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One of Spain's Glories

"Soul + Alma"
Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco
Herbst Theater, War Memorial Building
San Francisco, CA
February 1, 2020

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

Last November the Cowell Theater celebrated “100 Years of Flamenco in the Bay Area” with a Gala performance that packed the house with current and past Flamenco dancers/aficionados. For the 53rd home season, Artistic Director Carola Zertuche of Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco, the oldest local Flamenco company, presented Flamenco as a 21^st century art. Even though it is only February, “Soul + Alma” just might prove to become one of the more exciting and challenging performances this year. The Herbst Theater was packed; the audience enthusiastic, though probably not there primarily for Flamenco. Zertuche, however, may have gained some converts. Besides artists from Spain, she also scheduled locally: The Glide Ensemble Chorus, a cappella singers from the Glide Memorial Church. They accounted for the “Soul” part in the title. These days Theatre Flamenco is tablao size, but not in its reach. The program consisted mostly of solos and duets; with bata de colas and picos just about absent. Black was the color of the day. The individual works were choreographed, yet left space for impulses.

Stalwart in Step or Stance

 

“A Tribute to Marian Anderson”

Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company

McEvoy Auditorium

National Portrait Gallery

Washington, DC

February 3, 2020

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2020 by George Jackson

 

She was one of the world’s greatest singers. Marian Anderson (1897-1993) specialized in German lieder and African American spirituals. Opera she had the chance to try only late in her career because prejudice against her African ancestry had, earlier, kept her off stages such as New York’s Met. Currently, Marian Anderson is the subject of a Portrait Gallery exhibition as well as the inspiration for Burgess’s choreography. Almost all the music Burgess chose is by Johannes Brahms, half a dozen of his lieder (songs) - from Opus 43 to Opus 121. Burgess placed the singer (soprano Millicent Scarlett) prominently on stage, either left (between pianist Jeffery Watson and the dancers) or center (surrounded by the dancers). He uses the seven dancers in two ways, as dancers and as watchers, perhaps as wardens. This piece displays the most austere dance images Burgess has made, repeatedly from song to song, over and over again. Yet no two of the danced “songs” are actually alike. Remarkable is the effect of subtle differences.

 

Photo: Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company. Tony Powell for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.

The Many Meanings of Meaning

“Polyphonia,” “Bright,” “Opus 19/The Dreamer,” “Voices”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
January 30, 2020

by Michael Popkin
copyright © 2020 by Michael Popkin

The premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s “Voices” on Thursday aptly illustrated the Balanchine aphorism (“There are no new steps, only new combinations”) that New York City Ballet employs as the motto of its annual winter New Combinations evening. Highly classical in it steps but unexpected in its mise-en-scène and conception, “Voices” proved a refreshing bit of nonsensical dance, but at the same time a provocative exploration of just what sense and nonsense are.

Photo © Erin Baiano of Sara Mearns and Company in “Voices”

Current Classicism

“The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude”,

“Approximate Sonata 2016”, “Petite Mort”,

and Shostakovich “Piano Concerto #1”

The National Ballet of Canada

Opera House

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

January 28, 2020

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2020 by George Jackson

 

The Canadians opened their visit to Washington by exploring what classical choreography looks like today. The four pieces on this program share very basic features yet are intriguingly distinct, even the first two works which were made by the same individual. Everyone interested in the state of dance could learn a lot from these ballets by America and Germany’s William Forsythe, by Czechoslovakia and The Netherlands’ Jiri Kylian and by Russia and America’s Alexei Ratmansky. There were just two chances to catch this event, Canadian National Ballet’s first night in town and its second. Then the company goes on to standard, 19th Century classicism with “The Sleeping Beauty”. 

 

Naoya Ebe and Harrison James in William Forsythe's "The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude."

 

Debuts Galore

“Allegro Brillante", "La Source", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
January 25, 2020 matinee

by Carol Pardo
copyright © 2020 by Carol Pardo

There may have been four debuts on the cast list, but at this performance, the most vivid and memorable performances came from veterans of their parts. After ten months away due to injury, Tiler Peck is back in the rotation, partnered superbly by Tyler Angle. "Allegro Brillante" -- as Balanchine famously said, "All I know about classical ballet in thirteen minutes" -- is often danced as a literal reflection of its title: fast and brilliantly, often with a hard, sharp edge like a faceted gemstone. Here, for whatever reason (that injury, conductor Andrew LItton's choice in the pit) the focus was on flow, rising and waning sumptuously, without descending to slow or stodgy. Consequently, there was time to notice details that otherwise fly by: the gust of air under a jump, the shape of a step revealed, the suddenness with which the corps disappears before the ballerina's solo. Peck, one of the most articulate dancers around, took full advantage of that flow, also looking extremely happy to be back on stage. The audience was equally happy to see her there.

Cinderella Revisited

"Cinderella"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 22, 2020

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2020

“Third time is a charm” can work, but often it is also a case of wishful thinking. Such is the case of Christopher Wheeldon’s take on “Cinderella”, first seen locally in 2013 and again in 2017. It is a co-production by SFBallet and the Dutch National Ballet. The delights of this hobbled together fairy tale are many, but missteps keep the rethought story from as wholly involving as it could be. Still performances regularly sell out, and rousing applause is the norm. The second cast, the one I saw, was no exception.

San Francisco Ballet in "Cinderella"
Photo: Erik Tomasson

 

Birthday Offerings

"Allegro Brillante", "La Source", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 22, 2020

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2020 by Mary Cargill

New York City Ballet celebrated Balanchine's 116th birthday with an all-Balanchine program which looked back to his (and ballet's) past.  The classical clarity of "Allegro Brilliante", the nineteenth century Parisian perfume of "La Source", and the Diaghilevish exoticism of "Firebird" are from different streams which flowed into his imagination.

Ashley Bouder in "Firebird" photo © Paul Kolnik.

Image and Impact

Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake”

A New Adventures Production

Opera House

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

January 22, 2020

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2020 by George Jackson

 

The image of a swan in ballet is, traditionally, that of a human figure streamlined to the stretching point with arms undulating as if they were wings about to lift off and toes pinpointing the ground. Usually the figure is female. Likely this image predates the initial (late 19th, early 20th Century) “Swan Lake” stagings by Julius Reisinger and by Joseph Hansen in Moscow, by Marius Petipa and/or Lev Ivanov in and near St. Petersburg, and then by Jaroslav Berger (Act 2 only) and (the complete 4 acts) by Berger and Achille Viscusi in Prague. The ballet’s composer, Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, kept changing and complicating the music. The score had started as one for a simple, amateur production and early on had included singing. Passages by another composer, Ricardo Drigo, were added and later removed sometimes. Tchaikovsky’s ultimate music was very Wagnerian. The staging he seems to have liked the most was that of Act 2 in Prague by Berger. However, most productions today refer back to Petipa and/or Ivanov as their source for drama and choreography.

Balanchine and Stravinsky at New York City Ballet

“Dances Concertantes,” “Monumentum pro Gesualdo,”
“Movements for Piano and Orchestra,” “Stravinsky Violin Concerto”
New York City Ballet
David Koch Theater
New York, New York
January 21, 2020

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2020 by Gay Morris

In his opening remarks for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival, George Balanchine commented that Stravinsky, like Delibes and Tchaikovsky, “made music for the body to dance to.” A steady pulse and strict adherence to time made Stravinsky a consummate dance composer, providing, as Balanchine said, “a floor for the dancer to walk on.” But that was just the beginning. Throughout his choreographic career, Balanchine found seemingly inexhaustible sources for invention in Stravinsky’s diverse works.

Erica Pereira and Harrison Ball in George Balanchine’s "Dances Concertantes."  Photo by Erin Baiano.

Unknown Dancer at Japan Society

"The Unknown Dancer in the Neighborhood"
Written and Directed by Suguru Yamamoto
Wataru Kitao, Performer 
Japan Society, New York 
January 10, 2020

-- By Tom Phillips 
Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips 

                                       
Mayday! Mayday! Is a cry that comes up repeatedly in Suguru Yamamoto’s dance/drama “The Unknown Dancer in the Neighborhood.” It means “help me” in French, but it seems to fall on deaf ears in Tokyo, the setting for this theater piece by and for a new generation of Japanese artists. 

Despairing dramas about alienated people were a staple of the last century.  What makes this fresh is that it suggests alienation is only the other side of human community. We feel disconnected because we are connected.

Photograph by Ayumi Sakamoto