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| Silver Ladders |
| Helgi Tomasson's ``Silver Ladders'' may be his most beautiful and fascinating ballet yet. Its world premiere Thursday night at the War Memorial Opera House, at the center of the San Francisco Ballet's final program of the season, revealed both choreographic invention and theatrical spark.
Joan Tower's music in ``Silver Ladders'' is a jagged affair, evoking its title with rising scales and whimsical meters. With rambunctious brass and aggressive drums, it is also an homage to Stravinsky. Tomasson translated the relentless percussion into his own homage to the neoclassical movement that was so often driven by Stravinsky's music: The new ballet abounds with echoes of Balanchine in the solos and Robbins in the male corps. Striking stage pictures open and close ``Silver Ladders,'' with dancers on the ladders of Martin Pakledinaz's set hanging high above the floor, descending to perform mysterious ceremonies and ascending one last time when the mystery has been played out. In between were episodes of unsettling sensuality, energized by a score that permits no lulls. Emil de Cou's fiery conducting made a fine case for the music. But it must also be said that this music has never before been as persuasive as it was when visualized by Tomasson. A trio of Sherri LeBlanc, Chidozie Nzerem and Damian Smith came to earth from on high and acted as prelude to a ceremony: The corps emerged as if from nowhere, and from its midst came Yuan Yuan Tan, dressed in silver and white, possessed of insolent extensions and exquisite piques. To her side came Roman Rykin, cast against type in the music's uncertain rhythms, victorious in the end in glorious pirouettes. The meaning of the ceremony remained hidden even as Tan, Rykin and the trio rose with their ladders and stillness finally came. But there was no question that the ensemble below, much as the audience, had just witnessed something magical./ Review |
| Yuan Yuan Tan and Roman Rykin in Silver Ladders Photo: Lloyd Englert |
| Tower's mesmerizing score, with its sequences of stabbing chords and shifting meters, did not intimidate Tomasson who, in Silver Ladders, seems to have created an ode to Balanchine neoclassicism at its most uncompromising and unsentimental. The score permits no cases in which to ease the tension and Tomasson just keeps his forces coming...in fact, some passages [were] breathtaking moments. And, Emil de Cou conducted a masterful performance of the Tower score.
-- Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Examiner |
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