Dance, Uncategorized

SF Ballet – Frankenstein

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San Francisco Ballet
“Frankenstein”
March 20, 2025. 7:30 PM
Opera House, SF

The Legend: Dance/Drama

The “Frankenstein” story goes back to 1818 when Mary Shelly wrote the novel which, in later story and film history, became a well-known film. Boris Karloff, playing the monster, is considered the most popular portrayal of “Frankenstein.” The ballet gives us greater dimension: the family history of Victor Frankenstein, his scientific studies and the ‘monstrous’ results.

The cast includes Joseph Walsh as the student, Frances Chung as his fiancé, Ricardo Bustamante as his father, Sasha Mukhamedov, his mother… and the amazing Wei Wang in the role of the ‘monster’. The ballet’s, world premiere in London, (2016) had its San Francisco premiere in 2017. The choreographer for both these events is Liam Scarlett. The composer is cited as Lowell Liebermann.

As with complex story ballets, all this takes careful attention since the events go back and forth in time. The leading characters are danced as children bringing charm and amazement to the future events. The children were delightful danced by; Santiago Stack Lozano (young Victor) and Luka Simone Keiko Ganaden (young Elizabeth). It is crucial for the audience to follow these characters as they all appear in later scenes. One prop is central to the plot: the student Frankenstein is given a “red” book of scientific information. That becomes the source book of his experiment and all that follows. As a student in the anatomy lab, still in shock with his mother’s recent death, he experiments with “creating a living creature”. What follows are many scenes that haunt him and every character in the complex story.

The cast shows amazing skill in their portrayals as the various characters. Although the 19th century ballet vocabulary is the basis of all their technique, they are extraordinary in the range of movement they perform and the subtle acting that the parts demand. Victor and Elizabeth (Walsh and Chung) dance several duets: in one Walsh collapses in Chung’s arms. In further scenes, the Creature demands a mate and is refused. By Act III, his revenge is achieved, the leading characters are all dead.

All this ‘acting’ and dramatization demands not only superb dance technique. but also focused acting projection in order to portray the complex characters and story line. Walsh, Chung and Wei Wang have developed strong acting abilities to accomplish this. ”The most important feeling in this ballet for me is self-discovery. The creature is trying to find answers for himself and find out why he is not loved and left behind by his creator and society.”

We, the audience follow these remarkable events and the cast’s performance with admiration and amazement. The San Francisco Ballet cast, in “Frankenstein” has achieved a level of theater that cannot be surpassed. Bravo to all!

Credits include: Scenic and costume design: John Macfarlane; Lighting: David Finn: Projection Design; Finn Ross. And of course, we are continually delighted by the SF Ballet Orchestra and Martin West, its conductor.

Dance

SF Ballet: Raymonda

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Raymonda
San Francisco Ballet
Saturday, March 1, 2025, 8 PM

So Much…Raymonda!

San Francisco Ballet, under the leadership of director Tamara Rojo, has brought a revised production of Raymonda to an appreciative audience. Rojo is also credited with direction and choreography. She apparently had produced this work in UK in previous years (she cites 2021). In the program she notes, “This adaptation relocates Petipa’s story from the Crusades to the 19th century Crimean War, and challenges traditional expectations around women’s roles during wartime”.

We travel with Raymonda from her “grand family home” in Britain to Crimea, to “a camp outside Sevastopol”. There, her ‘childhood’ friend, John de Bryan and his fellow soldiers prepare to leave for war. He asks Raymonda to marry him on his return. To complete the promise, John gives Ramonda the scarf his mother gave him. He also introduces her to Abdur, a prince from the Ottoman army.

It is important to follow this narrative since each scene is enacted with mime, expressive gesture and several dance events, (group dances, pas de deux, solos for several women and many lively “native” dances. The costuming helps define, in somewhat exaggerated manners, the country differences between the participants). Act 1 concludes with a “dream” ballet: John and Abdur both appear in her dream. Raymonda dances with both, caught between the two men.

This section, the “dream sequence” was, for this reviewer, the most dramatic and balletic of the work. As series of “pas de deux” complete with extraordinary lifts, turns and displays of technical brilliance, it was the dance achievement for dancers Sasha De Sola, Joseph Caley (John) and Fernando Carralå Colomar (Abdur). It was also delightful to recognize Joanna Berman, a former ‘star’ of SFB, in the role of Raymonda’s mother.

Act III is the “wedding day” for Raymonda and John. Again, there are many dance numbers, for bridesmaids dancing with soldiers (from John’s regiment). It is a joyful continuum of group works beautifully executed. Not surprisingly, Raymonda, torn between John and Abdur, leaves the wedding (“and faces a decision that will determine her future”). She receives the ‘scarf’ as a present from John and wears it as she leaves.

A touching note from music director Martin West. He tells us that Ramonda’s composer, Aledander Glazunov was the director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music, when West’s teacher, Ilya Musin, was a student. West notes, “It is a special moment for me, indeed, to be bringing my own tiny part of the legacy of Glazunove to the ravishing ballet score.” West’s conducting of the SF Ballet Orchestra is among the major delights of the SF Ballet’s performances.

There is a complex narrative for the audience to follow, as there are many amazing solos and group dancing.

The evening lasted from 8 PM to 10:45 PM. It is wonderful to see such skill and endurance in the dancers abilities.
For an audience, rushing to make trains and family events, wonderful as it is,, it is ‘much’ Raymonda.

 

Dance

SF Ballet – Cool Britannia

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“Cool Britannia”
San Francisco Ballet Wed. Feb. 20, 2025 7:30pm
War Memorial Opera House San Francisco, CA

Marvelous Innovative Events

Although all three of the ballets presented as “Cool Britannia” are new to San Francisco audiences, they are apparently not ‘new’ having been produced in earlier years. ”Chroma”, the first on the program, was performed in SF in 2011; it was first seen in London in 2006. Tamara Rojo, SF Ballet’s artistic director, formerly a director in London, has made it possible for SF audiences to revisit these unusual works.

Sir Wayne McGregor, the choreographer of “Chroma,” states in his notes, states; “Each intervention, usually some kind of addition, is an attempt to see the context of the body in a new or alien way.” For San Francisco audiences, seeing Rojo’s programming, “Chroma” was indeed a ‘new way.’ Women wore no “point” shoes!

The word “Chroma” is more familiar as “chromatic”… defined as full of color. For the ballet, the backdrops hold the color: the dancers are in pale costumes. The ten dancers ( Andre´, Cauthorn, Chung, Conley, Fogo, Hernandez, Prigent, Jimison, Sullivan and Wang) are among the most skilled and dominant in SFB. All move very quickly with extended gestures, lifts and stage crossings. The program cover illustrates the costumes and “the stretch” of this amazing work. This ballet is “modern dance”.

(As a reviewer, I received many questions about “Chroma.” Ballet audiences will need to “stretch” their viewing. Contemporary dance is beyond the 19th century idiom.)

After “Chroma” the program settled into “Within the Golden Hour” followed by “Dust” two more usual ballet works. “Within the Golden Hour” was choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon (SFB, 2008). The work is dominated by three dance couples (Mayo and Thatcher, Devivo and Prigent, Fogo and Price) and chorus members. Unlike “Chroma” the women and now in “point” shoes. To music by Bosso and Vivaldi, all move in delightful but comfortable patterns, usual in ballet and musical theater. Wheeldon notes “I think dance is most successful when it’s making the music visual.”

The program closed with “Dust” (North American Premiere). The choreography by Akram Kahn, feature dancers Barkman and Cauthorn and a large group of dancers. It too was premiered at the English National Ballet (2013). Program notes tell us “With this tragic narrative, Khan champions the courageous humans of world war 1 who selflessly stepped into unfamiliar territories and embodied the strength of a nation.” “Dust” is very dark and dramatic. It is a strange work to conclude an otherwise program of exuberant dance technique and color. But it is very touching that we remember the many dimensions that dance narrative brings, past, present and future.