2022 Rep Season - Program 2

[sf_herminator]

Program 2 which includes Helgi Tomasson's Caprice, Jerome Robbins' In the Night, and the West Coast Premiere of William Forsythe's Blake Works will open on Thursday February 3.  Principal casting has open posted for the first performance:  https://www.sfballet.org/tickets/casting/.  As always, casting is subject to change.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 7:30 PM

 

CAPRICE

Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns
Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson

Misa Kuranaga, Angelo Greco

Yuan Yuan Tan, Luke Ingham

IN THE NIGHT

Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Choreographer: Jerome Robbins

Mathilde Froustey, Benjamin Freemantle

Jennifer Stahl, Tiit Helimets

Sarah Van Patten, Ulrik Birkkjaer

BLAKE WORKS I (SF BALLET PREMIERE)

Composer: James Blake
Choreographer: William Forsythe

Sasha De Sola, Julia Rowe

Max Cauthorn, Aaron Robison

[PeggyR]

How comforting it was to go back to the ballet after all this time; aside from the miserable N95 masks we had to keep on (I now have  permanent dents on my face), it’s beginning to feel like life might be cautiously returning to ‘normal’, whatever that was.

Program 2 wasn’t particularly inspiring, but the dancers looked great.  

February 5, 2 pm

Caprice:  Froustey/Wang; Van Patten/Helimets

Pretty, pastel, and rather tedious; excellent performances by all.  Wang looks like he’s muscled up a bit; his partnering was fine but still doesn’t have the  effortless quality Helimets has.

In the Night:  Powell/Walsh; De Sola/Thatcher; Andre/Morse

It was good to see newly promoted Powell and Thatcher in prominent roles, and they both did well.  De Sola danced impeccably, as always.  Dores Andre is ideal for the tempestuous third couple:  she reminds me of Lorena Feijoo:  all that take-no-prisoners passion and intensity, although still on a very small scale compared to Lorena.  Andre was a fascinating Juliet back in the Before Times, and she’s one that I’ll go out of my way to see in just about anything.

Blake Works I:  Andre/Park/Rowe/DeVivo/Wang/Walsh/Powell/Stahl/De Sola/Robison/Hernandez/Cauthorn/Erni among others

Aside from a desire just to go to see a ballet, any ballet, this was the real reason I wanted to see this program.  I love William Forsythe (I hope Rojo brings more of his works to the Company), and I almost loved this one - the way he moves groups around the stage, the solos and duets that never seem repetitive (unlike Caprice), the way he takes classical ballet and turns it slightly askew - it was all there.  For me, the downfall was the music.  I like electronic music, which fits Forsythe’s style perfectly, but this included a rather nasal singer (the Blake of the title) whose lyrics may have been telling us the meaning of life, but which were largely incomprehensible.  I’m not sure that sentence makes any sense, but anyway, I hated the music, loved the choreography.  I’d happily see this one again, but with earmuffs.

[pherank]

7 hours ago, PeggyR said:

How comforting it was to go back to the ballet after all this time; aside from the miserable N95 masks we had to keep on (I now have  permanent dents on my face), it’s beginning to feel like life might be cautiously returning to ‘normal’, whatever that was.

Great to hear that Wei Wang is developing his partnering skills, and Powell and Thatcher are looking good.

Lorena Feijoo was small, but I think Dores André is even smaller (with normally proportioned limbs), so I'm not sure there's any way for her to appear "outsized" on stage. She has the endurance of the Energizer Bunny though. I like her expressive looks - and she injects humor where it is needed.

I have the same reaction to Forsythe as you express here - his music choices are invariably the weak point of his ballets. I've found that his dances can be quite enjoyable with the sound off.  😉
In fact, that is a good yardstick for choreography - if it holds up to viewing without a sound track then there's real depth and consistent interest to the choreography. I have to wonder if in 60 years anyone is going to regard Forsythe's pieces as "classic" when the music is so of its time, but essentially unimportant and often grating or distracting.

Side note: if Covid is here to stay, then I would suspect that N95 mask development would improve considerably in terms of fit and comfort, and at some point, someone's going to develop an effective "transparent" mask that allows the face to be seen. It's just a matter of developing the technology (in the same way that computers, mobile phones, automobiles, etc. have developed over the years).

[sf_herminator]

Casting Alert:

Yuan Yuan Tan will be dancing in 'In The Night' on Friday 2/11 and Sunday 2/13.  She will be dancing with Luke Ingham in the third couple.  She has previously danced this role with Damian Smith.  If I recall correctly, Luke danced with Sarah Van Patten before.

https://www.sfballet.org/tickets/casting/

Edited February 8, 2022 by sf_herminator
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[pherank]

Here's a celebratory posting from Sasha Mukhamedov - she's back on stage, dancing In The Night with Tiit Helimets (nice photos too):

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaAYV1RpDe0/

Edited February 16, 2022 by pherank

[sf_herminator]

12 hours ago, pherank said:

Here's a celebratory posting from Sasha Mukhamedov - she's back on stage, dancing In The Night with Tiit Helimets (nice photos too):

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaAYV1RpDe0/

I was in the audience and I thought she did very well.  She was in couple #2.  Not sure if she has done the role before, as casting for these programs did not denote any debuts.  Still haven't posted my thoughts on Program 2, but will try to do so by the end of this week.

[Josette]

Sasha Mukhamedov is a welcome addition to the company and I don't understand why she is in a soloist position, given that she was a principal at the Dutch National Ballet.  I can only assume it is because there was no principal contract available at the time, which was also when Misa Kuranaga joined as a principal.  Sasha is very much at home on the stage, has a warm and unique stage presence and unhampered way of moving, and she is wonderfully musical.   She has had to overcome two injuries and I was very happy to see her in In the Night.  I recall that someone on Ballet Alert complained about her port de bras, but Sasha's  qualities when she is seen on stage as opposed to on video/film, take precedence.  She has a "relatable" stage personality.  

I attended two performances each of Programs I and II.  It was wonderful to be back in the SF War Memorial Opera House with the dancers and musicians.  I had a big surprise when one of the Mrs. Robinsons was one-dimensional at best, and then the ballet was transformed when I later saw Dores Andre in her intense and well-thought-out  performance in the role last Saturday evening. 

It was also a joy seeing Aaron Robison back on stage - including dancing with Sasha De Sota in their joyfully performed Section I of Symphony in C -, and everyone in Blake Works I danced their hearts out, including an incredible Isabella DeVivo shining in one of the sections of Blake Works I in the last Sunday matinee. 

And Yuan Yuan Tan, dancing in In the Night and Caprice and supported by Luke Ingham, danced with her singular purity that is so breathtaking.  

 

[pherank]

9 hours ago, Josette said:

Sasha Mukhamedov is a welcome addition to the company and I don't understand why she is in a soloist position, given that she was a principal at the Dutch National Ballet.  I can only assume it is because there was no principal contract available at the time

I always assumed that was the situation. Normally the dancer would be promoted the following season once the new budget was worked out. Unfortunately for Sasha, the pandemic hit, and then she got injured. And normal went away.