Dance

San Francisco Ballet: Dos Mujeres

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San Francisco Ballet
April 4, 2024
Dos Mujeres
San Francisco Opera House

Women Choreographers: Women’s Stories in Dance

An inventive and unusual evening of choreography was presented by San Frncisco Ballet with the “World Premiere” of “Carmen,” choreography by Arielle Smith to music by Arturo O’Farrill. The four principal dancers were (Carmen) Sasha De Sola, (Jose) Joseph Walsh, (Escamillo, A Chef) Jennifer Stahl and (Gilberto) Wei Wang. Moving away from the well-known Bizet opera, Smith notes that, “the story of Carmen, (is of) a strong and feisty woman who craves love and independence without the traps of obsession or jealousy.” In a restaurant setting, a long counter and a table, Carmen and her chef embrace one another, rejecting (and on occasion accepting) the others, two men. The ballet becomes a very dramatic series of encounters between these characters. Yet despite wonderful gesture and dramatic use of space , the story is not always clear. It might well become a play with dialogue to explain and expand these relationships and Carmen’s drama.

To the delight of the audience and the ballet world, “Broken Wings” tells Frida Kahlo’s story with reproductions of her fantastic images (on stage and in the house) to illustrate and portray this fabled woman artist. Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa notes, “She (Kahlo) was an artist, and yet she was an advocate the rights of the Mexican people that were under the influence of the Spaniards. That’s what I like about her…”

The ballet features Isabella Devivo (as Kahlo), John-Paul Simoens (Alfonso), Cavan (Conley) and (Christina) Sasha Mukhadov. Kahlo’s visions are represented as skeletons, birds, a female deer and a group of “male Fridas.” The scenes come and go in great succession, Kahlo abandoned and accompanied in various parts of the ballet by her visions. “Broken Wings” becomes an elaborate fantasy of color, characters, music (by Peter Salem) and song, (“La Llorona” sung by Chavela Vargas). The principals dancers, Devivo, Simoens, Conley and Mukkamedov all give extradorinaiy performances although Isabella Devivo outshines them all. She is small in stature but extraordinarily skilled in technique and projection.

The stage and house are full of gorgeous Kahlo images. Orchoa adds, “I am a Latina woman giving something back to the Latin culture and the Latin people of San Francisco who will feel represented in ballet.”

BRAVA and Bravo to all the artists who created and performed “Broken Wings.”

Dance

San Francisco Ballet: “Next @ 90” Curtain Call

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San Francisco Ballet
April 2, 2034 7:30pm
“Next @ 90” Curtain Call

Delightful Retrospective

“Next@90” is a program presenting three works seen previously at the San Francisco Ballet. Each is delightful, worth seeing over and over, and especially the last ballet on the program entitled “Madcap”. If dancers and the audience need laughter in these times, “Madcap” provides it.

The program opened with “Gateway to the Sun,” choreography by Nicolas Blanc to music by Anna Clyne. The work is pleasant but its effort to create “diversity” and a sense of “visceral” (that Blanc suggests will ‘move ballet forward’) is not achieved. The twelve dancers, starring Sasha De Sola, Wei Wang, Jennifer Stahl and Stephen Morse were lead by a ‘poet’ Isaac Hernandez. Costumes for all were short skirts, providing fine leg work…but there was no other strong impact in this work.

“Violin Concerto,” Stravinsky’s music played by Cordial Marks (on a 1703 Stradivarius!) is led by Sasha Mukhamedov (Muse) who inspires three principal couples and four ensemble couples to dance Yuri Possokhov’s work. The dancers are in shorts and other comfortable costumes and, though formal in ballet vocabulary, it “has an improvisational spirit that was present throughout its creation” says Possokhov.

But it is “Madcap” by choreographer Danielle Rowe that brings down the house and sends the audience into the windy night, delighted and cheerful. The ballet is an imaginary circus featuring clowns, jugglers, a red nose, ‘oom pa-pa’s’ and others unique to Rowe’s imaginative plot wherein events have an improvisational feel, as if the dancers decide when to enter the activities, to just be entertained as we the audience are. Besides the clown, Myles Thatcher, and the ‘oracle’, Jennifer Stahl, all the dancers appear to be having much fun, as we the audience delight in their activities and our surprised joyous response to ballet as sheer pleasure.

The SF Ballet season continues April 4-14 with “Dos Mujeres”, (choreographed by two women) and the return of “Mere Mortals” and “Swan Lake” encore. It has been a very impressive season under the direction of Tamara Rojo. The dancers are wonderful! The choreography often new and different than other seasons. SF Ballet is a gift to the Bay Area community. Go! Whether you have never seen ballet or have seen it all, it is a pleasure.

Dance

San Francisco Ballet: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
San Francisco Ballet Opera House
March 12, 2024 7:30 PM

What dreams are made of…

San Francisco Ballet has brought back Balanchine’s “Dream” after four years. At that time the production had to close…or be postponed until this year due to the COVID virus that threatened audiences…and dancers. Now. in 2024, SF Ballet has engaged “couturier”, Christian Lacroix as designer of the sets and costumes. “Dream” remains magical, funny (as only Shakespeare can provide), elegant and excellent in dancing.

It was choreographed by the famous George Balanchine and premiered on 17 January 1962 and considered as his “first completely original full-length ballet.” That production starred Edward Villella as Oberon, Melissa Hayden as Titania and Arthur Michell as Puck. SF Ballet has in this 2024 production kept the two act structure (Act I) In the forest, (Act II) in Duke Theseus’ Athens palace. Shakespeare’s tale is told in the first act; the second is a ‘courtiers’ wedding celebration and an opportunity for multiple ‘divertissment’. It seems that every dancer in the company and all the children of the SFBallet school participate in the enchanting event.

Compliments and kudos to all: Sasha De Sola (Titania), Esteban Hernandez (Oberon) and wild applause for Cavan Conley as Puck! Bottom was comically portrayed by Alexis Francisco Valdes, bravely and delightfully even wearing the donkey head. We were even treated to the dancing of Nikisha Fogo as Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.

All this and the company and school’s children as principles, pages, butterflies and courtiers. In the pit, with the fine SFBallet orchestra (conducted by Martin West), we were also treated to singers, members of San Francisco’s Volti vocal ensemble.

“Dream” continues at San Francisco Ballet through March 23. If you can give yourself the pleasure of re-reading the play, do it! If not, go the SFBallet’s production! It will encourage you to reread the play, rejoice in its humor and charm and enjoy ‘the dream.’ If you can find a copy of Jennifer Homan’s “Mr.B”, you will discover that the choreographer himself (a 20th century genius of many dimensions) identified most with “Bottom,” the lover, player, braggart who is comically portrayed as an ‘ass’.