Dance, Performance

Oakland Ballet March 17, 2023

by  • 

“Dancing Moons Festival”
Oakland Ballet
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
March 17, 2023 7:30 pm

Many Events of Diverse Design

The Oakland Ballet, under the direction of Graham Lustig, has reached into the Oakland community in many ways, staging dances from the many cultures of that diverse town.

Here, he has brought his company to the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and invited several talented Asian choreographers to ‘fill the bill. ”Dancing Moons Festival” was a delight.

Phil Chan and Caili Quan were the principal choreographers for Part One of the Festival. Works included an 18th century “Ballet des Porcelaines” or “The Teapot Prince” (1739) music by Grandval…to a ‘meditation on America the Beautiful entitled “Amber Waves”. All these three opening works were danced with remarkable skill, clarity and dramatic projection.

After Intermission the entire group participated in what was entitled “Exquisite Corpse”, a game during which each choreographer creates a solo (head), group (torso), duet (legs), after which the “nine sections will be woven together to create an “Exquisite Corpse.” What followed was dynamic, often humorous, always well performed and marvelously costumed. Costume Design was by Vinyl Zhang and Bethany Deal.

The nine works that are included in “Exquisite Corpse” are performed by eleven dancers, all very skilled and capable of projection their enthusiasm for dance. The movement of this work included not just the expected ballet dance technique (steps on toe shoes (en pointe), multiple turns and lifts, tremendous jumps by both men and women), but also lots of ‘contemporary movies’ torso, shoulders and hips, fingers and heads. This was lively medley of old and new.

All the dancers are skilled and projected good energy and delight in dancing. I will mention three who stood out for this reviewer. Those are Nicole Townsend who demonstrate a “mature” technique in “Duet” her partner Logan Martin and Lawrence Chen in a “Solo” and another “Duet”. Chen demonstrated a quickness of skill in turning and his ability as a partner.

Congratulations to the Oakland Ballet, all the participating artists in Lighting, Costume Design and Wardrobe for such an unusual and exciting group of works. All need to be seen again in a large theater. The Cultural Center’s stage is too small. These works were performed in the center of the auditorium space on a special floor; the audience sat on the stage and on all four sides. It brings the dancers very close to its audience which is not always easy for everyone. But this group succeeded in pleasing and delighting its audience.

(One note: the seating meant the lights were often in the audience’s face making it hard to see the dancers. It’s both a focus problem and seating problem. Everyone adjusted.)

All the dancers, choreographers, technical staff and administration deserve applause for this production. We can hope that it will be repeated in another venue for further admiration.

The dancers appearing in this production are: Lawrence Chen; Lizzie Devaney; Karina Eimon Cesar Lino; William Fowler; Logan Martin; Jasmine Quezada; Lucas Sverdlen; AshleyThopiah; Nicole Townsend; Rebecca Huang. Bravo to them all.

 

Dance

SF Ballet – Colorforms

by  • 

San Francisco Ballet: “The Colors of Dance”
Opera House: San Francisco
Tuesday, March 14, 2023

The ongoing season of the San Francisco Ballet under the direction of Tamara Rojo continues to delight audiences with dearly reconstructed works and new ballets. Tomasson’s 7 for Eight opened the evening with the appearance of Yuan Yuan Tan and Aaron Robison in the first movement. The couple who are familiar to the SF Ballet audience appeared again in the sixth movement. The “Eight” movements are danced by seven dancers, each and all performing with delightful skill and energetic projection. Kudos to the soloist Lucas Ernie whose technique was extraordinary.

The premiere of the evening was “Colorforms” a new work by Myles Thatcher with music by Steve Reich. The dancers are released to some extent from the uniform colors of ‘classical’ ballet costumes, here dressed in a variety of contemporary outfits including shorts, slacks, skirts and a variety of shoes and sneakers. Of course there are toe shoes on the women, but a more varied style of movement sparked the casual play between the cast: Jasmine Jamison; Sasha de Sola, Aaron Robison, Misa Kuranaga, Cavan Conley, Esteban Hernandez, Isabella Devivo, Steven Morse, Maggie Weirich and Davide Occhipinti. There is a good deal of casual acting, flirtation and teasing before and during the interactions, solos and duets that are danced amidst the changing landscape. This reviewer, although admiring all the dancers, did not find the setting and stage set changes to the advantage of the dance. Notes indicate that the dance was “infused with joy-and a bit of irreverence,” even escapism. Yes, but enough to lose the sense of the whole. Although sets are exciting to see and visually inventive, the dance and dancers are often ‘lost’ in the demands they make. Sets, lights, overdone costumes can ‘upstage’ dance.

“Blake Works!” Choreography and scenic design by William Forsythe, which has its premiere at SFB in 2022 was a more pleasant and for me, a more theatrical work. Composer James Blake provided a variety of songs and dancers Sasha De Sola, Nikisha Fogo, Jasmine Jimison presented casual but intriguing acting in their dance/movement.

The dramatic action of soloists against group was particularly fine. Sasha De Sola had the delight of her toy ‘plane’ to give the work a ‘center’ action. The audience also enjoyed the game. A men’s section danced by Joseph Walsh, Isaac Hernández, Max Cauthorn, Lucas Erni, Esteban Hernández was particularly skilled and delightful and of course in other sections, the men partnered the women (as named above) in various song-duets. It was good to see Nikisha Fogo on stage again. She has not appeared in the last year as often as her talent offers.

“The Colors of Dance” was a delightful evening extending ballet ‘libretti” in ways that are contemporary and for the most part delightful. Although Thatcher and Forsythe expand the usual ‘classical’ dance vocabulary in the their works, still, in the midst of innovative movement the choreography reverts to ‘pas de deux’ lifts and falls, pirouettes and acrobatic extensions which are the fundamental ballet vocabulary. It would be interesting for ‘new works’, ‘new choreographers’ to find a consistent vocabulary for their inventions.’

7 FOR EIGHT
Conductor: Martin West
Piano: Mungunchimeg Buriad

First Movement
Yuan Yuan Tan, Aaron Robison

Second Movement
Norika Matsuyama, Cavan Conley

Third Movement
Ellen Rose Hummel, Carmela Mayo
Lucas Erni

Fourth Movement
Cavan Conley, Luca Ferrò
Norika Matsuyama, Carmela Mayo

Fifth Movement
Lucas Erni

Sixth Movement
Yuan Yuan Tan, Aaron Robison

Seventh Movement
Ensemble

 

COLORFORMS

Conductor: Martin West

JASMINE JIMISON
SASHA DE SOLA, AARON ROBISON
MISA KURANAGA
CAVAN CONLEY, ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ
ISABELLA DEVIVO, STEVEN MORSE
MAGGIE WEIRICH, DAVIDE OCCHIPINTI

 

BLAKE WORKS I

I Need a Forest Fire
Sasha De Sola, Nikisha Fogo, Jasmine Jimison
Kamryn Baldwin, Thamires Chuvas, Isabella DeVivo, Gabriela Gonzalez, Blake Johnston, Swane Messaoudi, Nicole Moyer, Lauren Parrott, Leili Rackow
Max Cauthorn, Diego Cruz, Lucas Erni, Luca Ferrò, Esteban Hernández, Lleyton Ho, Alexis Francisco Valdes, Joseph Walsh

Put That Away and Talk to Me
Isabella DeVivo, Jasmine Jimison, Esteban Hernández

The Colour in Anything
Nikisha Fogo, Isaac Hernández

I Hope My Life
Sasha De Sola, Nikisha Fogo, Joseph Walsh, Max Cauthorn
Ensemble

Waves Know Shores
Isabella DeVivo, Diego Cruz, Alexis Francisco Valdes
Thamires Chuvas, Gabriela Gonzalez, Lauren Parrott, Lucas Erni, Luca Ferrò

Two Men Down
Joseph Walsh, Isaac Hernández, Max Cauthorn, Lucas Erni, Esteban Hernández
Ensemble

Forever
Sasha De Sola, Max Cauthorn

Dance

SF Ballet – Next 90 Festival – Program A

by  • 

San Francisco Ballet 90th Anniversary Season
Program A
January 20, 2023

Strange and Wonderful

Opening night for SF Ballet’s season brought new works to the Opera House stage.
As promised, there were new choreographers and intriguing dimensions to Program One. The San Francisco Ballet is moving into new dimensions.

Robert Garland’s “Haffner Serenade” to music by Mozart (Serenade #7in D Major) was a ‘sweet’ work for “pas de deux” Julia Rose and Esteban Hernandez accompanied by eight dancers, four men and four women who provided the charming but simple interludes before and during as accompaniment to the the “pas de deux.” It is not a distinguished work but it served as the opener. All the dancers were capable, but they were not challenged by the choreographic patterns nor steps. The costumes, men in green and women in pink, did not provide visual delight.“Resurrection” is a challenging work, depicting a dominant woman Queen (described in print as austere and malicious) who kills her partner and “uses her powers of persuasion, beauty and magic…to find a suitor to love and assist in rulership of her tribe.” Jamar Roberts, choreographer, (formerly of the Alvin Ailey Company) is quoted as saying that a choreographer should think like a novelist.

The story of “Resurrection” is novel, dramatic and often painful as the Queen (danced by Doris André) more or less ‘creates’ her suitor (Isaac Hernandez) into the man she desires. Wanting Zhao and Aaron Robison are active candidates in the narrative accompanied by eight “members of the tribe” Although it is a fierce, dramatic work, full of aggressive movement and strong expansive gesture, this reviewer found it dramatically unconvincing. It is a challenge, as one friend remarked, to “create a story that is politically correct and also “Kafkaesque”.The set, a series of wonderful arches by choreographer and designer Jamar Roberts was most attractive and intriguing. “Resurrection” is set to Mahler’s “Totenfeier.”

One of the new dimensions of “Resurrection” is that NO women in the group wore point shoes. This is a challenge for the dancers as well as for an audience for whom ballet’s history of the last hundred years has required ‘pointe’ work. Without ‘pointe’ the dancers seem to have stronger torso and arm gestures; but that might also be part of this powerful new ballet’s choreographic strength.

“Madcap” the closing work on the program, choreographed by a woman, Danielle Rowe, was also a challenging new adventure. To a series of songs by composer Par Hagstom, Ms. Rowe (a former dancer with the Nederlands Dance Theatre) has taken the ‘anatomy’of the clown and dissecting it as inspiration for movement.” Starring as The Clown is the wonderful Tiit Helimets, whose dramatic ability enables the work to be sustained throughout the many episodes of humiliation and recovery. Other characters are The Oracle (Jennifer Stahl) the Juggled (Max Cauthorn, Alexis Valdes and Wei Wang), The Red Nose (Davide Occhipinti, Henry Sidford), The Mirror (Sasha De Sola), The Kid (Parker Garrison) and a chorus of “Mom Pa-Pa’s).

“Madcap” is a delightful yet painful portrayal of what is usually portrayed as a rollicking good time at a circus or carnival. Rowe has stripped the surface and brought forth the complexity and the grotesque beneath the joviality. Again, we the audience are brought to see and experience dimensions of ballet that have been rarely presented.

This challenging program will be repeated at the Opera House through February 11 to be followed by more and other innovative events throughout the “next@90 festival.”

Conductor Martin West and the SF Ballet orchestra continue their outstanding musical skill to accompany the ballets. New director, Tamara Rogo is to be congratulated on her plans for the “next@90 festival”.

See: sfballet.org/events for further information.