Celebrating San Francisco Ballet’s 80th season, Helgi Tomasson gave his audience and supporters a sleek event of pas de deux, a pas de trois, one pas de quatre, a solo and a final ensemble excerpt which will begin Program I January 29.
I am fascinated by the choices Tomasson sometimes makes for partners, particularly for fluffy moments like George Balanchine’s Tarantella to the tinkly music of Louis Gottschalk, which sounds like a precursor to early New Orleans jazz. So much so you can imagine it on an early Victor Red Seal record or envision it being played on an out-of-tune upright piano in some seedy New Orleans dive. Pairing Sasha de Sola and Pascal Molat was novel, although de Sola conveys jauntiness along with her extraordinarily straight back. Molat can dance the cheery street urchin in any guise thrown him, his final measures soliciting every last centime.
Switching gears the suicidal solo from Roland Petit’s L’Arlesienne touched on daring the audience; it worked. Pierre Francois Vilanoba made one of his initial impressions in the company dancing this role and the title of Lar Lubovitch’s Othello. A dozen years later, Vilanoba conveyed the mental dislocation with a honed ferocity, a image of suicidal madness worth remembering, circular grand jetes, flailing arms, riveted gaze. Petit doesn’t always get many marks for his choreography, but his theatricality is unmistakable.
Returning to the light touch, August Bournonville and his Flower Festival at Genzano with Clara Blanco and Gennadi Nedvigin was another surprise pairing, nicely matched in size and sweetness. Blanco could have been better coached; she was half way between her iconic Nutcracker Doll and the thoughtless Olga in Eugene Onegin. Nedvigen’s finishes in tight fifths elicited enthusiastic applause.
Myles Thatcher’s In the Passerine’s Clutch was conceived as a pas de quatre for Dores Andre, Dana Genshaft, Joan Boada and Jaime Garcia Castilla and enjoyed a premiere at the Gala. Thatcher used music from the prolific compositions of contemporary Polish composer Wjceich Kilar and is his third choreographic essay for San Francisco Ballet affiliated dancers. Passerines are called perchers and number the greatest proportion of birds in the avian kingdom, including swallow, ravens, thrushes, sparrows, warblers, even the Australian Lyrebird. Thatcher’s attempt to capture the darting, clustering, clampering, quarreling and mating deserves a second viewing.
Lorena Feijoo made her first appearance since giving birth to Luciana in the Act III variation from Raymonda, hand slaps and all to Alexander Glasunov’s insinuating music . Feijoo’s delicate sensuality was touched with a distinctly regal quality. Audience members clapped when she appeared on stage. Shades of Alexandra Danilova.
Tomasson’s Trio featured Sarah Van Patten, Tiit Helimets and Vitor Mazzo, in the section of the work set to Tchaikovsky music. They danced an eloquent, inevitable triangle with Mazzeo as the dark figure luring Van Patten from Helimets arms, Mazzeo bearing a limp Van Patten off stage right with Helimets alone and forlorn at the curtain.
The Wedding pas de deux from Act III of the Petipa-Gorsky Don Quixote completed the Gala’s first half, danced by Frances Chung and Taras Domitro as Kitri and Basilio in the lustrous white costumes designed by the late Martin Pakledinaz. Rendered with eloquent understatement, and measured formality, Paul Parish mentioned Felipe Diaz, one-time San Francisco Ballet soloist and currently a company ballet master, had rehearsed the two. Paul observed, “You absolutely have to have someone tell you where your head needs to go, where your eyes should focus. It’s something you cannot do alone, or just with your partner.” Chung and Domitro emphasized polish more than bravura. That seemed to disappoint a number of individuals, but it suited me just fine.
Three pas de deux and one ensemble piece were the Gala’s second half content, a paean to the company’s repertoire range. Maria Kochetkova and Vitor Luiz reprised the first act dream scene between Onegin and Tatiana where John Cranko’s Tatiana sees Onegin emerge from her bedroom mirror in a dream. Given the elaborate set, one understands why Tomasson chose this snippet to open the second half; it’s a major production operation.
On to the strains of John Philip Sousa and Balanchine’s wonderful spoof of the Sousa brass umpapa. This 1958 romp for New York City Ballet was first danced by San Francisco Ballet in 1981; I can remember Madeline Bouchard, Anita Paciotti and David McNaughton scintillating in their assignments. Here Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan took on the Stars and Stripes pas de deux created by Melissa Hayden and Jacques D’Amboise. Here danced for a sunny pertness rather than the broad good humor originally conveyed, Zahorian and Karapetyan came across cheerfully.
Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith danced Christopher Wheeldon’s pas de deux from After The Rain, set to Arvo Part’s extended ethereal score which never seems to conclude. It was an etched, elegant performance, tender but seeming to proceed under glass.
Excerpts from Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc finished the Gala, an ensemble piece which has become de rigeur in a Tomasson-run Gala, serving to remind the audience that a company stands or falls on the calibre of its corps de ballet as much as the brilliance of its principal dancers. Lifar, who was the last major male dancer to rise under Sergei Diaghilev’s influence, was ballet master for the l”Opera de Paris ballet company from the mid-‘Thirties through World War II, including those four long years of the Nazi Occupation of most of Northern and Central France. This work was premiered some mother prior to D-Day and in Zurich, appearing to lack any reference to the privation the French dancers were experiencing.
While I intend to discuss the ballet further after seeing the entire work, it was marvelous to see Sofiane Sylve as one of the center dancers, conveying in her bones the style and presentation required for this very French ballet.
mywesterneye/woollywesterneye 