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…
ODC/Dance – The Velveteen Rabbit – San Francisco
★★★★✰ As November fades away and December’s bustle begins, an enchanting Bay Area dance favorite returns for its annual two-week run at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Aura Fischbeck Dance – DUSK – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ DUSK had a lot going for it. First was the overall concept. DUSK challenges the viewer to not only acknowledge the idea of transformation, but to consider what lies beneath.
Sasha Waltz & Guests – Körper – San Francisco
★★★★✰ In English, körper means ‘body’, and so, as one might guess, the ninety-minute tour de force, directed and choreographed by Sasha Waltz, turns its eye to the body in space.
Liss Fain Dance – A Recomposition: I Don’t Know and Never Will – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ Liss Fain Dance knows how to set a mood. As I walked into Z Space on Friday night for the opening of “A Recomposition: I Don’t Know and Never Will”, I was completely transfixed by the environment – both visuals and sound.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet – Handel, Common Ground (world premiere with Kronos Quartet) – San Francisco
★★★★✰ For those dance fans who are also music devotees, this bill is a must see.
Mark Morris Dance Group – Pepperland – San Francisco
★★✰✰✰ Cal Performances patrons were clearly entertained on Friday evening. I, too, wanted to like the piece, but it didn’t really resonate with me.
Smuin Contemporary Ballet – Dance Series 01 bill – Walnut Creek
★★★★✰ A winning first program, one with the range and breadth that Smuin is famous for.
FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival including works by Simpson/Stulberg, Fog Beast and Joy Davis – San Francisco
★★★★✰ The evening definitely delivered a broad swath of dance performance – a very strong debut and a great addition to the SF dance festival circuit.
ODC/Dance – Summer Sampler 1: Head in the Sand, Something About a Nightingale, Giant – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ A solid program overall, there were moments that satiated my craving for lightness and moments that challenged it.
