Commentary

Calendar-fu and Fifth Fridays

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No matter how hard you try, you just can’t make a metric year.

We are physically stuck with the fact that the earth goes around the sun once for approximately 365.25 revolutions on its axis. On top of that, our Roman and religious predecessors, noting the subdivision of the year by lunar cycles created months and weeks that not only don’t quite work out, but have the extra burden that the month named after ME has to have more days than the month named after YOU!

So, we have calendars which are not repetitive, and the calendars of other cultures seem to have been run over by ours. Months do not start on the same day of the week from year to year (leaving out the leap year problem/correction) and various power centers would not allow days to exist which were not ‘days of the week.

But, for fun, maybe you would like to plan a repeating event. You easily can specify (in the current calendar system) the ‘First Monday’ or ‘Second Saturday’  or even ‘Third Thursday’.  But what about the ‘Fifth Friday’? That is more fun. How does that work out?

Ignoring the pathetic February, eleven months have 30 days and five have 31 days. So, each month (except February) must have two days of the week that have five instances, and five months have three such days. These do not line up well, but it appears that in a given year one day of the week will occur five times in three of the months, two days of the week will occur five times in five of the months and four days of the week will occur five times in four of the months.

In 2024, Fifth Fridays occurred four times; in March, May, August, and November, so plan ahead, avoid end-of-year rush.

Dance, Performance

Alonzo King Lines Ballet & Peter Sellars

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Alonzo King Lines Ballet & Peter Sellars – THE CONCERT
June 7, 2024 7;30 PM
San Francisco Symphony Hall

Yes…but: Staging and Music Lack Correspondence

The directors listed above, King and Sellars are both noted for their talents and many productions, King in the dance world and Sellars as a dramatic director. To this production conducted by the notable musician, Esa-Pekka Salonen, these notables brought their staging and dramatic interpretation.

The opening night’s event began with Ravel’s Ma Mére l’Oye. (Mother Goose, 1911). The work consists of seven sections, all clearly listed on the program. Eleven dancers (and one soloist) danced in brightly colored (primarily yellow) dresses and pants, some with transparent tops over the upper body. Although the program lists titles for all sections, (e.g. Pavane, Tom Thumb, etc) all the choreography seemed similar, i.e. large fluid upper body gestures, endless turns, extended leg extensions and continual falls and acrobatic activities on the ground. There were a number of beautifully done duets and solos, but the dynamics of the dance remained similar throughout the piece.

Neither the soloists nor unique dancers in the duets had program listing. When musicians have a special solo they are always noted.

In my choreographic training, we learned that there should be variations in style, gesture and certainly dynamic correspondence to the chosen music. Choreographer Alonzo King, though well reputed in the San Francisco dance community, did not seem to find those values in Ma Mére. The audiences was pleased with the dancers energy and skill and gave the dance and music tremendous, well deserved applause.

The notes to composer Arnold Schoenberg piece “Erwartung (Expectation), Opus 17 (1909), tells us that “the Unnamed Woman and the “expectancy” that pervades the work is the intense dread that The Women feels in the face of something that is never quite spelled out.” (Program notes by Jenny Judge.) Yet, in Sellars staging for the brilliant soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams, a stage ‘corpse’ is with her. Willams provides many gestures of love, dismissal, longing and relief. It is Sellars who has made these decisions for the singer, who is an excellent artist in voice and acting. This reviewer would have preferred to hear the singer without the dramatic activity. Brilliant as a vocalist, she did not always accomplish the stage action with ease or dramatic clarity.

It was drama enough to pay close attention to Salon’s superb conducting of the score. This production of “Erwartung” was a first San Francisco Symphony performance. The orchestra is very large and varied in the demands of its sections. It was dramatic to watch each section fulfill its part in this amazing, complex score. Bravo to all!

Conductor Salonen and the Symphony producers are to be highly complimented for the challenge of bringing dance and drama to the stage. Although artists of all dimensions have the right to produce events as created in their imaginations, it is important (to this reviewer) that coordination in style and intention be respected.

Dance

Smuin Contemporary Ballet

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Smuin Contemporary Ballet
Dance Series 2
Friday, May 10, 2024
Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco

Amy Seiwert has now become the Artistic Director of the Smuin Ballet, succeeding Cecelia Fushille. Both welcomed the audience to the 24/25 season of the company, a season that will continue this spring, 2024, in Walnut Creek, Mountain View and Carmel. The dancers in the company are very strong, skilled and exuberant performers.

Seiwert’s work “Broken Open” had its world premiere on September 18, 2015 (so the program notes). She brings attention to several dancers who have helped bring the work to its current realization, which is lively, complex and brilliantly danced. To music by Julia Kent, colorfully costumed by Sandra Woodall, “Broken Open” is a complex series of events, group work, solos, duets and a men’s trio, all performed at a lively pace and with superb skill. It may even be too much for the general audience.

“Tupeolo Turnado” (World Premiere, May 3, 2024) is a lively, “over the top” tribute to the ‘king of rock and roll” Elvis Presley. The choreographer, Annabelle Lopez Orchoa notes that Presley “succumbs to the weight of fame.” The event is a first-class audience pleaser with costumes boy Susan Roemer and amazing scenic design and lighting by Alexander V. Nichols. But it is the portrayal of Presley that dominates the event, although there are brilliant performances by several company soloists (alas their names are not noted in the program)! Wearing a ‘mock’ TV screen over his eyes, the leading soloist (Presley) delivers dance to accompany the songs, funny, satirical and always moving. One soloist’s performance is almost entirely on the floor and is very touching and emotionally moving. The audience (who may or may not remember Presley’s genius) wants to break out singing. (I did on the way home).

Smuin’s “StarShadows” which opened the evening was a nostalgic memory of Smuin’s ‘cool’ dance work. Alas, in contrast to contemporary ballet, it remains a ‘night-club’ work. “Untwine” by Brennan Wall, which followed to selections from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” had some wonderful solo and duet interludes (for three couples), but again was not innovative in its choreographic invention.

The taped music throughout the evening, alas, did not justice to the scores.

Congratulations to the Smuin Ballet for its innovative programming, choreography and most of all brilliant dancing throughout. It should bring delight in all future events.