San Francisco Ballet’s Swan Pond Repeat

The company was supposed to get Natalia Osipova April 30 and May 3 in the Petipa/Tchaikovsky classic, but it was not to be. At 6 p.m. on that fateful Tuesday, Jasmine Jimison received a telephone call to report to the Opera House a day ahead of her scheduled debut. Artistic Director Rojo announced the Osipova’s indisposal and Jimison’s “willingness” to step in. Without rehearsal with Isaac Hernandez, she was on in the company’s second round of the full-length 19th century oeuvre.

And on first view, Jimison was, a lyric Odette, small but assured opposite Isaac Hernandez. Except for the slight sense of remoteness, one would not believe our girl from Palo Alto, California was unrehearsed with her partner for the evening. She also had the support of a well-wishing and responsive audience. This season SF Ballet goers have lacked little in willingness to support and greet the dancers seen on stage or the orchestra in the pit. It is clear both sides of the footlights want to share and show their appreciation.

Jimison also made a convincing Odile, managing 20 fouettes to amounting audience excitement. Her second performance scored 26. I just imagine that any soloist faced with those legendary 32 is revved up for the attack, and, in so doing, over shoots the angle where the fouette can begin without traveling.

The second evening, with Aaron Robison, Jimison was clearly on target, and Robison’s Siegfried showed far less aristocratic reserve despite signaling his manor-born decorum. Matching Hernandez’ elevation and command, he just was more in sync with the hapless bird-woman. His grand jetes were consistently worthy of the name.

It should show for the record that Jimison danced Odette-Odile the third time on Friday, again replacing Osipova. That’s a marathon worthy of my minor note for history. 

Moving into May 5, the final Pond performance on Sunday, May 5th’s matinee  performance also saw the final-for now partnership of Misa Kuranaga and Angelo Greco, who leaves San Francisco for Houston Ballet.  As you can imagine, the audience as well as the dancers were revved up and the proceedings on stage with almost impeccable.  Kuranaga is another artist I saw garner a gold at the 2006 USA IBC competition. Her arrival at SFB where she started her career as an apprentice was exciting. Even while traveling in the fouettes you could witness a diminutive power house, despite the fragility she conveyed as Odette.

Greco’s prince was a young one, ever so slightly off-handed lad in his acknowledgments of the courtiers dancing for him; not ill-meant, just caught up in the moment, particularly with Queen Mother Joanna Berman’s deliverance of the necessity of choosing a bride, after a buoyant delight in the bow. His dismay in the soliloquy solo carried the emotion perceptibly in his upper chest.

A word about the swan corps.  It is formidable, exact and, and unlike corps watched on TV from the Russian Valhalla for the bewitched maidens, surprisingly warm. Their von Rothbart, Daniel-Divison    Oliveira, one of the most convincing actors in the company, was not only menacing, but displayed cunning and calculated timing during Act III. The other two evil character dancers did as well, but Oliveira’s was exceptional especially in his death throes.

The curtain calls were memorable with Greco and Kuranaga exchanging a warm and clearly heart-felt embrace. Their partnership supplied SFB lovers with memorable dancing, and their feeling appeared shared with the entire ensemble.

The company has announced it will appear in Spain in mid-late September in Swan Lake. I trust between Rojo and the dancers, that it will be another triumph for the troupe, started by Adolph Bolm, the Russian dancer noted for his role in Diaghilev’s Polovetzian Dances, also serving as San Francisco Opera’s first ballet master.

A Bravo to Miguel Santos 1925-2024

Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco carried a white-haired image of Miguel in a recent e-mail of its activities.  It was the first I knew of his death. I subsequently found the company’s tribute to him on YouTube, along with footage I remember as “A life in Dance.”

Anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area dance world from approximately 1966 until around 2016 knew Miguel or was familiar with his name and his steadfast achievement as artistic director of Theatre Flamenco. The company, commenced by Adela Clara in 1966, has the distinction of being the second-longest San Francisco-based dance organization. It is in no small way due to Miguel’s love for flamenco and his devotion to the company appearing for many seasons at Fort Mason.  Miguel took over the direction of Theatre Flamenco in 1987, and I remember someone mentioning that he either quit or closed his floral shop, location unknown to me.  At the time it struck me as a rather audacious move, but now I know he had reached 62, and was early Social Security eligible. Given his passion for flamenco I think it was a pretty darned canny decision.

My knowledge of Miguel is sketchy, although I knew his initial dance career commenced in Los Angeles. Elsewhere information declares he studied with Carmelita Mariacci, the gifted dancer/teacher profiled by Agnes de Mille. I seem to remember one Stern Grove season there was a performance by the Lola Montes group of which he was a member. The year may have been one when San Francisco Ballet was either at Jacob’s Pillow or on one of their State Department-sponsored tours.

For a time, after several seasons appearing in North Beach,  Rosa Montoya had a small ensemble for which Carlos Carvajal and I served as board members, so my knowledge of Theatre Flamenco’s performances and personnel came into focus following Rosa’s family misfortunes and her return to Spain. Theatre Flamenco seemed to be an ensemble which encouraged participation by young devotees and also included Nemesio Paredes as one of the featured dancers.

It was only after Miguel and I shared membership on the Isador Duncan Dance Awards Committee that I got to know him better. It was after he had been honored by World Arts West’s Ethnic Dance Festival and recognized for Sustained Achievement by the Committee. He was an even-tempered, organized committee member, his slightly husky voice providing his reasoning for a nomination of a group, director, production individual or dancer for a potential award in one of the nine categories in which an “Izzie” is bestowed.   

I don’t remember the circumstance when Miguel and I fell into conversation, but he apparently felt comfortable enough to confide in me. I do remember that he was discussing the decision of Carola Zertuche as the artistic director to follow him. He said that he was deaf from an early age and how he relied on vibrations to pick up the various dance forms, clearly unable to follow the intricacies of the melody.

This disclosure was astonishing to me.  It explained a certain body presentation which never seemed fluid to me even when Miguel was on the beat and the execution was accurate. It represented a lifetime of herculean effort to participate and perform in a dance style in which his lengthy involvement testified to his amazing labor of love.

Bravo and Ole, Miguel.