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| Program 2 |
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| SF BALLET 2008 75TH ANNIVERSARY |
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| Divertimento No. 15 - George Balanchine / last performed: 2007 Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes - Mark Morris / last performed:1997 Firebird - Yuri Possokhov / last performed in 2007 |
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| This is a program that is for Romantics in the week leading up to Valentines Day. George Balanchine presents a courtly view of romance with polite pairings with demanding footwork mixed pairings.. Mark Morris' romance is exuberant and impulsive. His ballet makes you feel exhilarated. 'Yuri Possokhov (presents) the most delectable version of Stravinsky's Firebird since the Ballet Russe parted their curtains for it in 1910.' |
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| CriticalDance Program 2 |
| Reprising Divertimento No. 15 with one change of (soloist) (Hansuke Yamamoto replaced the ailing Jaime Garcia Castilla) proved instructive...It helped that Nicolas Blanc, who was coming off a sustained injury last year, has hit his stride this season and offered the requisite polish in the phrasing...While it is true that more than one of the female soloists (Frances Chung, Kristin Long, Rachel Viselli, Katita Waldo, Vanessa Zahorian) may not present the proportions deemed ideal for Balanchine, the artistry on view in the "Theme and Variations" movement and the talent for characterizing through phrasing remained paramount. Finesse reigned in the piqu� promenades, the soft descents, the imperial alignments, the artfully floated arms, the necklaces of bourr�es strung on threads of gold. Kudos to Yamamoto and Gennadi Nedvigin, who expounded the theme in a series of feathery bris�s. Watching a new generation of dancers frolic their way through Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes .. is a fascinating experience...You run out of breath just watching the dancers whirl across the stage in pairs, stretching arms to each other as they travel. Morris will toss in a pli� here, an assembl� there, and he simply moves on....Yet, he capitalizes on the skills of particular dancers. How brilliantly he avails himself of Maria Kochetkova�s dynamic turns, Pascal Molat�s elevation, Rory Hohenstein�s velocity, Sarah Van Patten�s self-dramatizing and Anthony Spaulding�s buoyancy. But, above all, Drink to Me remains an essay about a community of resilient, daring dancers. Tuesday�s complement also included Elana Altman, Dores Andre, Courtney Elizabeth, Ruben Martin, Elizabeth Miner, Garen Scribner and James Sofranko, all looking spiffy in Santo Loquasto�s white-on-white costumes. Possokhov�s Firebird skews the Russian legend without adding more than a touch of cynicism and a whiff of Russian expressionism. The prince (Damian Smith) is a ninny. The Princess (Rachel Viselli) is a valley girl. Kaschei (Molat) is cardboard ogre. The bird (Yuan Yuan Tan) is a sylph with orange hair. Kaschei�s followers huddle and creep like the "goons" in Balanchine�s Prodigal Son. No harm done, I suppose, but much of the choreography seems to treat the Stravinsky score (or, what�s left of it) as an afterthought, most egregiously in the final tableau. The choreographer�s better work resides elsewhere./ VOD |
| "Divertimento No. 15" may look like a stereotype of ballet. But pity the viewer who shrugs it off as pretty... Rachel Viselli's hovering rubato as she lowered her arabesque leg, Frances Chung's zesty spring en pointe, Vanessa Zahorian's lush stretch through her chest as she stepped forward as though through water. These details aren't ornaments; they're the soul of the dance, celebrating a way of living that makes every moment beautiful, even in small ways...True, "Divertimento" demands pristine technique; every step to second position (there are many) feels telling and exposed -will she control the finish of that turn enough to step down cleanly? Kristin Long did, every time, and the men rose to her clarity, Gennadi Nedvigin and Nicolas Blanc landing pillow-soft on the ends of phrases (Hansuke Yamamoto was the weak link, working his limbs like jackknives). Mark Morris, it's a very different kind of society: no hierarchies. Simplicity in gesture, though never in musical understanding... you can see him trying on the ballet idiom as a second language..fifth position en haut becomes arms crossed overhead to make an X. But sometimes the effect is Morris doing vocabulary drills. Textbook �chapp�s and pass�s (feet in and out to second, then down and up to the knee) must have seemed novel at one time, merely because it was Morris choreographing them, but now they're only plain. Fortunately Maria Kochetkova makes whatever she dances darling. Sarah Van Patten had an easy, open presence, often opposite the young corps member Anthony Spaulding, who must be one of the most promising products of the San Francisco Ballet School in many years. Possokhov's "Firebird" closed with a crowd-pleaser. It has conceptual wholeness, with space-age costumes (Sandra Woodall) and sets (Yuri Zhukov), and a consistency of theatrical invention: the princess' friends forming rotating gates to keep her from the prince; the joke of the monsters running worriedly in place when the prince seizes the magic egg...The prince (Damian Smith) is a dolt; the princess (Viselli) is a brat. I can't really care about their love, or about the prince's abandonment of the firebird, even with Yuan Yuan Tan, who should be paid overtime this season, stretching her unreal lines so gorgeously with that plumed tail. Pascal Molat reprised the evil sorcerer Kashchei with relish./ SFGate |