A photo of Ruben Martin rehearsing Robbins' The Concert in the program. Photo in the program by Erik Tomasson.

Just a quick note on Programs 4 and 5 at the San Francisco Ballet currently going on, which I saw this past weekend – if you haven’t seen these yet, RUN and grab tickets to the last showing this week. It’s my two favorite programs this year so far at the SF Ballet – out of the six pieces presented over these two programs, there was only one half-miss (can anyone guess which one I wasn’t totally thrilled about??). Program 4 has the haunting Tudor’s Jardin aux Lilas and the hilariously charming Robbins’ The Concert that had everyone from these loudly giggling little boys in the orchestra section to me, laughing out loud. It also includes Tomasson’s On a Theme of Paganini. The great thing is that the last program this week contains nearly the same oustanding cast I saw in Jardin and the Concert, aside from the spot-on comedic timing of Pascal Molat, who will be danced instead by Ruben Martin in the photo above. How can you not love that photo?? Alastair Macaulay wrote about how George Balanchine favored against type casting, and it would be great fun to see hearthrob Ruben Martin in this comedic role on Wednesday.

Program 5 is the delicious all-Mark Morris program – they did an all Robbins’ program last year that I didn’t think quite captured the essence of Robbins, but I felt like the Mark Morris program captured the elusive balance of Morris’ heart, wit, humor, and versatility very well. If you like ballet to be only beautiful and classical and extension-y, perhaps this isn’t the program for you (although I like beautiful ballet as well). But if you like to see someone push the boundaries of what ballet can be in a surprising and thrilling way, Program 5 is for you. This program would be great for younger audiences as well. It includes Morris’ A Garden, Joyride, and the audience favorite, Sandpaper Ballet.

More to come later…

More information on Program 4 and Program 5 on the SF Ballet’s website.