Summer and Beyond

Hello friends, this week I’m off to Asheville, NC, where I’ll be attending my final residency as a student at Warren Wilson College’s wonderful writing program, and graduating with my MFA in fiction on July 12. The graduation marks a moment of great change, uncertainty, and most of all optimism in my life.

Dance fans may have noticed that I haven’t been writing much for the Chronicle recently. I hope I’m not telling tales out of school when I explain that the paper cancelled all of my June, July, and August review assignments, due to a reduced freelance budget.

The slow-down at the Chronicle has coincided with my growing personal desire to pursue the teaching of writing, and to focus on non-journalistic work. I’m excited to say I’ll be teaching creative nonfiction this fall through Stanford Continuing Studies–more details soon. Meanwhile, I’m dedicating July and August to intensive work on a book-in-progress.

I’m not certain where this leaves my dance writing for the latter half of 2009. I keep contemplating taking a “dance writing sabbatical,” and then keep backing away from announcing such a decision when I realize how much I’ll miss reporting on all the inspiring dancers and thought-provoking choreographers I’m so fortunate to observe here in the Bay Area. Still, in my gut, I suspect a substantial break would be for the best.

Meanwhile, I’m thoroughly enjoying designing the class I’ll be teaching this fall, and I’m working happily every day on my own writing endeavors. So this is just an update to say that you won’t see much of me in the paper this summer. As for fall, we’ll take things as they come.

The Bolshoi at Cal

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My review in the Chronicle:

“Here in the West we tend to chuck two-thirds of Petipa’s “La Bayadère” and get straight to the plotless poetry - the “Kingdom of the Shades” scene, 32 women in heavenly white. After all, the music is featherweight Minkus, not Tchaikovsky. And the story - a variation on that eternal ballet saga of boy loves girl, boy betrays girl, girl dies and boy grieves (this time involving Indian rajas and a beautiful temple dancer) - isn’t Shakespeare.

But it would take a hard-hearted fan to bemoan a full “Bayadère” in the hands of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet, which launched its national tour Thursday at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, and continues to dance the three-act “Bayadère” under the auspices of Cal Performances through Sunday. And the luxuries aren’t always where one might expect.

The obvious sumptuousness is in scale. As is oft-repeated, “Bolshoi” means “big,” and this 1991 staging by Yuri Grigorovich involves big, rich sets (purportedly after the 1877 originals) and endless processions of beautifully arrayed dancers. Then there’s the luxury of beholding such a singular ballerina as Svetlana Zakharova. Thursday, she was extraordinary, her long torso beguilingly serpentine, her interpretation of the doomed Nikiya always noble but never haughty.

Yet being American, and therefore accustomed to dramatically half-hearted productions of the classics, I was most struck by the luxury of fine acting. Maria Alexandrova was delicious as Nikiya’s jealous rival, Gamzatti, the strength of her muscular dancing of a piece with the mischievous power of her mime.”

Click here to keep reading.

Saving Oregon Ballet Theatre

By all accounts and appearances, Christopher Stowell is doing an excellent job as artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre. Now the economic downturn is threatening the company with closure. Wish I could be at this all-star benefit June 12 to help save the troupe.

SF Ballet Will Tour to China

Big news this morning from San Francisco Ballet. My report in the Chronicle:

“San Francisco Ballet will announce plans today for its first trip to China, including appearances in Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing.

The three-week, three-city tour will begin Sept. 22 with a four-night appearance at the Shanghai Grand Theatre and conclude with performances at the Beijing Poly Theatre Oct. 1-3. The performances are part of official celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 30th anniversary of the establishment of official diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

The foray to Asia capitalizes on the troupe’s geographic location and the fame of Shanghai-born principal dancer Yuan Yuan Tan, a hero in her homeland, said Ballet Executive Director Glenn McCoy. “We have particular interest in developing relationships in Asia, being the biggest ballet company on the Pacific Rim,” McCoy said. “And of course Yuan Yuan is a very big star in China, and we’re delighted she will have this homecoming.” ”

Click here to keep reading.

Mark Morris’ “L’Allegro” at Cal

My review in the Chronicle:

“You’re fortunate to see a contemporary classic on the scale of Mark Morris’ “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” once, blessed to see it twice. As of Friday, I have seen “L’Allegro” three times - not as many as some dance lovers, and not as many as the four times the Mark Morris Dance Group has visited UC Berkeley’s Cal Performances with “L’Allegro” since its creation 20 years ago.

At Zellerbach Hall, with Jane Glover conducting the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus through Handel’s score, and a quartet of fine singers delivering Milton’s poetry, it was again a feast for the senses.

Books could be written on Morris’ treatment of this pastoral ode to dark and light (and one has, a coffee table volume of photographs accompanied by insightful essays). But what struck me Friday was how meditative an experience “L’Allegro” is. Morris is vaunted for his “musicality,” which can sound as though he does something more complicated, technical or otherwise mystified in response to the score. In fact, “L’Allegro,” even more so than most Morris works, is built upon a simplicity that can only be won through deep thoughtfulness. It breathes.”

Click here to keep reading.

Nick Cave and Ronald K. Brown

My review today in the Chronicle:

“The mob at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts was so thick Thursday night that a beleaguered security staffer had to fend off visitors hell-bent on overpopulating the main downstairs gallery. In the center of the room stood 40 of the Chicago artist Nick Cave’s Soundsuits - wearable sculptures made of everything from knit-together potholders to Day-Glo-dyed human hair. Suddenly snaking through the throng came 10 dancers, hip-jutting and strutting in masks and clown wigs, the swaying of their neon grass coverings making a sibilant rustle.

This, we’re told, is how Cave designed his work to be fully experienced. But though the exhibition “Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth” includes video of Cave dancing in some of his more stunning creations, it took YBCA Executive Director Kenneth Foster and performing arts curator Angela Mattox to pair Cave with a choreographer. They tapped New York dancemaker Ronald K. Brown, an inspired pick. Cave’s towering, often headless costumes evoke shamanic ritual as much as haute couture, bushmen and Bob Mackie, while Brown’s movement style blends modern dance with African forms. Still, these performance installations, repeating through the weekend, aren’t quite the climax one might have expected.

To be sure, the dancing makes for an enlivened tour of the sculptures. The performers - all locals - stop to do 10-minute set pieces in several of the YBCA’s larger areas. I saw them in the windowless room where previously video had been on display, dancing first to soul music, then to traditional African drum and chant. Brown has said in interviews that he planned to draw on sabar, a Senegalese dance style. The motions are full of big kicks and jumps, flailing arms and rhythmic hips, and led vigorously by Amara Tabor-Smith. Because she wears not a Soundsuit but form-fitting clothes, she makes for an interesting control case against which to compare the costumed dancers.”

Click here to keep reading.

Some of the wilder Soundsuits (photos by James Prinz):

This Soundsuit is made of stitched-together potholders and a metal cage of toy tops.

This Soundsuit is covered in sequins.

But also this photo by Michael Macor for the Chronicle is especially terrific.

Summer Writers Grotto Classes

I’ll be teaching a month-long series of classes on memoir writing this August at the San Francisco Writers Grotto. Here’s the info:

Memoir Writing: Fact Is Not Truth - Memoir and the Art of Honesty
Instructor: Rachel Howard
Contact: rachel (dot) howard (at) gmail.com
Number of sessions: 3, with optional 4th session for personal critique
Meeting times: Monday evenings, 6:30 - 9:30, August 3-17. Optional critique session 6:30 - 9:30, Monday, August 24
Course fee:$195. Optional critique session $75

Description: You want to tell your story and you want to tell the truth. But what does ‘truth’ in a memoir really mean? And how do we find and communicate the deeper truths that compel readers to compulsively turn pages?

Memoir poses a contract with the reader—“this really happened.” Whether your story is outrageous or ordinary, compelling memoir need not depart from facts. But it must dig beneath them to unearth a deeper emotional honesty.

In this class, we’ll use Vivian Gornick’s excellent book The Situation and the Story to help examine the personal story you’re trying to tell, and how you can best tell it. We’ll look at excerpts from memoirs by such writers as Jo Ann Beard, Alexandra Fuller, and Tobias Wolff, and do lots of in-class writing of our own which we will share and discuss. We’ll explore how memoirists use fictional techniques to transport the reader beyond surface factuality, and we’ll find the truth that can drive your personal story. Plenty of time reserved for practical Q and A. Ethical quandaries—“What will my family think if they read this?”—welcome.

An optional fourth session will be reserved for critique of excerpts from students’ memoirs-in-progress. Each participant in this session (limited to six students) will receive a written personal critique from the instructor.

This class is for students already at work on a memoir, as well as those just starting out.

Instructor Bio: Rachel Howard is the author of the memoir The Lost Night: A Daughter’s Search for the Truth of Her Father’s Murder, one of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Books of 2005. Her personal essays have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and O, the Oprah Magazine. Her advice is quoted extensively in The Autobiographer’s Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir.

Click here to visit our Grotto Classes webpage.

PS: The Grotto is offering plenty of other great classes this summer. Check out these other courses:

Writers’ Sampler Menu: Varieties of Non-Fiction Genres
Instructor: Laura Fraser
Contact:laura@laurafraser.com
Number of sessions: 4 (can be taken separately, or as a series)
Meeting times: Wednesday evenings,7 pm to 9 pm; July 2 - 29
Course fee: $45 per class, or $150 for the 4 class series

Description:
This class will be like a tapas menu of different non-fiction genres. Learn everything you wanted to know (or at least everything Laura knows) about each In each two-hour session, Laura will focus in on what makes a successful article in each genre—how to come up with ideas, structure the story, make it sparkle, and sell the piece. Students will have an opportunity to pitch their ideas, and she’ll talk about publishing venues for each genre. Students may drop in to a single class or take the whole series.

JULY 8: TRAVEL WRITING

JULY 15: FOOD WRITING

JULY 22: PERSONAL ESSAY AND MEMOIR

JULY 29: BETTER BLOGGING and BREAKING IN TO MAGAZINES
Instructor bio: Laura Fraser is an award-winning journalist who has published feature articles in all these genres, for such publications as Gourmet, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, the New York Times, More, and O the Oprah Magazine. Last year she won the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for Essay Writing. She has taught writing at numerous venues, including the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Fiction Bootcamp
Instructor: Janis Cooke Newman
Contact: j-newman@comcast.net
Number of sessions: 1
Meeting times: Saturday, Julty 11, 2009, 10:00 am until 4:00 pm
Course fee: $155.00
Description:
“Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.” — Graycie Harmon

This is especially true if you write fiction, which requires you to spend long periods of time in the company of imaginary characters.

This one-day intensive is designed to help fiction writers turn out pages, while staying (more or less) sane.

By looking at the work of other authors, we’ll cover all the craft elements of writing fiction - plot, character, setting, dialogue, and scene. By doing lots of in-class writing, we’ll test drive these techniques for ourselves. We’ll also spend time practicing some strategies to help us access our own creativity - that part of the brain where those imaginary characters live.

Note: This course is appropriate for anyone interested in writing fiction, including beginners. It fulfills the prerequisite for the Advanced Fiction Workshop, which will be offered in Fall 2009.
Instructor bio: Janis Cooke Newman is the author of the novel, ‘Mary,’ which was a Bay Area Bestseller, a BookSense Pick of the Year, and was named by USA Today as the Best Historical Novel of 2006. ‘Mary’ was a Finalist for an LA Times Book Award. Janis Cooke Newman is also the author of a memoir, ‘The Russian Word for Snow,’ and has taught writing in the Bay Area for the past 8 years.

Master Class: Workshop your Non-Fiction
Instructor: Laura Fraser
Contact:laura@laurafraser.com
Number of sessions: 4
Meeting times: Thursday evenings, 6:30 - 9:00, July 9 - 30
Course fee: $150.00, (additional $50 for one-on-one coaching session)

Description:
This class will give experienced writers an opportunity to workshop their pieces to get feedback on their stories. The focus will be on structure and craft, not publication. Writers should pre-register, and preference will be given to Laura’s previous students (maximum 10 in the class). At the first class we will talk about craft and publishing, and draw lots for who will read at subsequent classes. For an extra $50, students will have a follow-up coaching session one-on-one with Laura to go over revised drafts or new articles.

Thursdays, July 9 to July 30, $150 for the series. Please pre-register by sending a check to Laura Fraser at the Grotto, 490 Second St. #200, San Francisco, CA 94107. No refunds.
Instructor bio:

Laura Fraser is an award-winning journalist who has published feature articles in all these genres, for such publications as Gourmet, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, the New York Times, More, and O the Oprah Magazine. Last year she won the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for Essay Writing. She has taught writing at numerous venues, including the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Scott Wells & Dancers

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My review in the Chronicle:

“Scott Wells may be the least ambitious choreographer in San Francisco, and the most original. Because he creates his dances without pretense or posturing, he hits upon moments of unexpected beauty and hilarity that more calculating choreographers only dream of.

I don’t mean to deny Wells’ tremendous craft. It also helps that Wells is a master of Contact Improvisation, and that his dancers are as wont to turn flips off the wall as go flying across the floor. But the real thrills are in their guileless sense of play. The latest Scott Wells & Dancers season, continuing next weekend at CounterPulse as part of the San Francisco International Arts Festival, is full of mischief that turns surprisingly tender.

In “Call of the Wild,” a loose riff on New Age “male encounters,” Sebastian Grubb leads a circle of guys through screeching martial arts maneuvers that veer into crying and soft embraces. They stand in lines and pose, some with ballet arms or pinup postures, others flexing like bodybuilders. I cannot tell you why these standard-issue gender games are so refreshing in Wells’ hands, except to guess it has something to do with Wells being straight, and amused rather than politicizing. No one is better at revealing the absurdities of masculinity even as he celebrates them.

The rest of the program is dominated by Wells’ rangy, beautiful men. ”

Click here to read the rest.

SF Ballet School Showcase

The next generation. My report in the Chronicle:

“George Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” can make even veteran ballerinas quake in their pointe shoes. Everyone must move fast and cleanly - especially the principal woman, whose task is to channel the intricate clarity of Tchaikovsky’s unfinished Third Piano Concerto with seeming ease in her relentlessly demanding solos. Wednesday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Novellus Theater, the San Francisco Ballet School’s advanced students took this decidedly ambitious fare and made it sparkle. This was an exceptional showing at a graduation ritual that - given the teenagers’ high stakes and high sacrifices - is never an ordinary recital.

Sylvie Volosov, already named a San Francisco Ballet apprentice for next season, was strong and stylish in the lead, lowering her leg extensions with a wonderfully musical delay and a slight Balanchine-style tilt of the hip, never blurring her positions. Her partner, Myles Thatcher, also a newly named company apprentice, has a big jump and a natural exuberance that brings to mind a young former San Francisco Ballet star, Gonzalo Garcia. The eight-member ensemble was sharp and well rehearsed. But more exciting than this rendition of “Allegro Brillante” was the apparent growth through all levels of the school.

Yes, the younger children in the opening class demonstrations are adorable. But as a whole, they suggest that the San Francisco Ballet School - which, after all, aspires to be among the leading ballet academies in the country - is strengthening under Associate Director Lola de Avila and her current faculty. ”

Click here to keep reading.

The last paragraph got cut. Here it is:

“Other students who have already landed jobs are Stephen Jacobsen with Cincinnati Ballet, Brandon Ramey with Ballet Memphis, Megumi Takeda with Houston Ballet, Eline Malegue with Victor Ullate Ballet, Jordan Leeper with North Carolina Dance Theatre, Lexi Howerton and Stephanie Eagle with North Carolina Dance Theatre, Austin Bodek with Boston Ballet II, and Kimberly Braylock and Kristina Lind, both named SF Ballet apprentices. Congratulations, all.”

Anna Halprin’s “Spirit of Place”

My review in the Chronicle:

“The seminal landscape architect Lawrence Halprin is 92; his wife of 68 years, the pioneering postmodern choreographer Anna Halprin, is 88. Sunday morning they sat side by side on the stage of Stern Grove, the stunning Greek-inspired amphitheater of rough-hewn granite and towering eucalyptus that Lawrence designed, to watch “Spirit of Place,” a dance Anna has described as “something I wanted to do for Larry.”

For onlookers who descended the ravine in a light rain, this Dancers’ Group commission was also a gift, an education in looking and hearing and being, from two creative minds who have spent their lifetimes doing all three with unflagging intensity.

The chief challenge of creating a dance for Stern Grove, Anna Halprin explained in a pre-performance talk, was the majestic scale; her solution came from the toe-to-finger energy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.” As performers in white animal masks peeked from the upper forest like curious ancient spirits, dancers in bright red and yellow traversed the hillside and the grassy terraces in a streaming diagonal. Undressing to subtler hues, they began in tai chi-inspired movements that evolved into faun-like sideways-blade hands.

The reaching grew into falling and collapsing, then escalated to rolling that defied gravity to move up the stone bleachers, and left bodies hanging against rock. All the while, joggers and children and people with dogs - quickly revealed as planted performers - passed through, the grove going about its daily hubbub. Then the monumental Korean vocalist Dohee Lee let out a hypnotizing scream. A woman from the stage - another plant - answered in warbles and yips.”

Click here for the full review.

And a CORRECTION: The text above reads “Sunday,” which is when the event took place. But the published review read “Saturday,” which was purely a slip of my brain. I’ve been pushing to the finish line with graduate school work lately, writing day and night to meet final semester deadlines. I’m a bit overworked, but this is no excuse. I’m sorry to have muddied the historical record.