★★★★✰ There’s nothing like watching a woman crush a man’s neck with her thighs to make you go hmm, maybe that whole #MeToo thing has legs.
Tag - San Francisco
★★★✰✰ News of the World was charged from beginning to end, filled with messages of gender-based orchestration, control and manipulation. Way brilliantly interpreted these themes...
★★★✰✰ There were some standout moments but generally I found that the vignettes didn’t seem all that different from one to the next....
★★★★✰ The choreography for Bootstrap Tales abides in a place where possibility, gumption and empowerment meet. The atmosphere of moving forward is palpable.
★★★✰✰ This mixed triple bill is made up of work created on the company by artists in the SFB family: On a Theme of Paganini by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, Ibsen’s House by Principal Character dancer Val Caniparoli and Ghost in the Machine by Myles Thatcher, part of the corps de ballet since 2010.
★★★✰✰ Not all, but many pas de deuxs have a romantic subtext, whether intentional or not. But in Rodeo Peck has crafted a pas de deux celebrating introductions and the process of getting to know another person.
★★★★✰ Except for one section, we were led from place to place to experience the piece’s lush tapestry of movement and sound.
★★✰✰✰ The efforts of San Francisco Ballet’s artists are sadly misplaced in this largely joyless and wholly unsatisfying rendition of The Sleeping Beauty.
★★★★✰ Before heading to the premiere of Kristin Damrow & Company’s EAMES, which mines the life, work and relationship of legendary designers Ray and Charles Eames, some background research seemed a good idea...
★★★✰✰ 2018’s edition of the festival boasted over two hundred artists performing fifty-five pieces. The Festival is committed to welcoming a range of performing experience, from new faces to seasoned veterans, students to professionals...
★★★✰✰ I’ve seen The Christmas Ballet five times over the years and it has always been and continues to be a lovely, celebratory afternoon or evening at the theatre. That said, I still struggle with the format.
★★★✰✰ I very much like Brooks’ work, particularly his approach to rebound, points of contact in partnering and his nuanced use of accumulation...
★★★★✰ Designed, curated and hosted by RAWdance’s co-Artistic Directors Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, the CONCEPT series invites San Francisco dance enthusiasts to experience an intimate showing of local performances and choreography.
★★★★✰ Choreographed by Nol Simonse, in collaboration with Christy Funsch, and performed by the incomparable pair, a myriad of ideas and themes were at play during the sixty-minute work. But one concept was particularly striking: time.
★★★★★ Dorrance Dance is received with such universal enthusiasm and love that reviewing them feels like an exercise in redundancy, like piling on to a scrum that’s already 30 players deep.
★★★★✰ ...the line between performer and viewer hovers in a delicious state of ambiguity, steeped in porousness.
★★★★✰ In XO: eXquisite Orientation, Bay Area choreographer Randee Paufve channels the fears and frustrations that distress many of us....
San Francisco exists in its own world, out here on the distant West Coast. The San Francisco Ballet, though, just became more global than ever, with new 2017-18 members joining from around the world. The company school, which presented its annual Student Showcase 31 May through 2 June at YBCA Theater, draws international students as well...
★★★★✰ It can be fascinating to see how two artists, starting with the same media, create completely unique works.
Meticulous reconstructions of Petipa, Cunningham, Graham, Taylor works are performance staples these days. Much rarer is a reconstruction like "Le Temple de la Gloire" (The Temple of Glory) a 1745 political opera-ballet with music by Jean-Philippe Rameau and a libretto by the philosopher Voltaire....