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i found this interview with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa to be very informative regarding the Guernica ballet. And it also gives us some sense of the craziness involved in putting together a new ballet in 3 weeks time (mostly). Although she would probably be miffed that Trey McIntyre got through everything in the first week, and had to find some "busy work" to keep the team occupied for the remaining 2 weeks. 😉 That's not a common experience though. http://dancetabs.com/2018/04/interview-annabelle-lopez-ochoa-on-creating-guernica-for-sf-ballets-unbound-festival/ CB: Why did you do a ballet based on Guernica? ALO: "First of all, I love painters. Broken Wings (English National Ballet, 2016) was on the life of Frida Kahlo, Sombrerismo (Ballet Hispánico, 2013) was Magritte. When I was invited [to do Unbound], I thought, Okay, I want to do something on Picasso. But it’s a big subject. On the 7th of April 2017, a video came out on CNN about a chemical attack on a tiny village in Syria. My reaction to seeing the images of children suffocating and not being able to do anything – I just pressed the stop button. I couldn’t face it. I felt such a hypocrite. I was really angry at myself because I’m just watching. I thought, what can I do as an artist? Because I can use my art to talk about this." How have you liked working with the SFB dancers? "They are incredible. They can morph from one style to the other, and they are in for the ride. They are fast, they are used to working with just a couple of rehearsals, so they help each other sometimes. Jim Sofranko had to go away because he is taking over the company in Grand Rapids [Michigan, where he will is the incoming artistic director], so one dancer said, ‘I’m not in this cast, but I know the duet.’ Jim helped him, and the next day the guy did it. I said, ‘I have no corrections for you.’ It was flawless. And it was Joseph Warton, a 19-year-old trainee. That’s how tight they are. Just for me to have a good run-through, they made that effort."

Frances Chung on Maria Kochetkova: And from Lauren Strongin:

Big time sensuality: hyper Björk ballet unveiled in San Francisco by Judith Mackrell https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/may/03/big-time-sensuality-bjork-ballet-rave-puts-san-francisco-under-its-spell-unbound-festival "I saw all 12 works over a weekend, and in that concentrated viewing some of the festival’s choreographers appeared markedly braver than others. But overall these ballets constitute a fine statement of faith in the future of the art form. If I were Tomasson and cherry-picking my dream triple bill, Peck, Marston and Pita’s works would be frontrunners, but Wheeldon, Dawson and McIntyre’s would not be far behind. Lucky San Francisco, to be so spoiled for choice." "...There is a superb chemistry between casting and choreography. Sarah Van Patten is terrifyingly good as Zeena – her hands clawed, her spine rigid and her gaze steely with possessiveness and pain. Mathilde Froustey’s Mattie is her quicksilver opposite, light, sensuous and supple. Ulrik Birkkjaer’s Ethan, his back bowed from years of dutiful service, develops poignant layers of rectitude and longing." Vanishing acts from SF Ballet by Paul Parish http://www.ebar.com/arts_&_culture/dance/259259/vanishing_acts_from_sf_ballet "What could be counted on was that our fabulous dancers would come through, and that we'd see them from angles we hadn't seen before. I'd never seen the slutty side of Sarah Van Patten until Pita's "Bjork Ballet," nor the gamine in Isabella de Vivo until McIntyre's "Your Flesh Shall be a Great Poem." We'd only seen hints of the majesty that the Greek-statue-beautiful Benjamin Freemantle brought to that same ballet, with a poignancy reminiscent of Housman's poem "To an Athlete Dying Young." Sasha De Sola was a heroine of the entire festival, wonderful in fresh ways in everything she did, perhaps the most versatile star in the company after Van Patten. De Sola can sink to the floor like a contact-improv dancer (in Wheeldon's "Bound To"), she can spin like a steel ball in a pinball machine, stop on a dime; whatever, she's always radiant. And yet another breakout role made Dores Andre a stone diva in "Guernica," which displays her dramatic temperament, knowing legs and tragic face in an over-the-top "moment of truth" showstopper. This ballet may age well. On opening night, it seemed punched out, felt more like a Vegas Paso-doble production number than Picassoesque." > The ballet that seems to be most controversial - love it or hate it - seems to be Ochoa's Guernica. Some people find it exhilarating, and some unconvincing and kitschy. With all the talk about whether or not any of these ballets will, individually, have a long life, or all simply vanish into thin air, it occurs to me that the real work of art here was the festival: a few hundred people working together frantically and living in the moment to create something that is very much of its time. In a way, the ballets belong together as a time capsule of themes, concerns, and dance styles and techniques representing this particular moment in human history and dance culture. Even Guernica, which obviously refers to Pablo Picasso's world, still feels like commentary on the present situation we find ourselves in. UNBOUND is a festival of many voices, but I think it has managed to coalesce and form a common spirit. Given all the people involved, I'm not sure that was ever inevitable, but something clicked.

Choreographer Trey McIntyre is interviewed by Rebecca King Ferraro and Michael Breeden (from "Conversations on Dance") https://conversationsondancepod.com/2018/05/03/choreographer-trey-mcintyre/ "I had never seen a really happy Artistic Director. It's a really tough job, and it's a lot of masters to serve...." At 17:40 McIntyre talks a bit about what it was like working with the SFB dancers, and what he finds special about this company. He's a very intelligent and well-spoken person.

Maria Kochetkova's final performance dates at SFB:

Masha's final SFB performance dates: "I couldn’t be luckier to have my last two shows with San Francisco Ballet in the creations by @daviddawsonofficial and @arthurpita. Anima Animus May 4th, Bjork Ballet May 5th 8pm. I hope to see you there! "

Since no one has posted the latest from Alastair Macaulay... San Francisco Ballet’s Limpid Sophistication Shines in ‘Unbound’ "Individual dancers have been outstanding; so has the larger ensemble. Though from a wide variety of backgrounds, the dancers share the same virtues of intensely elegant clarity, high refinement and fervent commitment. New York has two influential ballet companies, New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater, to both of which San Francisco Ballet owes debts. (Mr. Tomasson created roles for both George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins as a City Ballet principal, and his company’s repertory contains works created for both New York companies.) But the limpid sophistication of the San Francisco style is apart from either." "True, I’m eager to revisit only two of these — “Your Flesh Shall Be” and “Hurry Up” — but these eight were so striking, so fully developed along their own lines, that the four evenings all felt substantial. As for the four I found less individual — Edwaard Liang’s “The Infinite Ocean,” Dwight Rhoden’s “Let’s Begin at the End,” Myles Thatcher’s “Otherness” and Stanton Welch’s “Bespoke” — you could easily see why each had its admirers. And “Bespoke” did more than any other ballet of the season to showcase the really remarkable beauties of the company’s classical style." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/arts/dance/san-francisco-ballets-limpid-sophistication-shines-in-unbound.html I think Macaulay has been dying to use the word "limpid" in something. ;) Overall, the festival reviews have been very positive, although everyone, naturally, is wondering if any of the ballets will matter in a few years. Or be forgotten entirely. Fortunately, the buzz over the festival should ensure a good turnout for the Kennedy Center performances in October.

Rebecca King Ferraro and Michael Breeden have posted a particularly timely podcast - part of it dealing with the issue of "32 fouettes": to do, or not to do? (They mention some of the famous dancers who did not partake of fouette turns.) And they talk about Internet trolling with regards to dance, and more. Dancers’ Negativity and Perspective Post-Retirement "We talk about Misty Copeland’s epic and graceful response to a Twitter troll last week (7:55) and discuss Avichai Scher’s article for the Huffington Post, “The Me Too Moment Is Ballet’s Chance for a Turning Point” (16:15)." https://conversationsondancepod.com/2018/04/10/dancers-negativity-and-perspective-post-retirement/

Frances Chung just posted a related note on Instagram:

Great information, Fraildove - thanks for these details.

Mathilde Froustey rehearsing Giselle with Ballet Master Felipe Diaz (for upcoming performance with Yellowstone Ballet) Natasha Sheehan and Wei Wang performing at the student matinee of Sleeping Beauty Tiit Helimets rehearsing the new Alonzo King ballet: Some partners you can trust, so try to relax:

It's worth noting that Claudia Bauer awarded Program D 5 stars, which is quite an improvement over her 2 stars for Sleeping Beauty. With SB her biggest problem seemed to be the costumes and stagings, but with Program D there's some truly wild costumes that Bauer must be OK with.

I would say that Kochetkova is one of the rare breed of dancers who can perform believably in traditional classical roles and in contemporary pieces demanding very different techniques. The SFB repertoire gets some of the credit for that, since SFB dancers are expected to dance all ballets/roles - unlike companies where dancers can specialize. MK has many side projects going on, many of which happen to involve contemporary choreography. She puts in an insane amount of rehearsal hours to make it all work. I hope she is entering an era where she relaxes more. ;)

Yes, a bit ironic that she's dancing a Sleeping Beauty PDD, rather than something more contemporary, but, she did perform in SB this past season at SFB.

We're about to be buried under a pile o' conversations. ;) It was a good idea to have Ferraro and Breeden come to SF to record the podcasts, but the funny thing is, I don't think anyone mentioned that this was going to happen.

After the end of the SFB season, Masha doesn't miss a beat: 2 more shows scheduled for Europe: "Sleeping Beauty pdd Berlin @staatsballettberlin May 17th, Benois de la Danse (Bolshoi Theater Moscow) @bolshoi_theatre June 6th" https://www.instagram.com/p/BiNmTk6ha8T/?taken-by=balletrusse Dores Andre's commemorative photo of Kochetkova:

Fun with Arthur Pita's Bjork Ballet

Hi Terez - the admins will no doubt move your post to the Writings on Ballet section. We have a thread there titled, Discussion of UNBOUND Reviews: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/43718-discussion-of-unbound-reviews/?tab=comments#comment-399181

Nice to see Damian Smith doing staging work, and in the U.S. ;) And Janie Taylor is getting staging work too - nice.

OK, that was funny. I almost got water up my nose. But to be fair to various classical ballets - they haven't lasted simply because they contain "lavish dances that don't make you think". And I'm not sure Arlene Croce really believes that.

I welcome your response. 😉 I'll admit I'm not a T.J. Clark fan (and I have no Art Historian/Critic favorites), so we may butt heads (but I'll keep that to a minimum). For me, the power of Guernica does not lie in any vestiges of Cubism, but in its mythopoetic content, and its overt sociopolitical content. Clark sees Nietzsche in Picasso's work, and others have mentioned Einstein's theories as a basis for Cubism, and all this theorizing has its interest, but it's very difficult to prove the assertions unless an artist specifically cites an influence on their artwork ("I was reading the Special Theory of Relativity the other day and I got some ideas for how I could approach my latest portrait painting of my wife.") Clark's interest in depictions of interior space in Picasso's work are informative, but I feel Clark tries too hard to make Cubism an 'explanation' for everything that follows, and essentially doesn't allow Picasso to move beyond the concepts of Cubism, and I don't think that's what was happening for Picasso in the late 1930s and beyond. Cubism is considered to be the most influential art movement of the 20th century, but that doesn't really justify stamping a work as "Cubist" if it doesn't pertain to the same concerns and rules. That's just not useful. Picasso's Guernica definitely reminds us of bits and pieces of earlier Picasso works (no surprise there), say Les Demoiselles d'Avignon from 1907. But Guernica was not a return to Analytical Cubism, and there are no Picasso statements that I know of that hint he was trying to do so with Guernica or any other later work. Picasso was very interested in myth-making by the time of Guernica - we see endless Greco-Roman references in his work of the later period. That was never a major concern of Cubism. (it's interesting that Braque also used a lot of Greco-Roman myth references in his later work.) [Constructivism is another widely misused term - people are often referring to Suprematist paintings as examples of Russian Constructivism.] Anyway, I'm trying to understand why Ochoa thinks that her Guernica ballet employs Cubism, or references Cubism - I really don't know, and hope she talks more about this in the Symposium.

OK, that's interesting. I like it when the creators are still willing to make adjustments as needed. Is it true that all the lighting is being done by the same staging artist? If that is so, the individual choreographers may well want to try different stagings for any revival of their/the ballet. I'm not particularly interested in Ulrich's first review (there is now a 2nd Ulrich review out for Program C), but I am curious about how the discussion around Thatcher's themes will develop. Or if it's just a 'San Francisco' moment that will quickly fade. Reading Ulrich's review of Unbound Program C, which includes Ochoa's Guernica, I have a nitpick. Ochoa has referred to Picasso's cubism, and his Minotaur and bull imagery in her ballet, but Picasso and Braque's cubist period was a narrow, intense period that both artists migrated away from before WWI even began. Picasso spent many more years developing other approaches to art and never returned to Cubism. Gurenica is not, strictly speaking, cubist, but a very graphic-styled painting, in the same vein as many of Picasso's lithographs/etchings and drawings of the 'mature' period. It certainly relates to Picasso's Surrealist and African 'periods'. I don't recall any bull/Minotaur imagery in Picasso's cubist period - that is from a later time of different interests. I've only seen a rehearsal of Ochoa's Guernica, and I didn't get a sense of cubist principals at work in the choreography. Can anyone clarify how the ballet refers to Picasso's cubist period? Or is that simply a misunderstanding and the ballet really refers to Picasso's later visual 'mythology' of bulls/Minotaurs and the like? [Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes performed Parade as a kind of Cubist ballet, and Picasso designed the stage sets and costumes.] For reference (the first image is Picasso's Guernica (1937), followed by a couple of his Minotaur/bull works...

I checked - there are 5 open slots to fill, so you may get your wish. I also wonder about Ochoa's Guernica being included. But here's a novel idea: SFB could conceivably rotate through much of the 12 Unbound works using these 5 "slots"; although there would only be 2 or 3 performances of each.

I may get in trouble for mentioning this, but since a certain reviewer did not love Myles Thatcher's ballet, and made it sound a bit like the issue was Thatcher's choice of themes, there may be a brouhaha. Dores Andre was not happy about this review and posted a statement on Instagram, and other sympathetic readers/commenters seem to think it's time to argue for more 'relevant' ballet that joins with social protest. Ballets in the classical 'grand manner' are not likely to get much attention in this climate. At least the ones that "require no thinking". Personally, I think people may be arguing at cross purposes (surprise, surprise) since it is likely the reviewer doesn't object to Thatcher's themes of gender equality and identity, per se, but to Thatcher's handling of the subject matter, and his choreography in this particular ballet. No one does great work at all times and on all subjects. That's life. And this is not the only person to state they didn't like various things about the Otherness ballet. If it becomes impossible to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a ballet (or artwork) due to its subject matter, there's a problem. There may be some people that think 'mere' ballet is being transcended to make an important political statement or social protest, but politics doesn't 'transcend' art. The fact that artwork may have a political theme, or that artwork can be used in service of a political campaign (even against the artist's intentions), doesn't remove the many functions of art that have nothing to do with today's social issues. Is Otherness effective ballet? Or is it only effective as a social statement? Or is it relatively successful at both things? I have a feeling we're going to get to hear more about this.

Alastair Macaulay has written an educational ballet piece entitled, Two Seconds That Explain Balanchine. This is the kind of article I would like to see a lot more of - from all publications that review dance - but unfortunately the opportunities seem to be shrinking with each new year. Perhaps the audience isn't large enough, but I have to think that any avid ballet goer and all ballet students and professionals are going to enjoy this type of discussion. This is the type of analysis that only the more experienced dance writers can attempt, since it requires a fair amount of technical knowledge (and any missteps will be highlighted immediately by the readers). Still it's a worthwhile effort to present real information and analysis, and not just fan appreciation, in a dance article. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/arts/dance/balanchine-concerto-barocco-breakdown.html