Performance, Theater

The Triumph of Love

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Shotgun Players
Berkeley, CA
“The Triumph of Love”
March 25, 2023. Preview

“Love” withstands the test of time…

…in the theater with Shotgun’s delightful cast and Patrick Dooley’s direction. Shotgun has remade a 300 year old “commedia” play into a contemporary ‘action’ drama. The play echoes the French theater tradition from Racine as well as that of “commedia dell’arte,” the famous Italian tradition.The program note states…

Marivaux’s characters – in struggling to understand what is happening to them and to accept the the sobering notion of change at great cost to themselves – we can see the image of Enlightenment Europe.

All that is so, but really the play is a comedy of characters who resist and then accept love’s advances, seductive, delightful, humorous but always marvelously delivered. Veronica Renner as Leonide (dressed as a man) invades the household of Hermocrates to rescue Agis who is wrongly kept there. By exquisite persuasion, she is able to convince both Hermocraates and his sister Leontine that she loves them and promises marriage. The endless (sometimes too much) verbal play (translated by Stephen Wadsworth) is effective. Agis is restored to his rightful position in court. All characters have felt the impact of love’s power and are thus ‘transformed”.

A delightful scene is performed by Jamin Jollo, a classical triad mime-clown whose physical skills in acrobatic feats as well as facial and gestural skill are transformative throughout the play. Jollo as “Harlequin” snuggles up to Leonide’s ‘helper’ Corine, played by Susanna Martin. With no words at all, Jollo accomplishes friendliness, affection and an intimacy not seen between other characters. Their interaction is a true ‘commedia’ accomplishment.

All players, scenic designers, and director Patrick Dooley deserve great praise for bringing the ‘classic’ Marivaux to our contemporary theater. Although the play runs 2 hours and 30 minutes with two intermissions, the audience is enchanted and beguiled by the action and verbal skill of the players, (especially Renner as Leonide). Bravo to all! “The Triumph of Love” is certainly that.

Joanna Harris

Dance, Performance

Oakland Ballet March 17, 2023

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“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

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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