Saturday Matinee

It is taking all my strength to keep from going to see the new cast of the Jersey Boys. I’m really excited about the buzz that the new cast is getting – an usher even told me that he heard that they were better than the previous cast. Although the previous cast still holds my heart, I’m looking forward to see what these new guys can do. Thank God for the good reviews of the new cast – it would have taken a lot for me to be happy with the new cast since I’m such a fan of the Sherry cast. I’m mostly waiting for the line flubs to go away, as well as the schedule for the alternate Frankie to be set.

On sort of a regretful note, I hardly got to see the San Francisco Ballet this year. Last year, I was such a dedicated attendee – especially with the performances of Mark Morris’ Sylvia, which I absolutely adored. I just wasn’t that impressed with the programming this year at SFB. I did want to see Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, but had schedule conflicts. I did catch Yuri Possohkov’s Firebird (very theatrical, showy, and a strong first showing as choreographer-in-residence), and Sleeping Beauty, showcasing the strong and clean (and a tad sterile?) Vanessa Zahorian.

There was an interesting discussion going on in Tonya’s website about artistic directors and their attempts at choreography. Peter Martins (of the NY City Ballet) and Helgi Tomasson of SFB are representative examples. Being artistic directors and having an itch to choreograph, you have access to an entire ballet company. And what do you do? You choreograph ballets and you stage them. And often, they are unable to objectively judge the value of their work. (Case in point: snippets of a NY Times review of the much anticipated NYCB R+J:

“The main disappointment is that in choreographing for Romeo and Juliet, Mr. Martins tends to gets stuck in one groove after another…. All the solos and pas de deux for Romeo and Juliet look like Mr. Martins’s rough sketches. He can be a more focused, precise dance maker than he is here.”

In this way, I feel like artistic directors are so simple, and unable to think outside the box. Their ideas are often very simple and trite, even when they think they’re being ingenious (Martins using young dancers in his R+J, Helgi Tomasson in changing the costumes in the last act of Sleeping Beauty to reflect as if 100 years really had passed since Sleeping Beauty fell asleep). These are overrated ideas that don’t translate well into practical results. I would rather see great choreography rather than a change of costume.

There *are* great choreographers – Mark Morris, Balanchine, and Azsure Barton are random examples. Use them!! There is a huge demand for great work being staged. Take a risk. Until another Balanchine comes along, let the great choreographers choreograph.

Maybe it was this idea that really kept me away from SFB this year. I was uber disappointed by Blue Rose that I saw earlier this year (A review: “Why Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson would be in thrall to Elena Kats-Cherin’s flavorless Baltic-tango-ragtime mishmash “Blue Rose” is a mystery.”) It looked like an energetic center floor exercise, except that women were wearing prairie dresses.

I do not know how hard the role of an artistic director is. As a serious ballet goer, I’d love to see more risks and the humility to look at one’s abilities to choreograph and your company’s strengths, and to stage what is best for you, your company, and the audience. SF Ballet has beautiful dancers – Yuan Yuan Tan, Pascal Molat, the Martin brothers, and the newly promoted Sarah Van Patten, whom I think is the most feminine dancer. Let them shine in great work.

Wow that’s a long rant about what I did NOT do this week, nor almost this entire season. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll be offering next year.