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Summertime

"Head in the Sand" "Something About A Nightingale" "Giant"
ODC Dance
B Way Theater
San Francisco, Co
July 20, 2018

by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2018

No question ODC Dance has survived for 47 years with the same three women’s leadership because of their artistic talents and clear vision of the way they see themselves within the ecosystem of local and national dance. One of the smartest events they started over a decade ago is Summer Sampler, two weekends with two different hour-long programs of (mostly) previously seen work, first performed at ODC’s Downtown season at the 755 proscenium YBCA Theater. In the summer, selected works can be presented at the 212-seat home B Way venue in the City’s Mission district.

 

Tegan Schwab "Giant" Photo by Andrew Weeks. 

A Feminism-Fueled Performance

"Snake Telegram"
Heart Stück Bernie
Dance Place
Washington, DC
July 22, 2018

by Arielle Ostry
copyright © 2018 by Arielle Ostry

When it comes down to performing about feminism, it is tough to get it right. Performances with this heated topic at the forefront can come across as malicious and accusatory, lacking a level of civility that can easily grow uncomfortable in a theatrical setting. Usually, the wants and whims of the spectators are the main concern of a choreographer. Nonetheless, if an artist wishes to successfully tackle the issue of feminism, their performance must be designed and implemented completely for oneself, not for the viewers. Only then can a feminist show be received as meaningful and sincere. This past Sunday at Dance Place, "Snake Telegram" managed to toe this fine line between authenticity and spitefulness with grace and comedy.

Photo: Sarah Beth Oppenheim in "Snake Telegram." Photo by Mark Costello.

Four Decades and Still Going Strong

San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
July 14, 2018

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2018

Celebrating its 40^th anniversary, the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival performed at the City’s prestigious War Memorial Opera House for the second time. It was a wildly acclaimed occasion with excellent performances from a dozen companies from Mexico to Bolivia, Spain to India and Cuba to the Philippines. The program’s last page announced that next year’s Festival would again take place at the Opera House.

 

Te Pura O Te Rahura’a dancers in “O Moe’emo’e—Curiosity”
Photo: RJ Muna

Teatro alla Scala's "Don Quixote"

"Don Quixote"
La Scala Theatre Ballet
Teatro alla Scala
Milan, Italy
July 10, 2018

by Sean Erwin
copyright © 2018 by Sean Erwin

At a time when the need to stage story ballets is sometimes discussed in the U.S. as a necessary evil the La Scala Theatre Ballet shows in its latest production of Nureyev's 1970 adaptation of Marius Petipa's, "Don Quixote", with its July 10th opening in Milan, that traditional ballets, when well staged, can be as gorgeous and thought-provoking as Ratmansky’s "Concerto DSCH" or Peck’s "Murder Ballades". After all what could present more paradoxes than a libretto that forefronts an appeal for transcendent over carnal love argued by a protagonist (Don Quixote) who himself can’t distinguish dream from reality? 

Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, photo © Teatro alla Scala

Poetry in Motion

“Four Quartets” 
Pam Tanowitz
The Fisher Center at Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
July 7, 2018 

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2018 by Martha Sherman

What comes first, the words or the movement? In a powerful tribute to the skills of choreo- grapher Pam Tanowitz and her troupe, their dance to T.S.Eliot’s masterwork “Four Quartets” feels like a true partnership. In its world premiere at Bard College’s Fisher Center, her dancers interpreted “Four Quartets” Eliot’s elegiac meditation on time, to the poem series read in the commanding, husky voice of actress Kathleen Chalfont. The poems were woven into threads of a beautiful commissioned score by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, as the dancers wove themselves between panels of color and scrims, in a design by Modernist artist Brice Marden. This was a quartet of artistry in which every element was masterful.

Photo:  Christine Flores, Victor Lozano, Kara Chan, and Jason Collins in "Four Quartets." Photo © Maria Baranova.   

Fresh Cream

"Whipped Cream"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
July 5, 2018

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

ABT's spring season may be winding down, but the company is still showing off its dancers and in the final week, devoted to Alexei Ratmansky's "Whipped Cream", Arron Scott danced his first Boy and Calvin Royal III made his New York debut at Prince Coffee.  Both dancers gave their parts a distinctive slant and their interpretations were remarkably individualized and accomplished.  Scott, always one of ABT's most musical dancers, was not just a light-hearted scamp.  His stomach pains, as he writhed in agony, were not played for laughs, and he conveyed the fear a child has for strange, powerful grownups; the running in place moment had a hint of helpless desperation.  This nightmare atmosphere gave his eventual escape to that magical world filled with light and joy (and lots of whipped cream) a joyful triumph.

ABT in "Whipped Cream" photo © Gene Schiavone.

Sugar High

"Whipped Cream"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
July 4, 2018,matinee

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

Alexei Ratmansky's witty, frothy, and dance-filled 2017 ballet returned for the final week of ABT's spring season.  The season may have been winding down but the dancers looked fresh and eager, even on a sweltering July 4 matinee.  The simple story involves a young boy (Gabe Stone Shayer in his New York debut) who eats too much whipped cream while celebrating his first communion and is gloriously devoid of any deeper meaning.  The lustrous music, by Richard Strauss, has lavish, overlapping melodies and dance rhythms, and though Strauss wrote it for the light, frivolous plot (such as it is), the music isn't whimsical or jokey.

ABT in "Whipped Cream" photo © Gene Schiavone.

A Trio to See Again

"Lacunae" "Shutter" "Unlocking/Elpis"
Amy Seiwert's Imagery
ODC Theater
San Francisco, CA
June 28, 2018

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2018

Amy Seiwert, until recently Choreo- grapher in Residence with Smuin Contemporary Ballet and founder of her own Imagery company, started a summer program she called Sketches eight years ago. She has explained the project as a way to allow her the kind the risk taking for which commissions are not always the best vehicle. More than anything, she feared falling into established, even successful, dance patterns. Sketches, she decided, would offer her and colleagues in similar positions, an opportunity to be daring, not to worry about the final outcome by pushing their work ahead into new territory. For each series, Seiwert chose a common theme; this year’s was “Origins.”

Shutter" by Jennifer Archibald
Photo credit: David DeSilva

 

Olé and All That Jazz

"Don Quixote"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 30, 2018, matinee

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

"Don Quixote", with choreography attributed somewhat loosely to Petipa, is a sunny take on a piece of Cervantes' sprawling story, an explosion of energy in make-believe Spain.  But at its heart, it can be a gentle and genuine love story as the heart wins out over the pocketbook, and an effective performance can leave the audience both awed and happy.  Kitri can be more than a fouetté machine, as Sarah Lane, in her debut proved.  Her spunky Kitri, with the generous support of Herman Cornejo's Basilio, seemed to spark the entire company, and the lively, friendly, animated crowd on the youthful village square seemed to be having a wonderful time.

ABT in "Don Quixote" photo © Gene Schiavone.