Saturday Matinee

San Francisco Ballet principal Nicolas Blanc’s notes on Mark Morris’ Joyride, displayed in the lobby of the War Memorial Opera House

Finally, the crowning glory of an already brilliant 75th anniversary year for San Francisco Ballet is almost here – the much-touted New Works Festival, where ten of the top dance choreographers in the world have been invited to create 10 new works for the San Francisco Ballet. Fitting well with its anniversary year of really looking forward to the future of the company, the company is bringing in some of the greatest names in dance to create and showcase the company to the world in some really great pieces. I really hope the choreography lives up to the hype, but despite that, it will be really interesting to see what these choreographers can create. The invited choreographers are Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, Paul Taylor, Jorma Elo, James Kudelka, resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov, Val Caniparoli, Margaret Jenkins, Julia Adam, and Stanton Welch. It’s a very impressive list, although a few admittedly I don’t recognize, in addition to some glaring omissions (Twyla Tharp comes to mind, as well as Alexei Ratmansky, although it seems like they had to put together this list a few years ago before Ratmansky rose to fame, as shown in the invited letter below).

The next big thing: Christopher Wheeldon and principal Damian Smith paper dolls!

Some more info on the New Works Festival as published in the Contra Costa Times:

Not to be outdone, San Francisco Ballet gives the downtown crowd a run for its money this month when Helgi Tomasson… [will] put… on a torrent of new work by 10 contemporary choreographers from around the globe in the groundbreaking New Works Festival.

Locals in the lineup include San Francisco’s postmodernist choreographer Margaret Jenkins and Berkeley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams.

Given free rein by Tomasson in their music choices, some choreographers have hewed to the familiar, as former SFB principal Julia Adam has in her choice of J.S. Bach. Others, like Jenkins, opted to work with longtime collaborators, bringing San Francisco experimental rock composer Paul Dresher on board to create the aural landscape for her premiere of “Thread.”

Brooklyn-based Mark Morris has teamed up with Berkeley’s John Adams in a work tentatively titled “Joy Ride” set to Adam’s “Son of Chamber Symphony,” pegged as a devilishly difficult piece of music that changes meter as often as a chameleon changes color.

Some more highlights: Julia Adams will be choreographing to Bach’s Goldberg Variations, putting her dangerously close to comparison with Robbins’ version of the same piece of music, although there is a chance that it uses video media which would make it vastly different. Also Mark Morris is reconvening with the fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi who will do the costumes for his piece.

During the time that Program 6 was running at the War Memorial Opera House, the lobby held a great museum of paraphernalia promoting the New Works Festival, including video footage of Jorma Elo choreographing on the company. The pictures in this entry are from that great collection. Who can resist a peek behind the scenes, which also increases appreciation for what’s to come?

A letter that Helgi Tomasson sent to Margaret Jenkins inviting her to choreograph for the New Works Festival. Note the letter is dated October 2005

Why You Should Care

When Wheeldon’s pieces traveled from New York and appeared in SF Ballet’s repertory within the span of a few years, it’s amazing how fast a great piece can be incorporated into ballet companies on opposite sides of the continent, as well as all over the world. In this way, this festival is groundbreaking in that 10 new pieces will be put into circulation and up for grabs for other dance companies to perform. I wouldn’t be surprised if international players will be paying close attention to the New Works Festival, followed by the appearance of a few of these pieces in other companies in a short amount of time. And it’s always a special thing to be able to watch choreography on the dancers that it was built on.

The New Works Festival begins on April 22, with Program A (Taylor, Wheeldon, and Possohkov). Casting reveals that Wheeldon and Posshokov are using the company’s biggest dancers for his piece, while Taylor is using dancers with a more modern sensibility. Taylor was also one of the last choreographers to cast his piece, but he picked a great lineup of flashy dancers including Spaulding and Stewart.