San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, CA
Program 1: Fanfare, Dances at a Gathering, Glass Pieces
February 8, 2002

For its first program of the season, San Francisco Ballet has chosen to highlight one of the great American choreographic masters, Jerome Robbins. The program that I saw last Friday night at the War Memorial Opera House was composed of solid selections that whetted the appetite for more of Robbins's work.

An appropriate lead-in to the program, indeed to the season, is Fanfare, which Jerome Robbins choreographed to the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten. Although a little dated-looking in the costumes (which probably looked pretty smashing in 1953), Fanfare is nevertheless an entertaining piece and notable in showing off the wide range of dancers in the company. It's important to remember that this was made for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England, and although it has a grandeur Robbin's sense of mischief slips in as well. The dancers take the work, for the most part, as a serious ballet, and this helps to lend weight to a well-constructed but essentially fluffy piece. Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to see the beautiful mix of influences in the way that Robbins puts steps together. He tosses in brief quotations from other ballets (the swans from Swan Lake, the Chinese dance from The Nutcracker), but then also adds some square dance and folk dance steps amidst the neo-classical pomp. Notable among the performers on Friday night were Catherine Baker, who turned in a sweet performance as the piccolo; Tina Le Blanc, whose quick work as a clarinet was playful and light; Moises Martin with memorable clean, high changements Italienne; the magisterial Muriel Maffre as the harp, dancing with her usual security; Chidozie Nzerem, whose expressions injected a note of fun into the horn section, and the delightful pair of Pablo Piantino and James Sofranko as the trumpets. The main hindrance to the performance was that ironically, in a piece designed to showcase the orchestra, the orchestra seemed not to be "with" the dancers. Conductor Paul Hoskins really could look up more often to see whether or not the musicians are coordinating with the dancers.

Dances at a Gathering seems so perfect for the San Francisco Ballet that it comes almost as a surprise to realize it's never been in their repertoire before. This introspective series of solos and pas de deux for an ensemble of five couples is one of Robbins's best-known and best-loved works. Set to the music of Frederic Chopin, Dances abstractly depicts young people wandering in and out of dances, sometimes moved by the music, sometimes by mood. Although Robbins was absolutely adamant that there was no plot, atmosphere is everything. The phrases that he puts together are beautiful, but the work is nothing without the personalities of the dancers. In Friday's performance, despite a strong cast, expertly coached by Susan Hendl and Victor Castelli, there was still a perfume missing in the air.

Individually, each of the ten ( a nice mix of corps, soloists and principals) danced well. Gonzalo Garcia, as the Boy in Brown, set the stage with a limpid solo that was oddly unemotional for him. As the ballet progressed he seemed to settle more and more into the role and though his partnering lacked romance, some of his customary exuberance began to show in his duets. As the Girl in Mauve, Julie Diana seemed also tentative, although she was engaging in her duet with Ruben Martin as the Boy in Green. Katita Waldo, in Blue gave an easy playful performance, and of the group, only she and Joanna Berman, in Pink, seemed to have the easy camaraderie that Robbins sought to evoke. Berman was partnered in her duets by Ben Pierce in Purple, who replaced Yuri Possokhov at the last second that evening. Despite the change, the two of them danced delightfully together, and set an example for the kind of ease and rapport that the others appeared to struggle a little with. Their second pas de deux had a longing that was palpable, and the way in which Pierce presented and cared for Berman as a partner was touching. Peter Brandenhoff was solid as the Boy in Blue. Kristen Long as the Girl in Yellow was fleet-footed and partnered well with Hansuke Yamamoto, who took on the role of the Boy in Brick. Her bubbly running backwards and general effervescence showed off a sense of humour that was charming. The trio for Berman, Diana, and Waldo began dreamily, but the great pleasure of it was watching the three of them respond so consciously to Michael McGraw's playing. Wandering in from another village it seemed, Lorena Feijoo as the Girl in Green was one of the only ones to put a particular stamp on her role. Her coquettishness and sunny indifference were particularly right for the role of the girl who didn't care if the men passed her by or not.

Although long, Dances at a Gathering is obviously the sort of work that can transport an audience given the right set of conditions. Without a doubt, it's worth seeing on these dancers again; one has the distinct sense that after a few performances, it will be an entirely different animal.

In a bright, argon-coloured change of pace, Glass Pieces closed the program. If you felt sleepy after Dances, you were awake when the curtain went up on Glass Pieces. Created late in Robbins's career, it has all the liveliness and invention of his jazz works, and it is driven hard by the Philip Glass score. Crowds of people fill the scene and then dissolve into the sleek duos of Leslie Young and Zachary Hench, Tiekka Schofield and Kirill Zaretsky, and Nicole Starbuck with Parrish Maynard. This has to be the least offensive use of Glass music, excepting perhaps Koyaanisqatsi. The alien look of the dancers amidst the rush of the crowds is provocative and before you can get tired of the dance phrases being repeated and added on one by one, the section is over. For the "Facades" section, Yuan Yuan Tan danced an even more alien-looking pas de deux with Cyril Pierre (who replaced Possokhov in this piece). Tan is developing a keen sense of what is effective in a line, and she used her hyper-flexibility to her advantage, contrasting with the isolinear work of the corps de ballet who sidled past in the upstage shadows. The "Akhnaten" section looked crisp although the positions were not always matched well among the corps, and the coupe jeté section looked like chaos. Nevertheless it was a good finish to an enjoyable diversion. One senses a kind of programmatic irony in that the piece which felt the most repetitive and faintly dull was the Chopin work, while the piece set to the famously repetitive and dull music of Philip Glass turned out to be the most fun.

February 16, 2002

Some further thoughts on San Francisco Ballet's Robbins Program.

I saw this program again at the end of the run, and I have to say that Dances at a Gathering improved by leaps and bounds. The cast was the opening night group, who have obviously warmed to the choreography and the style. Lucia Lacarra was dancing the Girl in Pink and Yuan Yuan Tan the Girl in Mauve, The Boy in Brown was Roman Rykine and Damian Smith took on the role of the Boy in Purple. The cast rounded out with Joanna Berman (Green), Tina LeBlanc (Yellow), Sherri LeBlanc (Blue), Gonzalo Garcia (Brick), Vadim Solomakha (Green) and Stephen Legate (Blue).

Although some reviewers have made comment about this cast lacking the sense of camaraderie that the other cast had, I have to say that this didn't rally bother me so much in the end. I wish I had seen the other cast at the end of the run, to see if I liked their approach more after they had settled into the work, but I was transported well-enough by the people I saw on Saturday evening. Was Saturday's cast better, or more connected, or more moving? I can't say. I suppose one of the interesting things about Dances is that it highlights the very different ways that dancers demonstrate what they are doing or want to do, and audience members interpret what they are seeing or want to see.

The "perfume" that I had been missing the first time I saw the piece is, I think, not so much the communal friendliness (which I agree, is a component of the atmosphere that Robbins wanted) but a depth and specificity of the relationships, particularly between partners, and also a sense of the personality of the dancers. For me, Dances is actually (dare I say it?) long and boring unless you are really interested in who these people are, and in details such as what makes the Girl in Green different from Girl in Mauve and what the Boy in Brown is thinking about when he wanders by. This piece was, after all, made for a group of people with very particular personalities. Certainly it's not necessary for any modern interpreter to pretend to be Edward Villella or Kay Mazzo or Allegra Kent, but I believe that a large part of the success of the piece in its original conception is that each dancer brought his or her own special talents, phrasing, attitude, etc. to the work, thereby apotheosing it from a collection of very pretty little divertissement into a strongly evocative meditation.

In Saturday's performance, Lacarra took a gamine approach that was very much her own style. Her dancing had less of the freakishness that she allows in other performances, and even a one hundred-eighty degree side split in the first pas de deux with Smith seemed merely like part of the choreography, albeit a peculiar part. As the Girl in Mauve, though, Tan was absolutely sublime. Her slightly lost, child-like air could be sweet, or sometimes formal, but one never felt like she held anything back. Watching her scan across the house in the final moments of the ballet, I suddenly, and for the first time, felt that the work WAS too short.

As the Boy in Brown, Rykine was more expressive than I've ever seen him, a quick look of wonder that crossed his face in the "baiting" dance with the Boy in Purple was completely unexpected and perfect for the moment. Berman as the Girl in Green had a lot less of the spitfire about her than Lorena Feijoo in the same role, and I found myself wanting a less subtle performance. She was understated in her encounters with the three men who pass her by, but that combined with their (quite proper) abstractedness led to a lack of focus.

The Grand Waltz was full of excitement and , again, for the first time, I really saw how cleverly the choreography builds and how widely Robbins has the dancers moving. They go from jumps to flying sweeps to swooping lifts; every time that you think, "Oh surely the steps can't get any bigger than thatÉ," Robbins tops himself again, calling upon a seemingly bottomless vocabulary of steps to build to a climax. Particularly memorable to me was Sherri LeBlanc's expression, which fairly shouted, "I'm so happy to be here!" I was right there with her.

A quick mention of Fanfare, the first piece on the program: Gonzalo Garcia stepped in for Parrish Maynard in the percussion, dancing with his customary charm. Vanessa Zahorian was quicker than one would think possible as the Piccolo, but my eye was drawn to Brooke Taylor Moore as one of the Celli, who took the effort to really acknowledge the audience and who had a lovely stage presence in this piece.

Glass Pieces or "Ballet in a Bathtub" as my companion sardonically referred to it, was perhaps a little sloppier, especially in the corps work, than before. It was too bad, because Muriel Maffre and Cyril Pierre were lovely in the central pas de deux, but the corps distracted the eye from them.

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This review initially appeared on criticaldance.com, February, 2002.

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