Dance

Smuin Contemporary Ballet – October 5

by  • 

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

by  • 
“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!
Performance, Theater

The Tempest: Marin Shakespeare Festival

by  • 

“The Tempest”
Marin Shakespeare Company
Saturday, August 16, 2025. 7 PM

“The necessity of theater.”

The quote above, “The necessity of theater” is from the “Director’s Notes” in the program for an earlier production at the Marin Shakespeare Company. (Signed Bridgette Loriaux). “The Tempest” adapted and directed by M. Graham Smith, performed opening night Saturday, August 16 reenforces (at least for this audience member) “the necessity of theater.” The play, considered one of Shakespeare’s last, is a fantasy, a morality play, a comic ‘opera’ and ultimately, a deep character study.

The Marin production makes this all possible with a brilliant cast, much physical activity, mime, dance and superb acting. Scholars date the play 1611 by which time England had learned of voyages to the “new world.” Critics say this is central to the play. More than the geography or history of a “shipwreck” is the “thru-line” of this play. As Director M. Graham Smith writes, ”Will we build something better, not for ourselves but for those who come next?” We are enchanted by the spirit Ariel (delightfully played by Anna Ishida), the depth of despair and action of Caliban (Chris Steele) and the frustration and ‘magic’ of the leading character Stephano (Brenda Areliano). The audience becomes thoroughly immersed in it all.

The central ‘comic’ episodes involve the drunken experiences of Caliban and his two companions (from the ship), Trinculo and Sebastian. In a series of “discovery” episodes Stephano finds the others in a sack, sorts them out and proceeds to lead them to the pleasures of drink. The acrobatic events, falls (and some recoveries), the discovery and pleasure of costume changes … all contribute to extend the ‘comic’ dimensions of Stephano’s (often) melodramatic personal story.

The physical presentation, sets, costumes, lighting are all marvelous and, as the evening darkens at the Marin Theater, more and more illusions appear on stage as trees and stars add to the magic. (Only one character portrayal needs boosting: Miranda, played by Anna Takayo, seemed ‘not quite comfortable” in the role, and as the English dramatists say, ”not sufficiently forthcoming.”)

The Tempest, as produced by the Marin Shakespeare Festival this summer is a delight, both entertaining and provocative, as only Shakespeare, as dramatist, comedian and philosopher, can entertain us, the welcoming, now thoughtful, audience.