The mixed bill proved once again that San Francisco Ballet is a dedicated promoter of new work...
Reviews
Reviews of Dance and Ballet Performances
One might view the whole show as a battle of flamenco and African styles: the one, refined, disciplined and exact; the other wild and free; but both sharing a total dependence on rhythm.
Over the course of an hour and a half the story is told, more or less, twice: first in swift pantomime (aided by projections) and then in a series of more intensely danced interludes.
It’s a very successful work that manages to combine the oblique with the direct and engaging, and is both funny and sharply observed.
So far as I know, no major company has ever before attempted a time-shifted Bayadère, so Hübbe had the whole of history to pick from. He chose the later years of the British Raj...
McGregor’s influence is visible across the programme, not so much in the movement style but in the extreme formal abstraction of the work. A little form can go a long way...
The company premiere of The Prodigal Son was the centerpiece and highlight of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet’s second all-Balanchine program at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater - a program that also included Divertimento No. 15 and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.
When something is beautifully made it never gets old. So it is with Balanchine’s Nutcracker, first performed by New York City Ballet in 1954 and honed to near-perfection over the years.
One issue that arose is the fact that too many people in the Rain Room – whether dancers or audience – really starts to destroy the illusion of controlling the rainfall or being enclosed in the rain.
It’s an interesting evening, showing both choreographer and company at their best and at somewhat less than that.
Naharin is at his best when working with groups, particularly mixed groups or groups of men. There isn’t much that is gender specific in the work; women dance much the same steps as men and there is little male / female partnering. What there is looks oddly perfunctory.
It’s a masterful, mesmerising piece.
When watching them perform one understands what dance critic Joan Acocella meant when she said: “Every single time Suzanne Farrell sets a Balanchine ballet – it rises from the dead.”
...once she begins to dance, words become irrelevant: the clarity and detail of her dancing leaves no room for ambiguity or doubt. Like a master story-teller she is able to change registers and points of view in the course of a single solo...
The Unkindness of Ravens - collaborative efforts are not easy, especially when they are cooked up over a short period. The two companies are just similar enough - contemporary, ballet-based - to make the project even more complicated.
Freedom came when the performers were allowed to dance. And that just wasn’t often enough.
...I’m not certain in which direction the company is headed. There is so much potential to be realised that it would be disappointing to see it ebb away.
Within (Labyrinth Within) is no masterpiece, but it presents exciting possibilities for contemporary ballet while avoiding the hyperextended steps and sexual clichés that muddy so much of the field.
What this creative and glorious revisiting has achieved is an enrichment and revitalization of everything the work holds dear and, at the same time, a wonderful showcase for this company of 32 talented young dancers.
It is refreshing to see Jiri Kylian’s repertoire performed by a mostly modern company, and the two works of his that completed the programme were danced with an encouraging sense of theatrical flair.