Saturday Matinee

Is there a weirder premise for a horror movie than the world of the New York City Ballet? Cue the cliches, and let the Rodarte-costume viewing begin!

Happy Thursday, everyone!

I’m loving these videos from NY Times critic Anthony Tomassini, including the one explaining counterpoint. The video below made me itch to see Company and Sweeney Todd again. I love the tension in the dissonances in Sweeney Todd, as Tomassini points out.

There was a barber and his wife… and she was beautiful…

Yuan Yuan Tan and Tiit Helimets in Tomasson's Prism. © Erik Tomasson

Last weekend, I made my annual trek to Stern Grove for the opportunity to see San Francisco Ballet perform in the gorgeous outdoor setting there. One of my favorite things about this performance is that it’s never just about the performance itself. It’s impossible to talk about this performance without mentioning the gorgeous outdoor setting and the huge audience spread out all over the hillside, all enjoying themselves and having a good time in this more casual atmosphere. Also competing this year for the stage, however, was the weather. Not only was the temperature in the upper fifties/lower sixties, there was a heavy mist that would fall occassionally, delaying the performance and then stopping it once in the middle. The stage was fortunately tarped overhead, but the orchestra in front were the unwitting victims. As an ex-flute player, I kept on imagining flute keypads swelling as they filled with water, and conductor Martin West tactfully stopped the performance in the middle of the first piece, Helgi Tomasson’s Prism. Despite a layer of tension that couldn’t be helped, still it was all done very seamlessly, and it seemed to add to the audience’s appreciation.

The dancers flew in Tomasson’s Prism with only a few signs of the weather by resorting to half-pointe. Despite the distracting circumstances, the pristine elegance of the piece shone through, backed nicely by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, played by Roy Bogas. Vanessa Zahorian was as untouchable and as perfect as a ballerina sparkling in a jewel box. Yuan Yuan Tan showed more generosity of spirit with the same clean lines but a lingering expression in her long arms, partnered tenderly by the princely Tiit Helimets. The smaller ensembles were breathtaking in the way that they matched each other to a tee; Jaime Garcia Castilla and Isaac Hernandez breathed as one with a lovely stretch and lightness. New corps member Daniel Baker fit right in with Myles Thatcher and Matthew Stewart as they flew through the air with the exactness of trapeze artists. Hansuke Yamamoto was the generous master of ceremonies, as if welcoming the audience to his domain with a smile and virtuosic fireworks.

Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith in Wheeldon's After The Rain. © Erik Tomasson

Right when the worst of the mist seemed to past, the audience laughed at the irony of the next piece, After the Rain. I wondered how Wheeldon’s pas de deux would fare in such a distracted audience. The piece started with a restless audience, but the simplicity of Arvo Pärt’s music soon cast its spell, played by Heidi Wilcox on violin and conductor Martin West at the piano. With Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith on the stage, vulnerable, they quickly cast their hypnotic spell over the audience and held them spellbound in a moving journey. In its awkward beauty and tension filled with regret, Tan and Smith’s partnership spoke of something beyond the steps, but of a deeper relationship of trust and strength. It was moving to the core, and absolutely gorgeous to watch.

Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz in Tomasson/Possokhov's Don Quixote © Erik Tomasson

Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz followed with a truncated version of the pas de deux from Don Quixote, Act III, which I had seen them dance at Napa Valley a few weeks before. It really got the audience going with their technical fireworks, but way too brief. And the lovely afternoon ended with Mark Morris’ irreverent and very funny Sandpaper Ballet. Is it not the equivalent of Mark Morris giving the stuffy institution of ballet, in all its technical rules and pretty floofiness, the middle finger? He has the dancers rolling on the ground, arms hanging loose and being flung wildly about. Not to say that there isn’t a structure or a master plan to this masterpiece, which happens to be one of my favorites. Morris does it with such ingenuity and humor that you can’t help but to laugh. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else dancing this with as much joy and wit as San Francisco Ballet, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

San Francisco Ballet heads to Copenhagen next for their tour on August 21-27.

The Stern Grove Festival continues on through August 22. Click here for more info.

A quote from Anthony Bourdain in his book, Medium Raw, that I was reading on the plane a few weeks ago.

“If there’s a new and lasting credo from the Big Shakeout (the economic crisis) it’s this: People will continue to pay for quality. They will be less and less inclined, however, to pay for bullshit.”

He was speaking about high end restaurants and the gimmicks they employ. So true for the arts as well.

The competition is back on, folks! For all you scientists who work all day and night in windowless labs in fluorescent lighting (or is that just me?) and have always longed to express yourself through dance!, here’s your chance. The Dance Your PhD competition is on again for current and past PhD candidates, and the deadline for submitting your video is on September 1, 2010. The prizes are cash this year, and a chance to see your video at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York City in October. (Personally, last year’s prize of seeing professional choreographers reinterpret your PhD into a more official dance sounded cooler, but I’m most likely in the minority.) An even cooler prize would be a guarantee from Science to print a first author paper from your PhD, but no such guarantees are included.

Is it also an unexpected perk for non-scientists to be able to read about the science that is being done behind closed doors?

For more details, click here. If anyone submits one, please let me know!! Also included this year are comments from last year’s videos, which are helpful. I wonder what they said about mine, the exploring, dancing, slightly promiscuous young neuron??

Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky, courtesy of ABT

It was a gorgeous drive into Napa Valley on a Friday early evening. Amidst fields of vineyards, Napa Valley got a taste of big city fine arts with the Festival del Sole. Only in its fifth year with a focus on fine arts, food, and wine, this was the first year that this festival included a dance performance, with big names from the New York City Ballet to the Bolshoi. From the start of the performance, there was excitement in the air; the presenter announced his surprise that the full house proved that there really is an audience for dance in Napa.

The program was an eclectic mix of pieces ranging from classical ballet to modern, from the well-known to the more obscure. Not surprisingly, the audience favorites by far were the familiar and the virtuosic. Andrew Veyette and Megan Fairchild brought down the house with  Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes. Veyette ate up the stage with his impressive lines and even more impressive charisma. In the midst of being awed by Veyette’s stretch and artistry, he made you smile with his playful attack and his grin. His chemistry with Fairchild was pure fun, in this glitzy rendition of Stars and Stripes, and it was perfect for the gala atmosphere of this performance. Later, Veyette and Fairchild’s Swan Lake didn’t fare as well; it felt like a more embellished and a slightly more muddled version of the classical ballet.

Petipa’s Don Quixote, danced with flair by San Francisco Ballet dancers Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz, was another standout. I’ve always found Feijoo to be both a stylistic and stylish dancer, and she shines in Don Quixote. Every detail is colored with sass and flirty eyes, and Luiz flew through the air to the audience’s delight. Feijoo and Luiz also performed Forsythe’s in the middle, somewhat elevated with red-hot sensuality, the sexiest rendition I’d seen yet. I wished the music had been louder though; I hadn’t realized how much the heart-pounding beats of Thom Willem’s score was central to experiencing this piece.

The central billing of this evening was American Ballet Theatre’s Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky. Their transparent rendition of Balanchine’s Apollo added touches of humor and humanity amidst its stark angles. Every movement deliberate, Beloserkovsky distinguishes between the soft swoops to the pointed punctuations of quick footwork. Glances and smiles are shared between Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky, and the expansive ending lingers with Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky draped over each other looking up with hope. Their other two offerings for the night, however, didn’t fare so well – Jessica Lang’s “Splendid Isolation III” is several minutes of melodramatic posturing, and Anatoliy Beliy’s “Carmen Suite” is even more so,  but more kinetic and even more over the top. Despite their program choices, Dvorovenko is positively statuesque, dancing beyond her diminuitive frame with glamor and dynamism, and Beloskerkovsky is pure elegant strength in various states of bare-chested costumes.

Bolshoi principal Marianna Ryzhkina and ABT soloist Gennadi Saveliev (a substitution for Bolshoi’s Dmitry Gudanov) were the epitome of control in excerpts from Raymonda and Giselle. They especially simmered in Giselle, with sadness and forgiveness in breathtaking balances and heartache.

One of the problems with this gala format is that each piece is so short, and it leaves you wanting to see more. There were some rough edges in the evening, with its stage that often left dancers in the dark practically in the wings when preparing for a set of leaps or turns, some sound fluctuations, and trouble getting people ushered into their seats on time. But these things are trivial; there was an adoring audience (including Rita Moreno and Helgi Tomasson), incredible dancing, and the buzz thanks to the visiting guest stars. Everyone left with something new and challenging, in addition to the familiar classics, and an anticipation for what the festival will offer next year. I hope that Festival del Sole continues to incorporate more dance offerings for the future.

Festival del Sole

An interesting quote from San Francisco Symphony conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas, about the symphony listening experience from the audience point of view (via the Wall Street Journal).

“In some places, there is a certain ritualistic aspect to it. The audience expects to have a certain kind of experience, which perhaps reaffirms certain nice and comfortable things from their life. The idea that you can shake it up a bit at the concert or experience something new is very particular to this area and this audience.”

I know that Thomas was trying to say that Bay area audiences are different, and perhaps the Bay area is better than most places, but I still see a lot of both groups of people at the symphony.

San Francisco Symphony’s summer season ends this weekend with a bang with a really fun program, starting with John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Chris Noth (“Mr. Big”) narrating Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, the original jazz band version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (super cool), and a collaboration with the UC Berkeley Marching Band for the hit Broadway tune “Seventy-Six Trombones”. Come early for music and dancing with the Martini Brothers, plus desserts and specialty drinks in the lobby. For more information, click here.

Artem Yachmennikov taken at the Het Nationale Ballet, taken by Angela Sterling

New company members for San Francisco Ballet’s 2011 season has been announced! Artem Yachmennikov will be joining as a principal dancer, previously from the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet, Het Nationale Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet. Vito Mazzeo will join as a soloist, previously from the Royal Ballet and the Teatro dell’Opera. The new corps members are Daniel Baker (previously a soloist at the Miami City Ballet), Nicole Ciapponi, Koto Ishihara, Elena Kazakova, Dustin Shane, Sebastian Vinet, Lonnie Weeks, and SF Ballet apprentices Kimberly Braylock, Myles Thatcher, and Sylvie Volosov.

Congratulations! It’ll be exciting to see how the newly hired soloists will perform, as well as seeing the familiar faces of previous SF Ballet students and apprentices (apprenticii?) who graced the audience last year in vivid, lasting moments onstage. Check out the new roster, here.

Summer is a downtime for the arts as many organizations closes its doors for the summer, but there’s still a lot to see, especially in the form of festivals which appear to be everywhere in the Bay Area.

The 5th annual Festival del Sole begins today in Napa Valley. In the beautiful locale, a festival of fine arts, fine foods, wine, and wellness includes, for the first time, an evening of international dance, featuring stars from the American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet. Titled, “Stars of American and Russian Ballet”, this is like the all-star exhibition game in baseball that I was forced to watch the other night. Representative dancers from top international ballet companies come together in an exciting program of classical and modern ballet,  including some of my favorite ballets and some I’ve always wanted to see.

Principals from American Ballet Theatre Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky will be dancing Balanchine’s Apollo pas de deux, Jessica Lang’s Splendid Isolation III, and Anatoliy Beliy’s Carmen Suite. New York City Ballet principals Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette will perform an excerpt from Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes and Jerome Robbins’ Andantino. Bolshoi principals Marianna Ryzhkina and Dmitri Gudanov will perform exceprts from Raymonda and Leonid Lavrovsky’s Paganini. San Francisco Ballet principals Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz will perform excerpts from Forsythe’s in the middle, somewhat elevated and Don Quixote.

The gala will be on Friday, July 23, 2010, 6:30pm, at the Lincoln Theater Napa Valley in Yountville.For more information on this concert as well as the full calendar of the Festival del Sole, click here. Other performers participating in the Festival del Sole include Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Chris Botti, Conrad Tao, and the Bay Area choir Volti.

San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Lorena Feijoo and A.C.T. core acting company member Jack Willis (pictured at the famed Tosca Café) are part of the multidisciplinary cast of The Tosca Project. Photo by Kevin Berne.

American Conservatory Theatre at San Francisco presents a collaborative project with the San Francisco Ballet in a world premiere dance theater production of The Tosca Project. This piece is a result of a three year collaboration between San Francisco Ballet choreographer Val Caniparoli and A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff, with a cast of dancers and actors. The story is inspired by San Francisco’s Tosca Cafe.

It sounds fascinating, and I’m interested in how artists can switch across theatrical mediums. Pascal Molat has shown ballet audiences that he can act, but can he convince the A.C.T. audience he can act as well? And doesn’t Lorena look fabulous?

A sailor (Pascal Molat) and his girl (Lorena Feijoo) dance a duet to Rosemary Clooney singing “What'll I Do?” Photo by Kevin Berne.

Lorena Feijoo (center) with members of the Tosca Project ensemble (Peter Anderson, left, and Rachel Ticotin, right). Photo by Kevin Berne.

A sailor (Pascal Molat) and his girl (Lorena Feijoo) share a last moment before he heads off to World War II. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Please report back if you’ve seen it – click here for more information and tickets. Check out the SF Chronicle review, here. The Tosca Project closes on July 3 after being extended due to popular demand, with A.C.T. core acting company member René Augesen, Milwaukee Ballet principal dancer Julianna Kepley, and Bay Area ballet dancer Jekyns Pelaez join the ensemble for the extension performances.