Alonzo King LINES Ballet – The Personal Element, Azoth – San Francisco
★★★★✰ A double-bill of compelling contemporary movement, the centerpiece of the performance was Azoth, a new collaboration between Artistic Director Alonzo King, tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd and composer/pianist Jason Moran.
Margaret Jenkins Dance Company – Trace Figures – San Francisco
★★★★✰ Friday the 13th was auspicious for San Francisco dance: Margaret Jenkins Dance Company premiered Trace Figures, a site-specific performance immersion that could be done by no other company or permutation of artists.
FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival including works by Davis/Mullis, Dazaun Soleyn and Maurya Kerr – San Francisco
★★★★✰ SF choreographers Maurya Kerr, Dazaun Soleyn and Slender-White, and the visiting duo of Joy Davis (Boston) and Eric Mullis (Charlotte, North Carolina), presented new works of 10–20 minutes in length.
Garrett + Moulton Productions – Four Acts of Light & Wonder bill – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ …the most apt descriptor for the entire program was joyful.
Amy Seiwert’s Imagery – SKETCH 9: Perspective bill – San Francisco
★★★★✰ The SKETCH series, from Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, is one of my favorite summer dance events in San Francisco. The company dancers are always terrific, both technically and artistically.
Eifman Ballet – The Pygmalion Effect – San Francisco
★★★★✰ Yes, the narrative has its inherent challenges, but the choreography, performances and design all riveted with drama, intensity and humour.
Lauren Simpson Dance – Dance Exhibit – San Francisco
★★★★✰ I caught the show on closing night and saw a terrific company debut filled with collaboration, rigor and a connection to the visual art community.
Dorrance Dance – ETM: Double Down – San Francisco
★★★★✰ Dorrance Dance have a winning formula – creative innovation, dynamic physical feats, engaging stage presence and feet that move at superhuman speeds.
San Francisco Ballet – Shostakovich Trilogy – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ The choreography in Shostakovich Trilogy, which was co-commissioned by SFB and ABT and premiered in 2014, is as frustratingly capricious as the music.
San Francisco Ballet – Die Toteninsel (premiere), Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes, Björk Ballet – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ Liam Scarlett has great taste in dancers. For the 29 March world premiere of Die Toteninsel, his fourth commission for San Francisco Ballet, the British choreographer chose the lyrical and athletic principal Joseph Walsh and soloist Lauren Strongin…
San Francisco Ballet – Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem, Bound To, “…two united in a single soul…” – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ Program 5, titled Lyric Voices, welcomed back Trey McIntyre’s Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem and Christopher Wheeldon’s Bound To and the new work came from Yuri Possokhov…
Mark Foehringer Dance Project | SF – Like an Ox on the Roof quad bill – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ Foehringer’s ambitious mixed repertory program of three premieres (all with live music) and one restaging revealed a company with deep artistic breadth…
San Francisco Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ The performance was thrilling …because it marked the Aurora debut of soloist Wona Park, whose Kitri debut in the season-opening Don Quixote got loads of buzz. At just 19, she dances with an ease beyond her years…
Various Artists – D.I.R.T. Festival, storm SURGE edition – San Francisco
★★★★✰ This year’s festival, titled storm SURGE …brought together eight local and visiting artists with connections to coastal and island communities that are on the front line of rising oceans.
ODC/Dance – World’s on Fire (premiere) – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ The music was striking. And ODC’s company dancers shone. Though as an overall experience, I would describe Fire as mixed.
Jessica Lang Dance – Lyric Pieces, The Calling, Thousand Yard Stare, This Thing Called Love – San Francisco
★★★★★ It was a marvellous showcase of Artistic Director Jessica Lang’s choreographic voice and the nine-member ensemble’s extraordinary talent.
San Francisco Ballet – The Fifth Season, Snowblind, Etudes – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ I was thrilled to see Snowblind returning. It was by far my favorite offering of last year’s Unbound Festival because it captivates on every level: potent storytelling, emotive choreography, fitting design tropes and deep character development.
San Francisco Ballet – Divertimento No. 15, Appassionata, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – San Francisco
★★★★✰ A triple bill joining George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, the San Francisco Ballet premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s Appassionata and Justin Peck’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.
RAWdance – Brilliant Alarm, 14, Roar – San Francisco
★★★★✰ Celebration was definitely in the air on Thursday night. Not only was RAWdance opening a new winter program, including two world premieres, but the evening also marked the local gem’s fifteenth anniversary…
San Francisco Ballet – Nutcracker – San Francisco
★★★★✰ I’m a Nutcracker fan. And I’m a fan of San Francisco Ballet’s current production, choreographed in 2004 by Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson…
