Terez

Pherank, just loved those two photos!!

Enjoyed your comments, and I'm glad you jumped over into Program 7 territory, because that's the performance I saw, and I won't get the chance to see Prog 8. Speaking of Froustey, I found it particularly delightful, seeing her dance Cigarette last night, because that was the YouTube clip I saw of her before she joined the SFB. I hadn't made the Suite en Blanc connection previously. Will be very, very interesting to see if she stays/goes at the end of this season. I can't help but think that if she goes, they'll pay more attention to Messmer. No Masha last night - you could hear people "tsk" in disappointment as they made the announcement beforehand. Dores André did a fine job, but it was more a soloist's interpretation, if that makes any sense. She had a lovely smile throughout, though.

Lovely program, and would love to hear others' comments, particularly about Hummingbird. I was sort of scratching my head there; the costumes didn't appeal to me, although the set backdrop was gorgeous. I just never got "hummingbird" from the dancing. It felt more like a name just pulled out of a hat. Yuan Yuan and Luke Ingham had an absolutely stunning pas de deux set in the center of the ballet, though. Made me feel the tiniest bit better about Damian Smith retiring and no one there to recapture the magic of his partnering with YY. I've seen the YY/Ingham partnership a few times before, but it wasn't until last night that it hit real chemistry, in my mind. (It also helps that the adagio movement of Phillip Glass' Tyrol Concerto is knockout gorgeous. Same music Jorma Elo used in Glow-Stop.) First time I've seen Suite en Blanc. What a lovely, stately, enjoyable ballet to watch. I also really enjoyed The Fifth Season, and of course my favorite part of it was the Damian-YY pas de deux. But Frances Chung and Davit Karapetyan were really great, as well. And Sarah Van P and Carlos Quenedit. Face it, a great cast all around. Quenedit kept up admirably with the others.

Was so shocked to hear Ruben Martin Cintas was retiring. That, on top of Damian Smith leaving - ouch! Yes, PeggyTulle, agreed on your comments, and there's Joan Boada, too. He's been there a long, long time. I soooooo wish I could go to that Sunday 7p performance, but the schedule just won't allow it (and I've got tix for Ballet San Jose the night before). I went to Program 7 last night and I have to admit, there were tears in my eyes as I watched Damian and YY in their Fifth Season pas de deux. Will so miss that pairing. So glad to see this post, Peggy, after just hearing the news about Cintas retiring as well, and wanting more info.

Sandik, and it was all the worse when I read Allan Ulrich's "this is the best thing I've seen in years from this company - do what you can to get to it" (or something like that...) review. And other critics have praised it. Glad (?), at least, to hear someone else had to miss it too. Ah well, so it goes. I don't live in the city and it's difficult to get to anything. Glad I got to see Program 6 (last Sat pm) and have tix for opening night of Program 7, so I can't complain too much. But, dang. What a show it sounds like it was.

Oh, what a bummer to have missed this. Thanks, all, for your dialogue here. Next best thing to being there!

Great conversation thread, great media links. Thank you, all! She's so fascinating, and I'd love to see her stay at the SFB. But that clock is ticking for her to make the big decision. Sounds like she's torn, as one would imagine she'd be. Anyone care to hazard a guess as to which company she will go with for next season?

Josette, I loved your continued comments! I'm all nods here.

Oh, wow, I'm fascinated with this casting. Was it you, Peggy, or Pherank, that said to watch Elizabeth Powell? Yup, she is certainly heading in that soloist direction. Fine with Froustey touring with POB but why on earth aren't we seeing Simone Messmer on this casting list? No newcomers at all, although good point that there wasn't the time to prepare newcomers in debut roles (although that was what the fall months were for, right? All that prep time w/minimal performing?) But there's Sasha de Sola getting good notice again. Helgi's eye is certainly on her this season, amid this season of lots of interesting glance-worthy dancers. I am heartbroken that I will have to miss not just Cinderella but the openers for Programs 5 & 6 (am I right in program #'s?). It might not be till 4/29 that I catch another performance. Ah well, life gets in the way. So glad I can come here and get some feedback on what's going on.

I meant to ask - why is Vanessa Z out? Injury? Pregnancy? Any ideas for how long? She's so reliably lovely when she dances.

Pherank and Peggy, just gobbled up all your comments! I have become such a review hound, especially of performances I've seen. Your comments, both of you, had me nodding over and over again, although I attended the Sat 2/22 8p performance. Agreed on the inconsistency of the Shades descending in arabesque, agreed on the deliciousness of Froustey-Chung-Messmer solos, agreed on Ghosts feeling underwhelming, and very agreed, Pherank, with your comments on Firebird. I blogged about my experience at The Classical Girl and I'm astonished at how similar our comments are (YY being "sassy" - yes! Tiit Helimets looking great and having fun and the audience eating it up. Etc.) I'm especially enjoying that the two of you were able to see multiple performances and can offer such comprehensive detail about different casts. They took Damian Smith off the cast for my night - dammit! And they took out Sofiane Sylve and replaced her with Feijoo, which disappointed me too. I think it contributed to my not warming to Ghosts. No complaints about Feijoo, just no "wow" moments, like watching YY. I also think the order was skewed, and they should have opened with Ghosts. Interesting, Pherank, your comments about Powell. I love watching who's getting cast and being fast-tracked. I hadn't noticed that happening to her, but now I'll be all ears and eyes there. I noticed Helgi's using Nicole Ciapponi a lot, and after she'd been pulled from the roster in July, only to be returned to it in Aug. I'd wondered if the first Shade was Julia Rowe, as she strikes me as someone with big soloist potential (no surprise - she did it in Oregon). I must say, Powell (if she was indeed the 1st one) looked just gorgeous. Too bad the others couldn't strike the same line, but I would agree with the comment that it needed to be "all as one" mentality there, and she should have been told "less is more" on her arabesque. But, wow, Powell does seem to have a soloist's demeanor. Why aren't we seeing Clara Bianco or Dana Genshaft this season? (Or am I just not there the nights they were performing?) Helgi is certainly giving Dores Andre and Sasha de Sola a good deal of stage time this season. And they both seem to be rising to the challenge. There are certainly exciting things going on there on the War Memorial stage, with Froustey, Messmer, Rowe and Shibley new on board. Will be very interesting to see how things pan out for all of them in the future. (The burning question: will Froustey stay?) Really enjoying reading this thread - thanks so much, all of you, for sharing your comments.

The Feb 14th performance was really good, happy to report. Missed the live music, especially in Serenade, but hey, I understand that this little company has gotta do what it's gotta do. Carreño is establishing a positive presence in the area and creating a good buzz for the company, so I see that as all good. I think it's smart of them to cancel an under-producing matinee, but, yes, that does sort of create an anti-buzz. And the worrisome thing to me is how little performance time those dancers get. I'm hoping Carreño does good on his ideas to get the dancers on the road and performing elsewhere. They were really, really good, especially in Jorma Elo's Glow-Stop, and Naharin's Minus 16 was a big crowd pleaser. Rachel Howard wrote a great article on her blog that summarized the performance, what worked, and how it should be a nudge to get venture capitalists in Silicon Valley to consider investing in this company. I don't have the link here (and I can't remember if we're not supposed to post links within replies) but Ballet San Jose has a link to the article, as well as links to several articles/reviews of Program 1 on their blog site. (Okay, so one of them is mine, but I'm not peddling it; I'm peddling Ballet San Jose b/c they're worth it.) I think their blog is called "In Studio With Ballet San Jose."

This review was so awful I broke my vow of "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all" silence and posted a reply. I wonder if the Examiner.com is embarrassed or proud that the review is drawing so many comments?

Omigosh, these are wonderful!!! Especially love those first three.

I found the Matvienko to be a head-scratcher as well. It can't be good for morale among the male dancers. I've always felt sorry for the ABT soloists and principals who lose out to the constant guest artists. I thought the SFB dancers' AGMA contract prohibited that sort of thing, besides. I am delighted, however, to see Damian Smith paired up with YY for Ghosts on the Sat pm performance, which I'll be attending. I was afraid he might finish up this last year of his with my missing out each time. (I don't go frequently enough to catch multiple performances/programs - don't you hate it when one season, you seem to catch the same dancer over and over, and miss out on 1 or 2 over and over?!) The same goes for Mathilde Froustey; there's no guarantee she'll be around longer than this season. Have only seen her via YouTube, but I've heard great things. Crossing fingers that there's no 11th hour casting change. Sure to be a great show, regardless. Pherank, I'll enjoy hearing your impressions back here, when you get the chance.

Pherank, I am just scratching my head over this! How utterly strange, that footage clip. Definitely not created for an American viewing audience.

Gasp! Gasp! All this news to digest! Wow. Didn't see this thread early last week, when I was hunting around, looking to see if a 2014 roster had been posted. Now I've got a veritable treasure trove of information. Thanks, all. Can't wait to click some of these links. I feel the inevitable vicarious pangs for those dancers let go. I know that's the nature of the beast, but I still hate it. So glad Madison Keesler got ENB - what an exciting place that surely will be this year, with Tamara Rojo at the helm and now Alina Cojocaru officially on board. I'm wondering where Charlene Cohen went off to. It seemed she was being given demi-soloist roles this past season; sorry to see her leaving rather than promoted. But then again, they've promoted several of their female corps dancers to soloists in the past year (at least four, maybe five?) and surely with so many new-ish soloists, they're the ones who will dance those roles. And Helgi likes to try out corps dancers in those roles, as well. Just makes me sad, tho, to see a corps dancer tested for bigger things, only to be pulled from the roster a year later.

Wow, this was amazing. She is so versatile; every time I watch her I get a little more impressed. (Her feet in the first piece! Wow! You really notice a woman's good feet when she's wearing slippers vs pointe shoes.) Thanks for posting this link!

Well, I'm certainly all ears about what happens to them next. Living in CA, it would have been doubtful that I'd see her perform in either London or NYC, but I'm still all caught up in this very big news. Enjoyed reading everyone's comments!

A way-belated response to say I really enjoyed reading this review. I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains and I was entertaining the possibility of going to this - I have never seen Swan Lake before (I know, I know, boggles the imagination) but I'm so crazy about the Mariinksy from having seen Ballerina, and I thought, wow, what a way to start, at the top of the top. Ultimately decided not to go - I juggle my ballet time with Symphony time, and the San Francisco Symphony won out, but oh, how nice to read this, even months down the road. Thank you, Muguet, for a wonderful review. I know nothing about Kondaurova aside from reading this, but the comment that she is so tall caught my eye. I recently included a link at my blog, The Classical Girl, to footage of Ulyana Lopatkina, as Odette in Act II pas de deux (I think with the aforementioned Danila Korsuntsev), and it was the most astonishingly beautiful pas de deux I'd ever seen. She's extraordinarily tall - maybe 5'9"? Does the company like tall women? Or do they just happen to be among the tall women of the company? And are the tall ballerinas paired with Danila K. because he matches them well? Check out the YouTube footage of the two of them in the Act II pas de deux - I'd love to hear your impressions, and how it compared to the Berkeley performance. That said, I realize this was posted months and months ago - I'm not sure if either of you are still reading! But if you are, I enjoyed your comments!

Luke Ingham is new to the company this year, but he's been partnered up with YY a few times that I've seen, and I'm thinking that's a relationship they're trying to cultivate. The question I fret about, though, is when YY will retire. She's been dancing there a long, long time. And like Pherank said, there aren't currently a lot of star-quality soloists at this time. Gorgeous, accomplished dancers, yes. But not the kind that sear an imprint into your heart and you go back if only to catch a glimpse of them and their magic again. (Pherank, your list is mine, and I'm sure we'd both agree that Vanessa Zahorian is the first etc.)

I wanted to add this fun little tidbit I just blogged about at The Classical Girl today. I'd gotten my ticket for this Program 6 performance for a whopping $14!! An orchestra seat (row G, seat 13). I booked it talking to one of their ticket agents on the phone. No gimmick. I had no idea they dropped the prices for the occasional stray seat so much, but I guess I'm proof that they do. Anyway, here's a link to the full story (http://www.theclassicalgirl.com/?p=350) and my advice to San Francisco Bay Area people is to never assume you can't afford the SFB. Worth it to call their ticket office. (But not for Cinderella - it's sold out.)

This is all so interesting and enjoyable to read! One thought I had as a SFB patron, upon discovering that Hamburg Ballet was performing within the SFB's season... Actually, it was two thoughts. First was an "oh, cool!" for the above reasons (seeing another ballet company perform as an exchange of sorts). But then I realized if I was only going to be attending 3 performances of the SFB for the whole season, I wanted to make sure and see as many of the SFB dancers as possible. (Does it frustrate the rest of you when you go 3x in a season and, coincidentally, the same dancers are cast on all those nights?) I like the familiarity of seeing "my" dancers, getting to know their specific skills and nuances, and when a company roster is so large (SFB is what, these days? 70?), one's odds go down. Am wondering if other ballet patrons feel the same. I Pherank - I echo you that I'd love to see the NYCB out here. Even more so the Paris Opera Ballet. (But I'd settle for the PNB!)

Kerry1968 - ooh, did we see the same Program 6? I blogged about it at The Classical Girl and posted my review at this forum as well. We had some of the exact same comments (particularly on Marie-Claire D'Lyse as well ). Would love to hear if you had further impressions to share about that performance. Enjoyed seeing your comments here, too. And thank you, Pherank and Helene, for your comments/analyses on the "progeny of Balanchine" administrators out there. I'm curious - besides Helgi Tomasson (and sort of with PNB's Peter Boal), are there other Balanchine-mentored artistic directors running the big companies in the US?

Pherank - thanks for the comment, and I'm glad you liked my mention of the Dvoråk and musicians. On my blog I elaborated a bit more, saying the quintet deserved a personal shout-out, and I thanked them by name, but I thought it might be deemed too digressive for the review here. Yes, sorry to miss their last program for the season, and Wheeldon - that would be fun to watch! But I'm just thrilled I got to make it three times this year. In the past two years, it's only been twice each year. Looking forward to hearing your comments the next time you do make it to an SFB performance. And do send me a PM or a shout-out if you review a PNB performance in the near future.