Last year San Francisco Ballet School and the Houston Ballet Academy commenced a two-week exchange for their advanced students, Called Houston Ballet II and in San Francisco Ballet School Trainees. This past late October and early November the exchange occurred in San Francisco with two performances scheduled as the climax of the exchange.
Overall responsibility was shared by the artistic directors, Stanton Welch for Houston and Helgi Tomasson in San Francisco with the details arranged by Shelly Power, House Ballet Academy’s director and Patrick Armand, SFB’s Associate School Director. The nitty-gritty of scheduling and rehearsals clearly was the province of Claudio Munoz and Sabrina Lenzi from Houston and Wendy Van Dyck in San Francisco. Additionally, James Sofranko, San Francisco Ballet soloist, contributed his second work for the young local dancers. Both November 6 and 7 performances were seen in the Lew Christensen Studio at the Franklin
Street location of San Francisco Ballet.
Houston Ballet II comprised thirteen dancers, with three dancers from the Ballet Academy. San Francisco Ballet also had thirteen trainees augmented by several advanced SFB students for the Handel finale. The Houston dancers are on the smallish side, San Francisco’s taller, with the exception of one or two young Asian women .
I saw the November 7 performance, comprised of three works: Sofranko’s Means to an End; Welch’s The Long and Winding Road, ending with Helgi Tomasson’s Handel- A Celebration.
James Sofranko’s Means to an End utilized eight dancers in interesting stop, start, parallel stage movements, entrances and exits down stage left and upstage right as I remember. I found my interest piqued, but need to see it again – I am not that good on a quick first take. The dancers were Blake Johnston, Larkin Miller, Yumi Kanazawa, Joseph Warton, Natasha Sheehan, Nathaniel Remez, Shane Lazarus and David Occhipini
Beatles Go Baroque by Peter Breiner provided the musical background for Stanton Welch’s The Long and Winding Road with titles like Michelle, And I Love Her, Fool on the Hill, Paperback Writer, Here Comes the Sun, Carry That Weight, songs which must mean something to Beatles fans. The dancers slipped in an out of the improvised wings, at least three on each side as I remember.
Of the Houston Dancers my program showed marks for Daniel Durrett, Larkin Miller, and Anabel Katsnelson, along with Alexandra Burman and Jack Thomas. This was because they were featured in Handel A Celebration, an early Helgi Tomasson piece for San Francisco Ballet. A number of the level 8 dancers also participated, since it was a piece designed as a finale for the entire company.
I love the music, with Tomasson’s arm sweeps carryimg through Handel’s capacity for grand sound, a definite declarative phrasing. Annabel Katsnelson of Houston danced section IV, which I would swear was Elizabeth Loscavio’s nimble contribution. Madison Young and Syvert Lorenz Garcia undertook the diagonal approaches once danced by Joanna Berman lower stage left and Anthony Randazzo from upper stage right, the music to which the song “Where’er You Walk” were added, conjuring court costumes fashioned from elegant brocades.
When the program was over and after generous applause, the dancers introduced themselves. Name and age came out strong, but diffidence tended to swallow their city or country of origin, save one husky San Francisco trainee.
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