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Balleroger

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    avid balletgoer
  • City**
    San Francisco
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    California
  1. I liked Francesca da Rimini, and it seems to me that much of the criticism about it from other reviewers ignores Possokhov's intentions. He is not retelling Dante's story as a ballet. This is not "Romeo and Juliet in Hell." The much-maligned Guardians are not mere "menacing body builders." They are powerful and brilliant symbols of Possokhov's vision, which he clearly states derives as much from Rodin and the visual arts as from Dante and Tchaikovsky. As for the ballet being "overwrought," the score is "overwrought": blame Tchaikovsky, not Possokhov, who captures the menace in the score admirably. This is not a ballet about falling in love over a book. It's about going to Hell in movement and music. One may find that subject unpleasant, but one can't fault Possokhov for exploring it. And how could anyone expect a choreographer to imagine a major character in this work as a cripple, and who would want to watch a dancer be wasted in such a role? No one who saw Daniel Deivison's portrayal of chilling revenge and unrepentance would want Giovanni to be cast as a cripple. If one accepts this ballet on its own terms, it's a great work. Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty are not the limits of how a choreographer can legitimately imagine Tchaikovsky's music.
  2. Well, it's almost over, and Paul Parish's review of Little Mermaid in the Bay Area Reporter pretty much sums it up: great spectacle, not so great choreography, and really self-destructive emotional subtext. As is often the case, the beauty and skill of the dancers masked the tedium and tendentiousness of the choreographer. Although not in his review, I hope Mr. Parish got to see Jaime Garcia Castilla's chilling portrayal of the Sea Witch.
  3. I liked RAkU. Yes, it is a complicated, multi-media event, a product of the Digital Age. Yes, it does have violence, but how could it not? Its subject matter is the deliberate destruction of a world heritage cultural site. And the violence does have an erotic source, an eroticism brilliantly illuminated by the Feijoo/Deivison/Luiz cast, as well as by the four Corps warriors. If ballet is to survive as a living art form, it must offer more than a Nineteenth Century view of the human condition.
  4. Once again, Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz showed that sparks fly whenever they dance together. The two of them, plus Daniel Deivison, in Villa-Lobos' sensuous Uirapuru would be a triumph for SF Ballet. I hope it happens while we still have them in the Company. Possokhov seems interested in recognizing the contributions of our Latin American dancers.
  5. What a beautiful, and well deserved, Christmas present for these talented dancers. I only hope that Clara Blanco also joins this list.
  6. We will miss his fire and elan. I hope he can pursue his dream of choreography.
  7. It's great that Isaac Hernandez is back, but Sean Orza is now out. That's got to be tough on a young dancer. I will miss not having the Orza brothers team. This roster seems to be a work in progress, though, so maybe there is still hope.
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