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Kingly Dancers At Work

Alonzo King Lines Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
November 6, 2021
San Francisco, CA

By Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2021

         It is rare to get a standing ovation half-way through an evening’s program. But the Alonzo King Lines Ballet dancers had it more than had earned with outstanding performances of excerpts of four King choreographies, the oldest going back to 2007.  The company had been on the road and, after two performances only, was about to take off again for a tour of Europe. The audience acknowledged Lines’ artistry with a rousing “welcome back.” King had lovingly entitled the selections Four Heart Testaments. The audience acknowledged Lines’ artistry with a rousing “welcome back.”

All’s Well That Ends…

San Francisco Ballet
“Nutcracker” 
San Francisco War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
December 22, 2021

By Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2021

Even if you are not that interested in Ballet, chances are you have seen “Nutcracker” at least once as a child, during an elementary school class visit, or even on a date, I have been told that those are popular as safe and pleasant. But then are those of us who go year for year, sometimes wondering whether it  is really worthwhile one more time. Usually, I  succumb because there is always something fresh to discover if only a surprising casting. Though partially driven by professional responsibility, I have yet to regret this yearly ritual.

Three for the Price of One

Jewels 
San Francisco Ballet
April 6, 2021
Streamed   

by Rita Felciano
copyright Rita Felciano © 2021                 

I only vaguely remember my first encounter with Jewels, Balanchine’s 1967 masterful triptych, supposedly influenced by the respective precious stones. Karinska’s costumes, most certainly, glittered and shimmered, almost excessively. I wish I could credit the company-it was not SFB that I saw it on. I recall being puzzled by “Emeralds”, almost laughing in delight at “Rubies” and taken aback by “Diamonds.” All were beautifully danced, but I kept wondering how those three “acts” related to each, other except for being Balanchine’s work.

A Trio to Treasure--For Different Reasons

Symphony #9, Wooden Dimes, Swimmer
San Francisco Ballet
Streaming      
March10, 2021 

by Rita Felciano 
copyright © Rita Felciano 2021

For anybody with doubts about Ballet being a contemporary art form, this was the show to see. Alexander Ratmansky’s “Symphony #9” and Yuri Possokhov’s “Swimmer” bracketed Danielle Rowe’s world premiere of “Wooden Dimes.” They made for an intelligent satisfying evening of 21^st century dance. There was barely a false note among them. 

Co-commissioned by American Ballet Theater, “Symphony #9” was seen in a taped 2019 SFB version; it showcased the company in enviable shape. Even streamed Ramansky’s take on the Shostakovich (conducted by Martin West) looked superb. Quickly shifting groups of multiples billowed and contracted with quasi militaristic discipline. The ominous undertones of uncertainty and fear -- first signaled in the score -- often contradicted the sense of surface “community.” Again and againd discordant harmonies in the brasses or woodwinds called up choreography that was as crystalline as it was mercurial.

All’s Well That Ends Well

“Midsummer Night’s Dream”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      San Francisco Ballet                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 January 28, 2021                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Streamed 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2021

If you have to watch streamed full-length ballets, you probably could do not much better than San Francisco’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” (available until February 10). This jewel received a single on-stage performance last April, the night before the SF Opera House closed. With a different cast, recorded last summer, it will have to do until sometime after the Company returns live. Yet Frank Zamacona’s superb direction for the screen lets the camera be our eyes without distracting editing. The only note of sadness -- besides those inevitable in the medium -- is the second act where all, of a sudden, the dancers look so shrunken.

On We Struggle

“Leap into the New Year”                                                                                                                                                             San Francisco Ballet                                                                                                                                                                  Streaming                                                                                                                                                                                                                     January 14,2021
                                                                                                                                                                                by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2021

Rarely has the life-giving part of live performances, whether music, theater or dance, been more clearly demonstrated than San Francisco Ballet’s on-line Gala “Leap Into the New Year” on January 14, 2021.  Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, who will retire in June 2022, assembled an intriguing program with excerpts from four upcoming world premieres, two duets from the repertoire, and three Pas de Deux from the classics. Well balanced, well performed, with the help San Francisco’s fine SFBallet Orchestra, thankfully still under the baton of Martin West, it should have been a glorious evening instead it turned out to be an honest leap into the new season.

The Unbearable Weight of Impermanence

Margaret Jenkins Dance Company
"Breathing at the Boundaries"
December 29, 2020
on YouTube

by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2020 by Rita Felciano                                                                                                                                                                                   

The last few months, looking at one more piece of choreography on screen made me wonder whether it might not be preferable to wait till the dancers could come back for live audiences. With few exceptions, despite honest efforts, the screen had offered few encouraging examples of vivid imaginations getting a handle on dance on screen. With “Cooped” Jamar Roberts created one of those outliers. That short solo communicated power and fragmentation but stirred the soul. But just before the end of the depressing 2020, on December 26, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company defied the odds with an original full evening, multi-cast screen dance. Its truth resonated way beyond its fifty-five minutes.

Live--Almost but not Quite

Smuin Contemporary Ballet
2020/2021 Virtual Fall Season                  
Program Program A, Nov. 18, 2020. 4:30 pm  
Program Program B, Nov. 11, 2020. 7.30 pm  
                                                         
by Rita Felciano
copyright Rita Felciano ©2020

Watching dance on screen is not exactly new, but it took a global catastrophe for those of us who cherish live performance to realize that sitting in front of a screen might become the new normal. There may be hundreds of dancers who have created works on themselves in the kitchen, a balcony or, as Alonzo King Lines dancers did, in the wilds of nature. Each one worked on her or himself but, surely, often wished for a partnerIn the last six months, I have seen my share of these brave efforts to keep bodies in tune and spirits alive.

Rigorous and Refined

“piano piano”
Nancy Karp + Dancers
Paul Dresher Sound Studio, Oakland, CA
Video of world premiere February 27, 2020                                                                                                                                    
Filmed by Rapt Productions, Oakland

by Rita Felciano
copyright Rita Felciano 2020

Ever since she started making work in the mid 1970s in San Francisco, Nancy Karp has concen-trated her choreo- graphy on dance’s most basic elements—sound and movement. Remarkably, in a Bay Area environment that favors dance theater, social and personal identity issues, she has remained focused on those two ingredients. Rarely has she stepped outside her parameters of choice. The 1995 “Kristallnacht", a haunting contemplation of that insane event, is very much the exception in her oeuvre. It certainly helps that Karp has an acute and sensitive understanding of what these days is often referred to as classical contemporary music. In her latest work, “piano piano” seen in a video version, she follows her by now well-known way of working. The piece derives its name from the Italian expression “take it easy.”

Performers: Sonsherée Giles and Chris Black (in the foreground) in 'piano piano'  (on stairs:  Amy Lewis, Nol Simonse, and Katie Kruger). Photo: John Hefti.                                                                                                                                                                               

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.

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