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SF Ballet in New York
I wrote about artistic director Helgi Tomasson's transformation of the San Francisco Ballet for today's New York Times:
" "SAN FRANCISCO BALLET is the best ballet company in North America,” Mark Morris, the choreographer, declared last year in a video presentation celebrating Helgi Tomasson’s 20th season as the troupe’s artistic director.
Mr. Tomasson himself would never make such a claim. A mild-mannered native of Iceland, he seemed dispassionate as he sat in his office here one afternoon in May, looking out on the stately War Memorial Opera House.
“It’s been a great season this year,” he said, as if remarking on the weather. But asked to think back to the start of his tenure, he furrowed his brow. “I just knew that I wanted this company to be better,” he said. “A lot better.”
Not even Mr. Tomasson could have imagined what better might mean when he took over this country’s oldest professional ballet company in 1985. In recent seasons the San Francisco troupe has won glowing appraisals for its international roster of star dancers and choreographers at tour stops from Los Angeles to London. Even balletomanes who might differ with Mr. Morris’s enthusiasm expect to see a major company on Tuesday, when the San Francisco Ballet opens a run at the New York State Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.
Over its 73-year history the company has enjoyed bursts of recognition as a sunny, admirable regional company and suffered pans for the slick spectacles choreographed by its former co-director, Michael Smuin. In 1978 The New York Times greeted an East Coast appearance, then rare, with the headline “San Francisco Ballet Conquers New York.” Yet when Mr. Tomasson, still green, prepared to unveil a full-evening “Swan Lake” for the company a decade later, many fretted that the dancers might not be up to the challenge.
“I rolled up my sleeves and went to work,” he said of his overhaul, which included instituting soloist and principal ranks in the previously unranked company, teaching every day and insisting that women wear toe shoes in class. “There was talent here. But most of all I felt there was such great support from the board, from the community. When I was hired, I was asked to take this company to another level, and that’s what I planned to do.” "
Click here for the full story.
July 23, 2006 · 05:24 PM · Dance · Comments (1)
Memo to Bay Area Dance Community
I'm in the midst of putting together the Fall Dance Preview for the SF Chronicle. If you've got a dance event coming up in the Bay Area between September and December, please send details ASAP to rachel at rachel howard dot com. Deadline for consideration is August 5. Thanks!
July 20, 2006 · 03:53 PM · Dance · Comments (0)
Yuri Possokhov's new role
As the San Francisco Ballet prepares for the Lincoln Center Festival, and Yuri Possokhov prepares to give his final performances, I talked with him about his new role as the Ballet's choreographer in residence:
"Yuri Possokhov rushed through the San Francisco Ballet building's halls like a frenzied character from a Dostoyevsky novel, dodging publicists and ballet masters, finally settling his muscled body into a corner sofa in the deserted dancers' lounge. On a day when most of the company was on break after a grueling spring season, Possokhov had photos to take, a visa to arrange for a gala in Japan, scheduling conflicts to untangle. Such is the pace of life for a star dancer who happens to be a rising choreographer. No wonder he'd felt numb at his farewell performance weeks earlier.
"The night of the farewell I was completely empty," Possokhov said, graying curls framing his famously chiseled jaw. "I thought I would cry -- no. No tears, no laugh, nothing. Then on our last day off, nobody here, I come to studio and rehearse. I was sitting in my locker room. I just sit there -- shooom!" He drew his hands in front of his crystalline blue eyes to illustrate the torrent. "It was like pouring."
Emotion has a way of pouring out of Possokhov in both his dancing and his dances, and right now those emotions must be intense. Though he took his final bow in San Francisco on May 5, the 42-year-old principal will give his last performances next week in New York during the San Francisco Ballet's Lincoln Center Festival engagement. Then he'll return to the unknown: a position as the company's resident choreographer and high expectations as one of the most promising dancemakers now working in classical ballet.
"I don't know what does 'choreographer in residence' mean?" he said. "Time will show." But if the duties of the job are vague, the announcement of Possokhov's appointment came as reassuring news to local ballet fans who have watched him evolve from dreamy danseur noble to a choreographer with a great gift for drama. "
Click here for the full story.
July 19, 2006 · 12:15 PM · Dance · Comments (0)
Keeping Patience at WestWave
I reviewed the first three programs of the WestWave Dance Festival for today's Chronicle:
"Must the WestWave Dance Festival feel like such a slog? Now in its 15th year, it's the anchor of the slow summer dance calendar and a useful survey of what's happening in Bay Area dance. Transcendent discoveries can be made -- I remember first seeing Janice Garrett's soul-stirring work at the WestWave four years ago -- but only by the truly patient. Executive director Joan Lazarus strives to keep an open door for choreographers in all stages of development, arranging them on programs driven more by logistics than curatorial vision. She should close that door more often. Dance in San Francisco is far more vibrant than the festival's first three programs would make you think.
That's not to say that involving, promising, even accomplished dance works weren't to be found last week at Project Artaud Theater, where the festival continues with six more programs through July 30. Erin Mei-Ling Stuart's "You and You and You" artfully draped the topless bodies of Damara Ganley, Noel Plemmons and Julie Sheetz in elegantly sculptural arrangements. Marlena Penney Oden and Isabelle Sjahsam stepped chicly through Leyya Tawil's highly stylish "Breakdown to Now," to sensuous electronic music by Tawil's longtime collaborator, Topher Keys. Sean Dorsey and Courtney Moreno swayed tenderly in Dorsey's well-crafted and touching "In Closing."
The problem was that these are artists who can rightly be called "emerging choreographers": committed, talented dancemakers whose work is in early stages of development and just beginning to find its audience. Whereas the WestWave Dance Festival chose to set the bar a rung lower, with a special program Thursday for choreographers -- several of whom appeared to have made work only for their own living rooms -- who could fairly be classed amateurs. "
This review is unusual for me; I usually devote far more space to describing the actual dances, giving some visual sense of their qualities. But after three programs, I felt something in the curating was askew and decided to write about the structure of the festival itself. Apologies to those choreographers whose works therefore got shorter treatment, and to those whose works didn't make it into the review (I saw something like 18 works over those three nights, so omissions had to be made). I regret not getting Christy Funsch's piece into the review, as her vocabulary has an appealing softness and her performances are always lovely. I also regret not having space for Kerry Mehling's clever solo set to a text by Dorothy Parker. But I know other critics noticed the piece, and I'm sure kudos will be coming her way.
Anyway, for my full review of the West Wave, click here.
July 18, 2006 · 01:45 PM · Dance · Comments (0)
Shuch's "Orbit" Makes Contact
I reviewed Erika Shuch's new "Orbit" in today's Chronicle:
"What makes Erika Shuch's work so arresting isn't the way she intuitively melds movement and theater, or the knack she has for attracting brilliant collaborators, or the Gen Y appeal of her slouchy, all-too-human performers. What's made this still-young choreographer a standout since she emerged in San Francisco six years ago is her childlike audacity in the face of big questions.
Shuch is a maker of metaphors, an existential explorer whose characters consider their place in the galaxy through poetic symbols. When Shuch's ideas get away from her, the product can be ponderous. But when her philosophical free association focuses on flesh-and-blood relationships, the results can be utterly disarming.
"Orbit," which just opened a three-week run at Intersection for the Arts, is mostly a case of the latter. It is profound but not pretentious, spectacularly clever and arguably Shuch's best work yet.
The metaphor this time is the search for extraterrestrial life, examining the human need for connection and the high odds against truly achieving it. Shuch and fellow cast member Danny Wolohan rush onstage, kissing madly, then repel one another. A voice-over tells us that "Orbiting is missing the target. One object doesn't see or feel the effects of the other object" -- a concept reinforced by the bright bull's-eye adorning the side of Shuch's dress. "
Click here for the full review.
July 17, 2006 · 10:59 AM · Dance · Comments (0)
Two readings to recommend this week. First, humbly, I'll be reading from my memoir "The Lost Night" 6 p.m. Thursday at Cody's Books, 2 Stockton St., SF, just off Union Square. That's right, Cody's--which marked its fiftieth anniversary with the tearful closure of its landmark Berkeley store--lives on downtown, and you should come check out the new space. Also, this is the last San Francisco appearance I'll be doing for "The Lost Night" (ever?), and I promise I'm a gracious book signer.
Also, I've just gotten word of a reading to benefit the wonderful no-kill shelter where, for the past two years, I've volunteered as a dog walker, Pets Unlimited. Ken Foster has written a memoir about the solace he found in his rescued dogs after 9/11 and the deaths of his friends Lucy Grealy and Amanda Davis. As Booklist wrote: "Foster believes that dogs are like tattoos: they leave an indelible mark. His warm, candid, and unusual account of his experience in animal rescue is not sentimental about the hard work of saving dogs but rather confident, reflecting his belief that taking action on behalf of abandoned dogs is the right thing to do."
Foster will be camping out at the Kiehl's store on the corner of Washington and Fillmore (across the street from Pets Unlimited), from 4-7 p.m. Friday. He'll then head over to the Pets Unlimited boardroom for a reading and discussion from 7-8.
If the idea of handing out books in a skin-care boutique strikes you as a little odd, take note that a $20 book purchase gets you a free Kiehl's goody-bag--and all proceeds go straight to Pets Unlimited. Believe me, it's a worthy cause. Pets Unlimited doesn't take direct surrenders but instead visits other shelters to take in dogs that would likely otherwise be euthanized. Some of them have serious behavioral problems that improve quickly with one-on-one love and retraining. I've befriended blind dogs, snappish dogs, dogs with funky hair that just need a grooming makeover, dogs that were beaten by their past owners but learn to trust again. Pets Unlimited never gives up on any of them, and in due time they find their rightful homes. If you live in the city and love dogs, I recommend checking out this amazing shelter, and this reading.
July 12, 2006 · 10:32 AM · Books · Comments (0)
Wells' Well-Crafted Suntmanship
Last night at an art opening, a woman who’s been disappointed by one too many undercooked Bay Area dance shows asked me what I’d recommend in town, and I was happy to have an enthusiastic answer on the tip of my tongue. Scott Wells and Dancers’ “Over You,” which opened Friday at cozy Counterpulse, is one of those shows that reminds me why I’m so glad to live in San Francisco. It’s raucous, it’s devil-may-care, it’s full of community spirit—but it’s also deceptively well made.
Scott Wells and one of his fellow dancer/stuntdivers.
Wells is one of the country’s leading Contact Improv teachers, which means he sends his dancers flying into one another's arms, surfing atop each other's shoulders, and otherwise peeling off of and vaulting onto one another in startling displays of trust. His dances are packed with stuntmanship, but he also knows how to craft a mean musical phrase. “Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye” isn’t great only because Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” makes Contact Improv-derived partnering look like a convincing stand-in for a mosh pit, but because in the midst of seeming chaos Wells punches you out of nowhere with steps so catchy you want to get up and dance them yourself. “Home,” a reworking of Wells’ first commissioned piece (for the Bates Dance Festival), also benefits from a rock-out soundtrack, turning a couch into a trampoline for Hallie Aldrich, Lindsay Gauthier, Suzanne Lappas, and Kegan Marling to the music of the Talking Heads, Jane’s Addiction, and others. Wells’s longtime cohort in craziness Jesselito Bie makes one of his most memorable appearances, lounging in a Hugh Hefner-style smoking jacket before slamming himself, with sumo-wrestler worthy grunts, into a kitchen table.
According to Wells himself, this show is just a warm-up for next year’s 15th anniversary season, for which he has more ambitious plans. But while the dances now on offer aren’t made for the ages, they’re smartly built and thrillingly executed. I’m glad I didn’t miss them.
Scott Wells and Dancers’ “Over You” continues July 21-23 at Counterpulse, 1310 Mission St. (at 9th). Tickets are $15 and reservations are essential: (415) 435-7552.
UPDATE: Danceview Times' Paul Parish enjoyed the show as well, and dedicated some time to a headier analysis of it:
" "Over you," the clever title of Scott Wells's new concert of contact-improv-based dance, had its opening night at Counterpulse in San Francisco. Wells has become over the last fifteen years the Paul Taylor of Contact Improv — that is, the first to make dances in this idiom that are deeply musical, somehow "normal," imaginative, witty, often hilarious, sometimes fierce, but always respectful enough of the concerns of the general public so that the audience in Peoria would feel they had something at heart in common. In Wells's case, perhaps as in Taylor's, it's rooted in a profound need to reconcile deep oppositions, softened and lightened by a Zen attitude towards the impossibility of it. For Wells, it looks like to me (and I follow Wells as some movie-goers followed Kieslowski) these oppositions are between art and athleticism, the masculine and the feminine, the almost disembodied breath of music and the deeply muscular nature of movement, and the aggressive and the passive modes of being. "
Click here for Paul's review.
July 09, 2006 · 04:37 PM · Dance · Comments (0)
Transparent Truths
I reviewed Marie Arana's lively and delightful "Cellophane" for today's San Francisco Chronicle:
"Marie Arana's first novel, "Cellophane," could take a prize for most jam-packed prologue, even judged against breakneck openers by Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, her clear forbears. Arana, editor of the Washington Post's Book World, may divide her time between D.C. and Lima, Peru, but she draws upon both the color and the literary traditions of Latin America with perfect fluency. Like Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude," "Cellophane" begins with a vision of our protagonist's death: "in a bustling metropolis, surrounded by doting women, far from his paper, the trees, and the rush of a great, dark river." As surely as paper disintegrates to pulp, this exuberant and virtuosic novel will circle around to that alienated ending. But first, in the space of 12 pages, she gives us nearly a whole life.
Don Victor Sobrevilla has two equal loves: engineering and paper. In quick succession, he also acquires a wife, three children, and -- after a series of troubled births attended by both priests and witchmen -- an ecumenical outlook toward the natives' magical beliefs and the Peruvian gentry's Catholic faith. Fascinated since boyhood by a poster of Gustave Eiffel's "Iron House" deep in the Amazon rain forest, he moves his family far up the river to the untamed Ucayali region, where he builds a bustling paper factory. The awed Indians-turned-workers call him "the shapechanger."
The story proper picks up in 1952, just as Don Victor discovers a formula for newfangled cellophane. The residents of tiny Floralinda are bewitched, either literally or figuratively, by the film's shiny transparency. Suddenly everyone is blurting their most candid thoughts, with consequences that are first funny, then erotic and finally disastrous. "
Click here for the full review.
July 02, 2006 · 01:25 PM · Books · Comments (0)
