Art's Place: San Francisco Ballet weekend

War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco

I saw four San Francisco Ballet performances over the weekend of March 18-20. If you're planning on going up to San Francisco, standing room tickets at the Opera House are a great deal - for $10 you can stand at the back of the orchestra section with a fantastic view of the stage. No heads in the way, everything's nice and clear. You do, of course, have to stand, but it's a small tradeoff. Tickets go on sale when the box office opens for the day.

The principal reason for me to see Programs 4 & 5 were two revivals of Balanchine pieces from last year - "Square Dance" and "Four Temperaments - plus the premiere of Yuri Possokhov's new ballet "Reflections," and the revival of his new piece from last year, "Study in Motion."

Inside the opera house. Why can't LA's "opera house" look like this?

Of the Possokhov pieces, "Reflections" - on Program 4 - was the most interesting, but only when he was moving around large groups of people. In these passages, it looked like Possokhov was really exploring a movement idea, and where the choreography had its most innovation. The solos were far less successful; as I deduced from interview features in the newspapers, and from reading the program notes, Possokhov is good friends with his fellow principal dancers. Thus the choreography looked like it was just showing off his friends' virtuoso capability (particularly in Pascal Molat's dancing in the fourth movement). There was no real focus within the solos; they seemed to just appear randomly in between structured segments for the corps. A lot of the corps work in Movements I, III and IV very interesting though, so I hope his choreography continues in this direction.

"Study in Motion," the middle piece on Program 5, was dull in contrast; the movement is mostly generic couples dancing without anything that made the piece particularly special or interesting. It went for about 30 minutes, and it was just too long; I didn't find any particularly interesting "study" of motion, just a lot of same-looking motion - even after seeing the ballet twice. Still, though, I think with "Reflections" we see Possokhov developing as a choreographer and I'd like to see more.

"Square Dance" and "Four Temperaments" were the two Balanchine presentations on Programs 4 & 5. "Square Dance" was the Program 4 opener, and it makes me smile everytime I watch it. Gonzalo Garcia did a pretty great job in the lead male role at both performances I saw, particularly in the Sarabande section. His solo tended towards melodramatic, but still he's quite an engaging dancer. Tina LeBlanc was all firey elegance in the lead female role - fantastic light-speed footwork and a very calming demeanor throughout. Vanessa Zahorian turned in an equally valid interpretation, being more bright and sprightly, a little bit more smiley but still hitting the technical challenges perfectly. At a pre-performance lecture on Sunday, corps member Frances Chung spoke at length about the difficulty of dancing "Square Dance" in the corps - which I believe. SHe also comically mentioned that the company was having a pizza party after the performance (the last during this run) to "celebrate the end of 'Square Dance!'" I'm not sure if this mentality affected their performances, though, because at both performances, it took quite a bit of time for the corps to really come alive - they seemed to be neatly and precisely stepping through the ballet. By the end, though, the whole thing still made me smile.

"Four Temperaments" closed Program 5, and it is really such a satisfyingly constructed ballet - it's got wonderful music that Balanchine's choreography completely takes advantage of. The two performances (a matinee and evening) varied between sleepy and spectacular, though. The matinee performances felt like a sleepy afternoon performance; the choreography was there and correct but there seemed to be something lacking over all. The only exception was Lorena Feijoo's marvelous Sanguinic, though lacking in attack, was still the most alive of the afternoon. At the evening performance, it seemed like the A-cast was on: Gonzalo Garcia was wonderful in Melancholic, Sarah van Patten quick and sharp in Sanguinic, Yuri Possokhov strong - though perhaps too melodramatic - in Phlegmatic and Muriel Maffre very appealing in Choleric. ANd the corps was awake in the evening too. I have to admit: I was disappointed walking out of the afternoon performance, but the evening restored my faith in SF Ballet.

Tomasson programmed his "Meistens Mozart" and "Concerto Grosso" to open Program 5; both are light and fluffy ballets that show off dance technique but don't seem to do much otherwise. "Concerto Grosso" is a purely technical show-off piece for 5 male dancers. I've inadvertently seen it four times now, and its impressiveness is starting to wear on me, but the efforts of the dancers can't be denied. Nicolas LeBlanc led the afternoon and Pascal Molat the evening.

Not sure entirely what to make of "Grosse Fuge," Program 4's middle piece. It was more interesting the second time around, when I could notice more details. But I don't think the female dancers moved with enough weight or gravity in this piece - their movement was too light, for they just danced like ballet dancers. The piece orginated at Nederlands Dans Theatre, according to the program, and I could help but imagine their women dancing this piece - they'd be using the same technique but just the attack or emphasis in the dancing would be entirely different. So I think this made the ballet lose some of its effect.

Overall, I was quite happy with my visit to San Francisco Ballet. Good performances of "Square Dance" and "The Four Temperaments" satisfied me, and "Reflections" shows great promise for Possokhov.

Programming wise, though? There didn't seem to be enough variety in the programming - all the pieces were abstract ballets that focus specifically on dancing and movement. Especially with the non-Balanchine pieces, they all began to look the same seeing them so close together, and these pieces didn't have enough of a "hook" to make then individually interesting on such a same program. Especially with "Four T's" immediately following "Study in Motion" and immediately showing how a study in motion *should* be done...

And now for a few more random pictures from my trip: