Commentary, Dance, Performance

Paris Opera Ballet

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Paris Opera Ballet
“Red Carpet” (North America Premiere)
Friday October 3, 2025, 8 PM
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley

AMAZING GRACE

If one reads the announcement of “Paris Opera Ballet”, the assumption might be … ’the performance is French (no!); the show has something to do with an opera story (no!); or that the dance/movement partakes of the ‘classic’ vocabulary of the centuries old tradition of dance developed in European theater. Yes and no. Dance training cannot avoid what has been and is.

Choreographer Hofesh Shechter, originally from Israel, who now works internationally, prefaces his notes on the work with the title “Between Glamour and the Grotesque.” Among many other thoughts and reflections on his work, he says… “The uncomfortable dimension of the grotesque also interests me; it allows us to show the bad and dirty side of reality; the ways humans organize themselves.”

The fourteen dancers first appear in ‘gorgeous’ gowns (one long red gown that can never be ignored) and outfits of various sorts, from formal dress to tailored shorts. A spectacular light chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The musicians (drums, cello, double bass and wind instruments) are seated in an alcove above the dance floor. It all proceeds with vigorous energy, the dancers (seemingly partnering [or not]..one another in endless variations. There are countless small group interactions. All appear to be endlessly ‘improvising’ with one another and yet… the choreography is tight, rhythmically exact, the skill perfect.

Can we grasp what’s going on? Are we meant to…or do we just enjoy the skill, the movement shapes and above all the choreography that challenges the audiences’ ability to watch? There is a musical interlude during which we enjoy the skilled ‘improvisation?’ of the four person ‘band’. They produce wonderful sound.

The dancers all reenter, now all dressed in white leotards. Similar, but more closely knit dance phrases are performed as before, but now seem slower, more careful. We are graced by a few markable solos. All the timing and gesture, that appears random at first, is, if closely watched, exact, precise and skilled.

Shechter in this work, “Red Carpet” has redefined the term ‘ballet’, the expectation of dance ‘narrative’ and thoroughly mixed the vocabulary of ‘ballet’ and contemporary dance.

Thank you… Cal Performances. We, the Berkeley audience may not get to Paris, Israel or other European sites for dance…but we have had the privilege of seeing “Red Carpet” here.

See Cal Performances on line for all program details.

Dance

Smuin Contemporary Ballet – October 5

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Smuin Contemporary Ballet
Sunday, October 5,2025 2 pm
Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco

Sunday Delight

Amy Seiwert, the Artistic Director of the Smuin Ballet, has succeeded Michael Smuin and now, to delighted San Francisco audiences, brings new choreographic works. For this program she has not only done her own “A Long Night” (inspired by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), but has brought works by other choreographers, i.e. Justin Peck’s “Partita” and “Extremely Close” by Alejandra Cerrudo.

Originally premiered 2022 for the NYC Ballet, Peck (who has recently become a major choreographer for that company and is now Resident Choreographer), gives us a work of long locomotor patterns with complex, delightful rhythms. He, and other choreographer are, at this time, are creating a variety of dance ‘moves’ that challenge conventional ballet phrasing. Partnering is also innovative: dancers perform with one another in seemingly endless groups, duets…or in complex solos. It is all delightful…and demanding for today’s audiences.

Seiwert’s “take” on “Midsummer Night’s Dream” featured Mark La Pierre as Puck (for the Sunday 10/5 performance). Dressed in a gold costume, he was indeed the transformative agent in the well-known Shakespeare story of mixed-up lovers. Others for this charming event were: Shania Rasmussen, Dominic Barrett, Maggie Carey, and Yuri Rogers as the couples. (Note: cast members change for each performance; a wonderful practice.)

“Extremely Close” is listed as a “world premiere, 2007” at “Hubbard Street Dance “Chicago. ( This reviewer does not recall that we have seen any of Hubbard Street Dance recently in the SF Bay Area.) The choreographer is currently Artistic Director of the Charlotte Ballet. It is an amazing, delightful work! Although (and because) the stage is “littered” with while paper (tissues?) the dancers move on them with ease. They are also challenged by the varied use of three white screens, which they move and appear behind, in front and alongside them. We, the audience, must look carefully and with great attention.

It Is the final duet (dancers not cited) that is truly a “show stopper.” The two dancers execute complex, detailed moves that challenge audiences’ observing skill. All moves are unusual, sometimes surprising and technically beyond belief. The lead male dancer ‘rolls up” the carpet. End dance.

Audiences are ‘now’ challenged to enjoy today’s ballet offerings. There is a ‘news look’ …demanding and exiting.

Note: All program details available at Smuin Ballet

Performance, Theater

The Motion

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“The Motion”
By playwright Christopher Chen
Shotgun Players
September 20, 2025 8 PM
Creation/Confusion/Celebration

First scene: The four actors, two on each side, led by a moderator,
confront the question, “Do we kill animals unjustly? And/or do we use
them for critical research that help human health, now and in the
future?” in the opening scene of “The Motion”.

The debate proceeds, the discussion more and less agitated and then….

The scene dissolves into charming (albeit conforming) middle class
marriages, each partner paired with one from the initial scene. (The
moderator disappears, but ultimately reappears as a willing (unhuman)
victim, to ‘test’ the ‘killing’ ques+on.) If this is a bit much to follow, OK!
“The Motion” is after all an explorative theatrical experiment.

Above all the acting is superb. Erin Gould, Jack Donovan, David
Sinako, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, Soren Santos and Gabriella Maalihan
provide the witty dialogue in the debate as well as in ‘intimate’ scenes.
All are adept at moving from real to surreal that this play demands.
The play is directed by Shotgun founding director Patrick Dooley.
It is wonderful to have him back in that role. Patrick has given Berkeley
audiences thirty-two years of amazing, challenging theater. Bravo!