San Francisco Ballet, Sigmund Stern Grove, San Francisco, CA
Swan Lake, Act II, Sleeping Beauty, Act III, Symphony in Three Movements
August 5, 2001

The redoubtable San Francisco Ballet showed grit and determination at their annual free performance at the Stern Grove Festival last Sunday. Currently between European jaunts, the company presented three reliable classics: the second act of Swan Lake, excerpts of the Wedding Act of The Sleeping Beauty, and George Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements in an afternoon that had few surprises, but lots of great dancing.

The situation at Stern Grove can be less than ideal for dance. Leaves fall on the stage, fog rolls in from the ocean; last year it was so cold that the dancers performed in their warm-up clothes. However, these dancers can always be relied on to turn in a spirited performance and this year was no exception.

For the lakeside scene of Helgi Tomasson's staging of Swan Lake, the roles of Odette, Siegfried and von Rothbart were danced by Yuan Yuan Tan, Vadim Solomakha and Damian Smith. As the first dancer onstage, Smith had the task of creating a setting without lighting or scenery to help the mood, but he played the role with admirable glee and managed the job well. Yuan Yuan Tan turned in a lovely performance as the enchanted Swan Queen. She has begun the process of maturing her interpretation of this role, and has added more warmth and passion to her technically secure execution. Her arms still tend to have less of the breadth and grandness that I associate with a swan, but they have a fluidity and the pronounced forward push of her torso gives her line a certain Romantic style.

The stage at Stern Grove is smaller than the Opera House stage, so that often the corps de ballet looked squashed and the spacing was lost. This was particularly noticeable in the waltz, which requires purity of lines from the corps. Nevertheless, the entrance of the corps was clean and well-rehearsed, although the tempo of the music was so slow that the flow of the entrance, which should be a kind of stream of swan-maidens, seemed to lack a pulse.

The beautiful pas de deux that is the highlight of this act was ably rendered, although Solomakha (who has the technique for a soloist, but he has not yet fully developed his partnering) appeared occasionally inattentive and a little lost dramatically. Tan gave a very refined and classically pure reading of the pas de deux, but it could have been extended by more careful partnering from Solomakha. She has a surprisingly strong center for such a diminutive, slender dancer. For instance, she was able to emphasize a deep cambrŽ to the back by remaining in the arch and allowing her partner to draw her up to arabesque, so that he seemed to reveal her arabesque line, rather than just hold her up. Then too, she often used her extreme flexibility to evoke a twining of a swan's neck in his arms. This flexibility also made an impression in her solo variation, in which her balances in a lofty attitude derriere seemed to float on wings.

The famous pas de quatre for the four swans was taken by the veterans Megan Low, Caroline Loyola, Elizabeth Miner, and Nicole Starbuck, who executed the variation with precision.

The company performed only three divertissements from The Sleeping Beauty. The pas de six for the jewel fairies showed the technical strength of Sherri Le Blanc and Jason Davis in particular. Le Blanc's jumps had a loft and lightness to them that gave just the right quality to her variation and Zachary Hench and Rachel Viselli navigated the brief but difficult pas de deux effortlessly, making much of the partnering, especially lifts in attitude, look seamless.

Kristin Long and Guennadi Nedviguine danced the roles of the Bluebird and his Enchanted Princess with just the right note of airiness. Both dancers use their complete technical assurance as a springboard for the characters and images they create, and thus they gave one of the most convincing performances of the afternoon. Whether it was the supported adagio or the solo variations, the footwork from both Long and Nedviguine was invariably neat, precise and light, leaving the viewer with the impression of flight.

For the grand pas de deux for Aurora and her prince, Lorena Feijoo stepped in for Lucia Lacarra and gave a fearless and playful performance opposite Cyril Pierre. It was a tribute to Feijoo's abilities that even on short notice and with little rehearsal, she can turn out such a finished and exciting show. Pierre partnered her quite well, although it was clear they were not accustomed to working together and the difference in their heights made certain steps more complicated. One of Feijoo's greatest assets, though, is her musicality, which was highlighted in the variation. In a diagonal of piques, she consistently picks out the pizzicato of the strings, matching it to the action of her feet. The series of fast turns en manege was dead on the music and she punctuated it all with a sous-sus finish that stopped in place as if she had been nailed to the ground.

The afternoon closed with Balanchine's ballet set to Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements. The first movement gave us a chance to admire Sherri LeBlanc's elevation once more, this time opposite Roman Rykine, who replaced an injured Joan Boada. The corps had a bit of a bad start when the tape miscued at the very beginning, and they never seemed to recover the edge of the music during the first section. Nevertheless, the soloists, notably Leslie Young, had a good angular quality that helped to define the edges of the choreography visually.

Julie Diana and Pierre-François Vilanoba danced a sinuous and exotic pas de deux for the second movement. This was without a doubt, the best performance that I've seen of this section. The musical phrasing was clear without being pedantic, the strange lines and shapes that the Diana and Vilanoba created were each cleanly delineated, and they chose a slightly jaded, yet inquisitive air that was perfect for this movement. These two are often paired together, and they are developing a rapport with each other that translates well onstage: breathing into poses in the same manner, adding playful glances and projecting a confidence in each other. We can only hope to see more in the upcoming season.

San Francisco Ballet travels to London, England and Santander and Barcelona, Spain in the next month.

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This review initially appeared on Voiceofdance.com, August 7, 2001.

For questions or comments, please contact maryellenhunt@yahoo.com.