San Francisco Ballet
Program V
"Dances at a Gathering" and "Swimmer"
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
March 16, 2016
by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2016
In cooking you are supposed to provide sets of flavor that contrast yet complement each other for a satisfying meal. Programming dance is not all that different -- as long as you send your audiences home with a smile on their face. San Francisco Ballet's Artistic Director, at his job now since 1985, is a practical man and he does -- at least part of the time. He also knows that Jerry Robbins is a great choreographer and, it might be added, knows how to spot a talent: it was Robbins who brought Tomasson to this country. This program was heavy on contrast: "Dances at a Gathering" offered one composer, one piano, no set, no story, intimate and poetic; Yuri Possokhov's "Swimmer" four composers, a patchwork score, a collaged narrative, picaresque and episodic.
Joseph Walsh and Yuan Yuan Tan in "Dances at a Gathering". Photo © Erik Tomasson
The richness of Robbins' imagination is staggering. At times it feels that you look into a kaleidoscope with a given number of pieces but infinite possibilities. The tenderest duet revolves around two hands touching. And where these parallel hops come from? A photo op opens into a quintet of clacking heels and skips and a couple of waltzes until Vanessa Zahorian steps in to make the symmetry of the sextet possible. It's so rare to see Vitor Luiz, Davit Karapetyan and Joseph Walsh simultaneously on stage. Yuan Yuan Tan and Sasha de Sola leaping side-by-side were not in the least competitive, while Karapetyan and Walsh just couldn't help themselves showing off for each other. They whipped their turns, hopped backwards in ever-larger circles until the stage swallowed them up. Lorena Feijoo, in a subtly powerful and wistful interpretation, swallowed her pride as the older woman while Mathilde Froustey as a frolicking soubrette with humming bird feet definitely projected youth.
Walsh shone from the opening when he gradually became aware of his dancing body as if he had forgotten about it, until the last section when he knelt and put his hand onto the earth. Tomasson has said that when he came to that moment "I felt like this was mine. This is my career. This has brought me where I am and what a wonderful, warm feeling that is."
One more time we could be grateful for Roy Bogas' artistry with the Chopin.
Yuri Possokhov's 2015 showy "Swimmer" is a brave piece. For some time SFB's Choreographer in Residence has worked on coming to terms with story ballets that go beyond the format handed down to us. In "Swimmer" he pulled together a number of literary references which, while growing up, he considered reflective of the United States: a society of superficial, egocentric and shallow individuals. The impetus for the piece came from John Cheever's short story "The Swimmer."
The production is elaborate, with scenic design along modernist lines by Alexander V. Nichols; lush costumes, both realistic and as masquerade by Mark Zappione; lighting by David Finn and spectacular video -- primarily of churning oceans -- by Kate Duhamel. Perhaps, this was too much visual input, especially when considering that composer Shinji Eshima also included Tom Waits and Gavin Bryars into his serviceable but undistinguished score. The video, in particular, was a real attention thief. If you have talked to museum curators, you will know that video shows draw more visitors than just about anything else.
The choreographer believed that audiences could follow the decline of the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit without being familiar with the references. They include involvement with a preteen (thank you "Lolita"), missing out on a hooker ("Nighthawks"), boys taking to ballet instead of sports ("Catcher in the Rye") and killing himself in desperation ("Martin Eden"). It takes a lot of suspending of disbelief to follow this fractured tale despite Taras Domitro's superb tracing of the trajectory in the solos that connect the various episodes.
Possokhov choreographed some finely shaped individual pieces, each with its own trajectory. Casting was the same as last year. Tiit Helimets and Maria Kotchekova gradually exchange roles as seducers; Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz's circular duet showcased high drama in the throws and extensions. It ended with Feijoo again as a lost soul; and Yuan Yuan Tan has never looked funnier as slinky mermaid.
"Swimmer" is an experiment in creating ballet that is visually dazzling -- and as such it works -- but it does so at the expense of choreography. It's not the only one; it seems to be the fashion of the day. The audience, however, did leave with a smile on its face.