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Terez

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    former dancer, writer
  • City**
    San Francisco Bay Area
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    CA

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  1. I saw the 3/17 Sunday matinee, after having assumed I wouldn't be able to make any of the performances. It was SO much fun, and it felt like a dream cast, with Jennifer Stahl and Wei Wang as Titania/Oberon, Elizabeth Mateer/Stephen Morse and Frances Chung/Myles Thatcher as the lovers, Alexis Francisco Valdes as a surprisingly wonderful Puck, Nikisha Fogo/Daniel Deivison-Oliveira as Hypolyta/Theseus. Everything just seemed perfectly cast. I loved seeing Elizabeth Mateer ace the role of Helena. I hadn't realized before how funny it could be, the way a lovesick Helena drapes herself over a patently uninterested Demetrius. The laughter in the audience was unexpected (but fun!), and that's what I get for watching the streamed version 2x back in 2020, filmed without an audience, and thinking I "knew" the ballet. The orchestra was typically amazing and wonderful. They were the "artist" in the 1pm "Meet the Artist" series, and it was enlightening and enjoyable to hear Martin West dissect the score and talk about Mendelssohn (versus Mozart - a fascinating compare-and-contrasts of both composers' work from their teens) and see the orchestra actually playing, for once, instead of hidden in the pit. The costumes -- wow. Just dazzling. Boy, I'm SO grateful I got to see this program (and this performance) after all. What a fun treat. Oh, final shout out to Norika Matsuyama as the dazzling Butterfly. Just love her warmth and energy.
  2. Ha, I am one of those, very interested in seeing Osipova (this, after I swore no more Swan Lake for the season!).
  3. Pherank, I was wondering about these dancers - thanks for the update!
  4. Agreed on Parker Garrison! I've been seeing really good things from Kamryn Baldwin of late, and Carmela Mayo. Other females I haven't seen in solos lately but have been really excellent in soloist roles would include Thamires Chuvas, Elizabeth Mateer, and for a while there I thought they were giving Gabriela Gonzalez that magic chance. Nathaniel Remez has been prominent of late, it seems, as is Joshua Jack Price. I've a hunch they're watching Angela Watson closely, giving her some good opportunities, in which she's doing great. There's an apprentice, Jacey Gailliard, who did really, really well as a Swan Maiden across from Sasha Mukhamedov (and I hope the SFB doesn't lose this talented soloist by promoting others to principal over her, time and time again). I was just stunned by her confident stage presence and her ability to keep up the whole time with the always-impressive Sasha M. It wouldn't surprise me if she got bumped into the corp this season; that's what happened to Jasmine Jimison (did I get that right? Or was that Wona Park?)
  5. How bizarre I'm only now seeing this! I didn't get a press release on it either - did anyone else? Regardless, that's very exciting news. I was expecting it last spring, the day after she debuted as Juliet in R&J I guess they first needed a female principal to step down from the roster to make the appropriate opening. Particularly fitting, as YY and Jasmine have similar long, leggy lines. Now the questions start in my mind over which among the many, many excellent female corps dancers will get bumped up ...
  6. Wonderful to read others' experiences. Josette, what interesting comments you make about Saturday night -- I did not see, but I always trust your perspective and opinion. So, thank you for your honestly. I saw opening night and Sunday afternoon. Both performances were wonderful, but I favored Nikisha's Act II Odette over Wona's, but Wona's Black Swan more than Nikisha's. Wona just crushed it. Her 32-fouetté passage was just stunning and soooo powerful. I reviewed it at The Classical Girl, and it sounds like I have permission to post links to my reviews, so here's that: https://wp.me/p3k7ov-1wE For those who don't like to leave the page, here's a "Top 10 Things I liked" section of the review. Nathaniel Remez as Von Rothbart in both performances, creepily excellent (excellently creepy?), with his leaps, as well as those fabulous birdlike movements of his head. Katherine Barkman, Isabella DeVivo, Esteban Hernández in the Pas de Trois on opening night. The glorious moving clouds in a blue sky that grow pink as dusk descends, a melding of Jennifer Tipton’s lighting design and Sven Ortel’s projection design that works so very well. The swan corps ensemble. They make the show. They are stunning. In perfect synch, both performances. Brava, you unsung heroes of this ballet. Cordula Merks' glorious violin solos (and duets with Eric Sung on the cello). Apprentice Jacey Gailliard performing in the demi-soloist role of Swan Maiden alongside seasoned soloist Sasha Mukhamedov and just nailing it, projecting such confidence. Sasha Mukhamedov and Kamryn Baldwin as Spanish Princess, on opening night and Sunday afternoon, respectively. Regal, assured, decisive. Newcomers Jihyun Choi, Hui-Wen Peng, Alexis Francisco Valdes (one year more senior), all corps dancers rising to the challenge in Sunday’s Pas de Trois. The cygnets, that iconic quartet of four dancers with interlocked arms, dancing as one unit. Flawless, both nights. (SunMin Lee, Carmela Mayo, Tyla Steinbach, Angela Watson on Sunday and Katherine Barkman, Isabella DeVivo, Norika Matsuyama, Julia Rowe on Friday night.) The searing, emotional climax in that final scene, by the lake, the music breaking my heart as the final drama plays out. Wow. Just wow.
  7. Will be attending the Saturday 2pm performance. I'd like to hope a guest artist (at least in this program) means potential interest in the dancer for the company. I really just want to watch the SFB dancers -- I like getting to know them and their dancing, and I can't make as many performances as I'd like, so when there's a guest performer, it feels like a missed opportunity. (This will probably keep me from running to the Swan Lake encores with guest performers.) I love seeing the young SFB dancers get big chances, and wishing Joshua Jack Price merde (and yay that I get to watch him perform). Parker Garrison just killed it in Mere Mortals on opening night. Was thrilling to watch. I'll never forget Jennifer Stahl's big breakout performance in Rite of Spring when she was just a corps dancer (and promoted immediately thereafter).
  8. Well, one advantage of not going to her final performance is that I don't have to deal with the accompanying sorrow and tears as I watch. (I don't do closure well...)
  9. Ooh, that's great! Thanks for letting me know, Helene. For all interested, here is that link to my Bachtrack review: https://bachtrack.com/22/296/view/26173
  10. Dirac, I just PM'd you a link to my just-published review at Bachtrack, for your reviews/links page (in case you see this thread before you check your messages). And for everyone else, I posted a full review of the production at Bachtrack (and they don't like me to reprint elsewhere, so I shall be coy and refrain from contributing more of my thoughts here).
  11. Who is he? Anyone ever see him dance?
  12. Went last night and honestly I'm still not sure what I thought of it all. Gorgeous dancing, clever concept. I'm just too much of a classical music fan to have enjoyed the whole musical score, but hey, at least the SF Ballet Orchestra was part of the sound-experience. Parker Garrison and Jen Stahl were just stunning in their pas de deux. Many amazing ensemble sections. Great dancing everywhere. I think it's a clever way to open the season and the audience vibe was very enthusiastic. So that's all good for the SFB. It's just ... yeah, I'm still not sure how much I liked it and liked how it made me feel. (Except that it made me feel old, LOL.)
  13. Yup, saw that coming. With small children, you just can't be a professional dance couple living in two different [relatively] distant cities. Will miss having both of them here in the Bay Area. Hope Dani continues to choreograph for the SFB; at least we have MADCAP this season.
  14. I saw the Fri 12/29 matinee performance, which was great. There seemed to be many more open seats in premier orchestra, but maybe that was "late in the run but not the last performance" vibe I was experiencing. The cast and orchestra were as great as ever; no one seemed to be displaying "Nut fatigue". Sasha Mukhamedov (sp?) replaced the originally cast Jen Stahl as Sugarplum Fairy. While I was really looking forward to seeing Jen in that role, I loved the surprise pleasure of watching Sasha M. dance it. She did a great job of dancing assertively (like she always does) but with delicate little nuances and flairs, reminding me (perhaps curiously) of Sofiane Sylve. Aaron Robison was a delight as the Nut Prince. Just can't get enough of that post-battle scene where Drosselmeyer lifts the big ugly Nut head off of him and he transforms into this hottie prince who's slavishly devoted to Clara. Danielle Hillman was a darling Clara through that performance. Lots of new/young faces in new roles. Case in point: easily 10 names in both Snow and Waltz that I didn't recognize; I assume they are top-level students from the school. Really impressive, the unity the ensemble showed, both times, given the number of new dancers. Lots of rehearsing, I imagine, and it paid off. Loved seeing Norika M and Joshua Jack Price as Snow Queen/King. They did very well; I'm seeing a promotion in Price's future. And Norika is just such a giving performer with this infectious happiness that pours out -- I've always loved that about watching her dance. Nikisha Fogo was reliably excellent as the adult Clara although I wish she could have stretched out her entrance a millisecond, showing a little more astonishment and awe at her transformation. I remember relishing that moment, when dancers like Maria Kochetkova, in particular, would be stunned and overcome, so believably that I'd get prickles just watching. All in all, a great show that continues to move very fast.
  15. Ugh, World Ballet Day's website has crashed; seems it's been down for 24 hours, or else I've just had bad luck accessing it. Must be that their new and helpful setup of announcing times in each person's time zone has been way too much for the servers. What a nightmare for them, with WBD starting in a matter of hours. (Or has it already started?) Thank you SO MUCH, volcanohunter, for the times and details you provided on this thread. I'd feel completely lost without that.
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