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| Program 1 |
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| SF BALLET 2008 75TH ANNIVERSARY |
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| This is a program that is all in the American Spirit of telling our stories and giving people from other contries a chance to tell their's. Lew Christensen, at the vanguard of the American revolution that declared its independence from traditional European ballet created the first all American ballet � of, by and for America. Although Tomasson, from Iceland, says that he created 7 for Eight with specific dancers in mind last year, a new cast has made the work...its very own ... David Finn�s lighting and Sandra Woodall�s shiny black costumes capitalize on classy simplicity./ Review Balanchine loved America, with its democratic impulse, its youth and bustle, its love of flash and gigantism. His Diamonds brought all the grandeur of Russia to his new homeland, and told his story in the bold American spirit. |
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| Filling Station - Lew Christensen / last performed in 1998 7 for Eight - Helgi Tomasson / last performed in 2005 Diamonds - George Balanchine / last performed in 2003 |
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| CriticalDance Program 1 |
| Filling Station: The visitors include a family of tourists, a rich and inebriated couple, a state trooper and a murderous gangster. But the lynchpin of this cross-section of humanity is the filling station owner, Mac, whose all-American optimism (incarnated by Christensen himself back in 1937) seemed like a proclamation of a search for an indigenous brand of American classicism. Much of the fizz in the piece derives from Christensen�s deployment of the classical language. Mac�s spins and leaps define his outgoing personality. The drunken pair�s lifts are grounded in the classical language; the woman�s sodden pirouettes, so craftily delivered by Katita Waldo, wouldn�t be half as funny, if they weren�t so artfully dispatched. Rory Hohenstein�s Mac, a role debut, offered lighter-than-air prowess. .. Val Caniparoli has been dancing the rich boy longer than many of his colleagues..And, thanks to a great sense of timing, he carried it off again. The remainder of the cast, which included corps members Steven Norman, Courtney Clarkson and Margaret Karl (the family), Matthew Stewart and Aaron Orza (Mac�s buddies), Christopher Mondoux (the trooper) and Gaetano Amico (the gangster) caught the spirit. The revival of 7 for Eight restored familiar dancers to earlier assignments. Still, one could not help but be impressed by Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun�s tapered line and lyrical attack in the principal ballerina spot. With Tiit Helimets� partnering, this was the still point of the performance (if only their two duets were not so similar in tone). Tina LeBlanc, Gennadi Nedvigin, Frances Chung, Elizabeth Miner, Joan Boada and Nicolas Blanc completed the cast. The Blanc-Boada mirror duet (one of the few places here where Tomasson comes to grip with the structure of the Bach music) looked especially appealing. After the aura of impending chaos that surrounded the Diamonds finale on the gala, we were owed Tuesday�s coherent performance. Of course, the piece acquires so much more resonance when it is performed in context, after Emeralds and Rubies...So, the leads must construct their own scenario even before taking their first step. Ruben Martin�s cavalier (his role debut) danced as if he were in search of his elusive ideal, which is how it should be. Martin�s partnering of Yuan Yuan Tan looked a mite shaky, but Martin�s wonderful ballon and soft landings, allied to the muted ardor, proved more than promising. Tan simply sparkled from the mysterious opening encounter, which finds the pair traveling towards each other on the diagonal. Her cambr�s traded in vulnerability; her piqu�s suggested imperiousness and both dancers melted into the Tchaikovsky music...The women soloists-Erin McNulty, Lily Rogers, Jennifer Stahl, Courtney Wright brought uncommon stature to the �paulement./ VOD |
| There was no shortage of exceptional dancers a guest would want to spend more time with - Rory Hohenstein in Lew Christensen's "Filling Station." Tuesday, the best reason for its revival was Katita Waldo as the drunken Rich Girl, deliciously daffy in Rich Boy (and longtime "Filling Station" veteran) Val Caniparoli's hands. Hohenstein had the Gene Kelly ease for Mac, the high-flying station attendant, though he could ham it up yet more. And the orchestra sounded as if it was having fun with the tongue-in-cheek bombast of Virgil Thomson's winking, jazzy score under Music Director Martin West. Tomasson's best choreography celebrates his dancers, and "7 for Eight," set to Bach. Tuesday's soloist, Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun, danced the opening pas de deux to the second movement of Concerto No. 5, curling up like a cat upon Tiit Helimets' shoulder...Gennadi Nedvigin was my favorite among the four men - lately he moves with extra loft, like a feather that might be batted yet higher by a sudden breeze. Joan Boada fleetly danced the harpsichord solo, and Frances Chung made a stylish fit with the women, elegant in Sandra Woodall's lacy black dresses. That Tan could make "Diamonds" an event speaks to her position as the Ballet's most glamorous star principal, a bird-boned wonder of fluidity from her impossibly long fingers to her sweetly puppyish big feet. "Diamonds" is only as good as the ballerina dancing it - despite its huge corps arrayed in baubles and its enchanted Tchaikovsky score, this is the weakest panel of Balanchine's evening-length 1967 triptych "Jewels," lacking the deeper poetry of "Emeralds," the naughty verve of "Rubies." But with Balanchine's muse Suzanne Farrell performing the role created on her, "Diamonds" had drama. And with Farrell coaching these latest performances, Tan gave it drama, too, though it was a drama all her own. No opportunity for flourish went unseized, from a twist of the wrists to accompany her pizzicato prancing to the ravished loll of her head as partner Ruben Martin opened her plunging arabesque into that big, luscious effac�. "Just the steps, dear," as per Balanchine's dictum, this was not, and yet it wasn't affectation either. Tan looked too genuinely ecstatic to be affected, her gestures not some ploy to impress us but a true outpouring. Martin made the perfect complement, quietly gallant while still hitting his exposed grandes pirouettes. The corps waltzed with elan; among the demi-soloists, Jennifer Stahl and lovely Lily Rogers shone with graciousness./ SFGate |