Dance, Performance

Water in the Kettle

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“Water in the Kettle”
February 3, 2023
Rhythmic Cultural Works, Alameda, CA

Evie Ladin, Artistic Director of “Water in the Kettle”, tells us in a program note that the production was 5 years in the making. The MoToR group started with a 3-part work and “Water in the Kettle” is now a full evening event. The ‘lockdown’ years have nevertheless produced a dynamic, exciting work for the group of seven (plus two) dancers and two musicians. They are an unbelievable ensemble.

Ms. Ladin explains that her training included Appalachian cultural arts, percussive dance, harmony singing, string band music and social dance…and contemporary performance. All of these are presented as the group moves from one event to another, each featuring a teapot…an object that acts to unify the scenes and the messages. These, the messages, the statements, the presentations, are essentially about women – their actions, their pleasures, their cares and their abilities.

In one section, a woman stands on stage and the others decorate her with long bands of white cloth (perhaps representing a wedding veil?). The audience is handed the ends of the bands… they too are part of the ceremony. We hear the leader’s spoken words., e.g. “My mother said you could marry a rich man…or a poor one…but it’s good to have money” Such aphorisms present sentences and advice given to women year after year, assuming that “mother knows best.” Today’s women (mostly) protest and defy such statements, although they still echo in women’s essential knowledge. Ladin points to the fact that thematically “Water in the Kettle” gives attention to women who are “capable, skilled, experienced and suddenly overlooked or denied opportunity.” These women in this ensemble, “ain’t!” (Or if they are, they are speaking out about it!)

All the various numbers demonstrate the superb skill of the dancers as a dynamic ensemble, singing, clapping and moving in unison or in varying group patterns. Accompanied by musicians Amber Hines and Lisa German, their voices and percussive use of hands clapping and on the body is truly amazing. It is great ensemble work!

…and there is ‘tongue in cheek humor’ and real pleasure. Humor resounds throughout!

The dancers are: Keira Armstrong, Heather Arnett, Tammy Chang, Kirsten DeAmicis, Valerie Gutwirth, Evie Ladin, Sydney Lozier…with Linda Carr, JJ Hansen, and Cynthia Mah. Congratulations to all!

Dance, Performance

SF Ballet – Next 90 Festival – Program B

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San Francisco Ballet Program B
Sunday, January 29, 2023 2 pm
Opera House, San Francisco

“New Ballets:” some dimensions not yet presented!

Program B, for which, alas, this reviewer had to miss opening night, was repeated on Sunday, January 29 as a matinee. Of the three works on the program, two were distinguished by innovative choreographic dimensions and some technical surprises.

Choreographers Bridget Breiner and Yuka Oishi contributed the most interesting works: that by Val Caniparoli, a veteran SFBallet member and choreographer, was pleasant, charming and alas, used much the same dance vocabulary and choreographic organization that the audience has seen, liked and applauded.

Breiner’s ballet “The Queen’s Daughter” takes off on the Salome legend, focussing on Salome’s relationship to her mother, childhood jealousy and her ultimate act of heroism, at least as recognized by Herod’s court. (The actual Bible story can be found in the New Testament and online in “WomenInTheBible.net”.) For this performance, Jasmine Jamson danced the daughter, seeking attention from Herodias (Elizabeth Powell) and from her father Herod (Miles Thatcher). The “Prophet” was danced by Max Cauthorn. All used gesture, movement and mime effectively: Cauthorn was outstanding with his ability to remain dramatically effective with strong, simple gesture.

The score for “The Queen’s Daughter” was the violin concerto of Benjamin Britten.

“Bolero” by Maurice Ravel is noted as an “iconic” piece. It is well known and often heard. For the ballet, the choreographer Yuka Oshi has created new visual and kinetic dimensions to what is often considered a ‘trite’ repetitious tango variation. Her work is dominated by six dancers, (for this performance) Wona Park, Julia Rowe, Gabriela Gonzalez with John-Paul Simoens, Cavan Conley, and Joshua Jack Price and ten others in a ‘corps’. (Some of these principle dancers are members of the corps de ballet and not listed as soloists!). The movement is innovative in the use of hand gestures, group activity, spacing and unusual relationships in “pas de deux”. There is a remarkable development in the choreographic development. Oshi says, “I wanted to go from the most micro to the opposite scale…which meant movement to suggest cell division and floating astra bodies.”

For some audience members the fantastic projections on the screen behind the dancers, which moved and changed as much as they did, was disconcerting. This reviewer found it exciting to observe as the projections resonated with the dance.

Program B opened with eight dancers speaking to the audience in “Emergence,” a ballet by veteran dancer and choreographer Val Canipoli to “Concerto for Cello and Strings” by Dobrinka Tabakova. The dancers briefly said they were ‘emerging’ from the pandemic limitations’ and were now free to dance. “Emergence” was a delightful opening number but it did not expand the dancers’ vocabulary. The eight performers were: Jihyuan Choi (apprentice), Isabella Devivo, Jasmine Jamison, Norika Matsuyama, Ruben Citrus Nieto, Lucas Erni, Andris Kundzins, and Lonnie Weeks. Clearly this work gave some of the younger, less seen dancers an opportunity to shine.

Conductor Matthew Rowe served the orchestra with its usual accomplishment. Martin West, the ballet’s excellent music director lead the group in the music for “The Queen’s Daughter”. Cordula Marks was the violin soloists.

The “Gala” events are concluded at this time, Most of the choreographers were selected by Helgi Tomasson before he left as SFB director. The Ballet’s continues with selections well known to its audience for the rest of the season. We anticipate great performances and good memories of the “Next 90 festival” of 2023.

Dance

SF Ballet – Next 90 Festival – Program C

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San Francisco Ballet: Next 90 Festival Program C
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
San Francisco Opera House 7:30 PM

Technique vs. Drama: Which is the dominant force?

The Next 90 Festival at this season’s opening events brings never seen choreographers as well as old friends to the stage. For Program C, the audience was introduced to Nicolas Blanc’s “Gateway to the Sun”: Claudia Schrier’s “Kin” and SF Ballet’s choreographer in residence’s Yuri Possokhov’s “Violin Concerto”. Of the three, for this reviewer, “Violin Concerto” was the most successful as dance. The other two, although performed with the superb technical excellence SF Ballet members have achieved, lacked a dramatic ‘through line’ and were dominated by a “now” need for technical display. Choreography in these two first works used constant lifts and some floor work.

Claudia Schrier’s “Kin” opened the Wednesday evening performance. To music by Tanner Porter, costume design by Abigail Dupree-Polston, scenic design by Alexander V. Nichols and lighting by Jim French, Schrier creates a work that moves swiftly across the stage space. She says, “Kin features two female dancers among a cast of sixteen, who are enveloped in a shifting power dynamic, pressured by the limiting nature of time.” Featuring More André, Wanting Zhao, Isaac Hernandez and Aaron Robison and a “corps” of 13 dancers, the ballet moves swiftly displaying lively patterns and endless lifts. The “two female dancers” André and Zhao, approach each other throughout the work; their relationship is implied but never developed. As much as I can appreciate the dynamics in “Kin” and impressed by technical excellence by all the dancers, I failed to feel the work makes a signifiant impact to the festival.

“Gateway to the Sun” choreographed by Nicolas Blanc, chose the poet Rumi’s lines who composer Anne Clyne excerpted for her score for cello and orchestra. The poet, danced by Max Cauthorn enters and leaves the stage as he embodies the poem. Sasha De Sola, Wei Wang, Jennifer Stahl and Luke Ingham are the featured dancers with Cauthorn. Again there is a “ corps” of eight dancers who provide the energetic environment for the “poet’s” wandering. Against the backdrop by Katrin Schabl (lighting by Jim French) which resembles an Egyptian pyramid setting, Cauthorn seems to wander among the dancers several times, illustrating the poet’s lines. Finally, as the. poem reads, “Dance when you’re perfectly free,” he opens extended arms to the audience. Although the work is poetic and intriguing, the soloist’s dance does not fully develop against the activity of the the other soloists and the corps.

It is with great pleasure that Yuri Possokhov, SF Ballet’s choreographer in Residence returns to the Opera House stage with Balanchine’s “Violin Concerto” (music by Stravinsky). Possokhov says, “My memory of Balanchine comes back, of course, but this impulse gives me the chance to express myself.” Set for seven couples and one lead ballerina, as the “Muse”, Sasha Mukhamedov (in a brilliant red costume) seems to oversee the principal dancers (Wona Park, Joseph Walsh, Julia Rowe, Esteban Hernandez, Carelo Mayo and Cavan Conley) in a lively romp, executing lively dance locomotor phrases across the stage.

Cordeula Marks played the Concerto splendidly as Mathew Rowe conducted. To enlighten the audience, (who may or may not know the composer), Alexander V. Nichols illuminated the backdrop with photos of Stravinsky. The costumes were by Sandra Woodall. Possokhov’s work was a delightful finale to the Program C Gala.