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SFB 2015: Program 4


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Casting isn't exactly coming thick and fast, so here's what's available.

Program 4 - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - 8pm

DANCES AT A GATHERING

Choreographer: Jerome Robbins

Composer: Frédéric Chopin

Piano: Roy Bogas

Pink/Purple: Maria Kochetkova*, Davit Karapetyan*

Mauve/Green: Vanessa Zahorian, Carlo Di Lanno*

Yellow/Brown: Mathilde Froustey*, Joseph Walsh*

Blue/Blue: Sasha De Sola*, Steven Morse*

Green/Brick: Lorena Feijoo, Vitor Luiz*

INTERMISSION

HUMMINGBIRD

Choreographer: Liam Scarlett

Composer: Philip Glass

Conductor: Martin West

Frances Chung, Gennadi Nedvigin

Yuan Yuan Tan, Luke Ingham

Maria Kochetkova, Joan Boada

Program 4 - Saturday, February 28, 2015 - 2pm

DANCES AT A GATHERING

Choreographer: Jerome Robbins

Composer: Frédéric Chopin

Piano: Natal'ya Feygina

Pink/Purple: Yuan Yuan Tan, Carlos Quenedit*

Mauve/Green: Sarah Van Patten*, Luke Ingham*

Yellow/Brown: Frances Chung*, Taras Domitro*

Blue/Blue: Dores Andre*, Sean Orza*

Green/Brick: Sofiane Sylve, Hansuke Yamamoto

INTERMISSION

HUMMINGBIRD

Choreographer: Liam Scarlett

Composer: Philip Glass

Conductor: Ming Luke

Sarah Van Patten, Pascal Molat

Lorena Feijoo, Vitor Luiz

Dores Andre, Joseph Walsh*

Program 4 - Saturday, February 28, 2015 - 8pm

DANCES AT A GATHERING

Choreographer: Jerome Robbins

Composer: Frédéric Chopin

Piano: Roy Bogas

Pink/Purple: Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan

Mauve/Green: Vanessa Zahorian, Carlo Di Lanno

Yellow/Brown: Mathilde Froustey*, Joseph Walsh

Blue/Blue: Sasha De Sola, Steven Morse

Green/Brick: Lorena Feijoo, Vitor Luiz

INTERMISSION

HUMMINGBIRD

Choreographer: Liam Scarlett

Composer: Philip Glass

Conductor: Martin West

Frances Chung, Gennadi Nedvigin

Yuan Yuan Tan, Luke Ingham

Maria Kochetkova, Joan Boada

Program 4 - Tuesday, March 03, 2015 - 8:00pm

DANCES AT A GATHERING
Choreographer: Jerome Robbins
Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Piano: Roy Bogas

Pink/Purple: Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan
Mauve/Green: Vanessa Zahorian, Carlo Di Lanno
Yellow/Brown: Mathilde Froustey, Joseph Walsh
Blue/Blue: Dores Andre, Steven Morse
Green/Brick: Lorena Feijoo, Vitor Luiz

INTERMISSION

HUMMINGBIRD
Choreographer: Liam Scarlett
Composer: Philip Glass
Conductor: Martin West

Frances Chung, Gennadi Nedvigin
Yuan Yuan Tan, Luke Ingham
Maria Kochetkova, Joan Boada

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I went to the opening night performance of Dances at a Gathering, which I hadn't seen in several years, and Hummingbird, which I saw last season with a different cast. I thought that the dancers all did a beautiful job individually and collectively in Dancers at a Gathering. My particular stand-outs were Davit Karapetyan, for his smooth, full dancing; Vanessa Zahorian for her effortless grace and variety of moods so naturally expressed; Dores Andre for her energy and happiness; and Lorena Feijoo for her wit, musicality, and expressiveness. Davit Karapetyan's solo brought gasps from the audience. A special mention also to Steven Morse, who is in the corps de ballet, for matching the other dancers who were all either principal or soloists. The cast as a whole had a camaraderie and personal, lilting communication among themselves that was a delight. The staging and coaching were truly done well.

Then came Hummingbird, which I loved last season, but, due to expectations and memory, I could not adjust myself to the change of dancers, with the exception of Gennadi Nedvigin and Frances Chung in the first section - last season I saw Sarah Van Patten and Pascal Molat. Nedvigin and Chung danced with abandonment and control; they were flawless and dynamic. In the middle section, I was so enthralled last season with Lorena Feijoo's depth and humanity, aside from her beautiful dancing, but, this time, I found myself watching the partnering mechanics of the pas de deux with Yuan Yuan Tan and Luke Ingham, which they executed extremely well, of course. Consequently, it became a changed ballet for me. In the final section, last season I was fortunate to have seen the much-missed Simone Messmer . . . and that pretty much says it. The ensemble as a whole danced with commitment.

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Thanks for the report, Josette. I very much wanted to see Dances at a Gathering, but I can only afford a coupe trips up to SF this season, so I've opted for the overlaps of Programs1/2 and Programs 6/7 (so I get to see 4 programs with two trips). I've heard nothing but good things about the SFB performances of Dances, so you definitely made a good choice. I saw Hummingbird last season, and though it was interesting, I wasn't bowled over enough to go to the trouble of seeing it again. How do you feel about the ballet as a whole now?

[You mentioned Messmer, and I agree that she is missed, and is still a figure of much mystery as no one seems to know what it is she is doing with herself, or intending to do regarding ballet.]

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I saw the Saturday matinee of this program and completely agree about the wonderfulness (if there is such a word) of Dances at a Gathering. I like Hummingbird well enough, but like Pherank, wouldn't go out of my way to see it.

What really distressed me, though, was the audience reaction: for Hummingbird, cheers, bravos, none undeserved for the performers, who were wonderful.

But for Dances at a Gathering, tepid politeness (Sofiane Sylve in green deserved 20 curtain calls all to herself; she is quite simply, magnificent). A friend who attends these matinees with me and who knows nothing about ballet, said she kept dozing off ("...too much piano music..."speechless-smiley-003.gif and the dancers "...did the same thing over and over..." wallbash.gif ). I suspect that kind of audience response is why lately we are getting more full lengths and fewer triple bills each season. Saturday, up in the Balcony/Balcony Circle where I sit, only about half the seats were occupied, while Giselle was packed and Don Q has added another performance because it's selling so well. Sigh.

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Unlike PeggyR’s Saturday afternooners, the audience on Sunday seemed (almost) as appreciative of Dances at a Gathering as of Hummingbird. They laughed in the right places and there were collective “ahs” at certain moments, such as when Davit Karapetyan made a difficult but perfectly soft landing – the sounds of good audiences are always nice in that their prompting draws your attention to something special you might otherwise have missed or it lets you look through others' eyes when you’re feeling a bit jaded.

It was interesting to see the difference between Joseph Walsh and Taras Domitro in the Brown part (Helgi Tomasson’s old role). With Walsh you notice his upper body which is so quick and articulate – it’s as if he’s listening to, concentrating on what his hands are doing, if his fingers are ruffling out with the right accent (Tomasson’s sometimes would flutter around his waist as if they were birds). Whereas with Domitro it’s his feet he’s listening for or thinking with – it’s the snip-snap of his calves and ankles (or beats, like a trill), and their perfect angles, that completes his thought.

With Sofiane Sylve you feel you have an index of City Ballet style, the way dancers in New York stretch a phrase, are continuing revising a movement so you never quite know how it’s going to end.

I agree with Josette that Steven Morse looked more mature, that he looked serious and was dancing in character. Though all the dancers were fine (but I would have been happier with a six o’clock extension from Maria Kochetkova for the seven o’clock one which unnecessarily complicated the silhouette of a couple of lifts).

I saw lots of Balanchine in Dances at a Gathering: skimming lifts from Sanguinic, groupings from Apollo, and Liebeslieder Waltzes overall of course. (And a little of deMille, too.) Violette Verdy who originated parts in Dances and Liebeslieder, said, not without a bit of sharpness within the sweet, that Robbins absorbed Balanchine’s ideas and made them more accessible to audiences. As Dances gets older I’m not sure how well touching the ground and collectively watching the clouds (from Our Town?) works. The full effect seems to have faded. (Ratmansky does some similar things but they’re so quick they’re like throwaways.)

Hummingbird is athletic and demanding, looks sometimes like Glass Pieces (naturally), sometimes like Company B; like Streetcar Named Desire or the Honeymooners in the second part, like a jitterbugging contest in the third. The set, which was greeted by a sigh from the audience, could be a Gerhard Richter painting in gray and green and almost a sharp blue – a huge tubular sky stained with moss, lit coldly from within. It rolls slowly, shortens and lengthens throughout the ballet. The dancers work in half shadow beneath the grim light. There is a raked stage which culminates in an embankment off which corps members now and then drop or tiptoe down. At one point six or eight dancers lie completely flattened on the upper portion, evenly spaced out – as if they had been drugged by opium poppies or suddenly asphyxiated.

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Nice comments and insights, Quiggin. I'll admit that the "grunge" scenics in Hummingbird are part of what doesn't thrill me about the ballet. Transforming the look of the set would possible make it a different ballet for me. I don't feel that the current combination is successful.

I remain confounded as to why neither Sylve nor Feijoo has 'sponsorship' from a wealthy patron. That's just rude. I'm not questioning the existing sponsorships, but why not Sylve or Feijoo? As if they haven't done enough over the years for SFB!

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I like, as a whole, the sets, costumes, and music for Hummingbird, but I obviously was won over by certain dancers' presence and expressiveness last year perhaps more than the choreography, as I alluded to in my comments yesterday. Though I'm not really complaining, its third section was meaningless with the cast I saw this year, in contrast to last season's fascinating Simone Messmer and dynamic Jaime Castilla Garcia - they are each so unique - and I do think that there is choreography overkill in the third section.

I also agree with Quiggin's comment about Kochetkova's over-extensions, which I found jarring and out of place in Dances at a Gathering, distracting from the mood of the piece. The Karapetyan step that caused gasps from the audience was a double tour landing in fifth position and flowing downward into a perfectly controlled, plush grand plié.

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Quiggin, what a marvelous quote from Verdy! thank you. classic.

As usual, I agree completely with Josette--Messmer was fascinating and it's a shame she's gone; Andre always seems to exude energy and happiness; Nedvigin and Chung burned up the stage in the first section of 'Hummingbird'--and with PeggyR--Sylve deserves an entire ovation to herself, not just as the Girl in Green, but often. She was astoundingly witty in 'Dances' and although I was too young for Verdy in this role I could imagine similar charm and soignee dancing from her.

I also agree about Kochetkova's nauseating overextensions (completely taste-free and inappropriate)--yet another thing I loathe about this dancer, and there were already thousands.

The Karapetyan step was magnificent...

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