost some of its original luster perhaps because we have learned so much more about seeing different cultural traditions co-exist with each other. Caniparoli crafted African dance movements -- particularly a highly articulated torso -- unto a ballet-trained body. His response to the Bach and Gabon's music inspired "Lambarena" with an irresistible rocking lilt as the women swished their hips on point and the men leapt with close-to-the-ground bent over torsos. Still, after a while a sense of sameness settled in; I wanted the choreography to go somewhere.
Lorena Fejioo has made Evelyn Cisneros's role her own, dancing more freely and more joyously the longer the piece went on. She was ably shadowed by Kimberly Braylock and, above all, an ebullient Ellen Rose Hummel. Wei Wang's fine initially supine solo rose like a series waves while a shirtless Daniel Deivison-Olivera showcased his pectorals and everything around them. Partnering Fejioo suavely with a lovely sense of freedom to his body, Walsh showed another side of what looks to be a versatile company addition.