Music: Ludwig Minkus, John Lanchbery orchestration
Additional music: Ricardo Drigo, Nicolai Tcherepnin
Choreography: Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa
Assisted by: Sergiu Stefanaschi
Scenic,Costume
Design Jose Verona
Lighting Design: Robert Thomson

Yuan Yuan Tan; Pierre-Francois Vilanoba
Katita Waldo, Vanessa Zahorian; Guennadi Nedviguine
Julie Diana; Rachel Viselli; Tina LeBlanc

7 for Eight (2004)

Music: Johann Sebastian Bach
Choreography: Helgi Tomasson
Costume Design: Sandra Woodall
Lighting Design: David Finn
Pianist: Michael McGraw

Yuan Yuan Tan; Yuri Possokhov; Tina LeBlanc; Gonzalo Garcia; Elizabeth Miner;Rachel Viselli;Joan Boada; Nicolas Blanc

Le Carnaival des Animaux (2003)

Music: Camille Saint Saens
Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky
Dying Swan after Mikhail Fokine
Scenic, Costume Design: Sandra Woodall
Lighting Design: Kevin Connaughton
Pianists: Michael McGraw;Daniel Waite
Cellist: David Kadarauch

Lion, Ruben Martin; Jellyfish, Swan, Muriel Maffre; Elephant, Sherri LeBlanc; Cockerel, Stephen Legate; Hen, Nicole Starbuck; Corps Hens, Caroline Loyola, Elizabeth Miner; Horses, Pablo Piantino, James Sofranko; Kangaroos, Pauli Magierek, Peter Brandenhoff; Turtles, Darlene Bramer, Aaro Orza; Maureen Choi, Moises Martin.

My first shot at Paquita came with Alexandra Danilova's staging for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, circa early Fifties. With perhaps only twelve dancers at the most, Oleg Tupine was her oh-so-correct partner. Watching Danilova sell her role was an indelible experience, exuding her uncanny stage persona from all pores.

It's hard achieving the correct Russo-Spanish edge; save for the principals' costumes, the rusty orange with yellow trim does not quite do it for the corps. The technical delivery was Sunny Spain for emphasis, save for the snooty remoteness of Vilanoba and Nedviguine, two dancers I enjoy. Vilanoba reminded me of Tupine with his slight air of detachment, his correctness. He was nervous in partnering Yuan Yuan, not a giving ballerina to a new partner. Vilanoba's well-mannered, diffident qualities dominated his delivery, as if looking for a plot to illuminate his assignment.

Among the soloists, Katita Waldo and Tina LeBlanc caught the spirit of the piece - energy, technical bravura, warm delivery. Julie Diana, technically accurate, doesn't project the emotional razzmetazz of period bravura, though she was smart as paint in Elite Syncopations, where she wore her highly suggestive, skin-tight costume and its prominent stars with singular aplomb. Vanessa Zahorian and Rachel Viselli provided well phrased moments, but the production as a whole seemed external to its classicism. Tan, as always, technically correct, port de bras well phrased, lacked a certain radiance expected in a piece remotely created for a wedding celebration. Petipa had mellowed by the time he created Don Quixote; in 1847 he was still trying to impress the Czar and the St. Petersburg balletomanes.

Tomasson used four Bach Harpsichord concerti for 7 for Eight, replicating their abstraction with six of the company's small, fleet dancers, and saving the andante qualities for Tan and Possokhov.
Tan perhaps may have been saving herself for her two extended pas de deux with Yuri Possokhov, who first partnered her in Lar Lubovich's Othello. Their appearance featured extended, protective partnering by Possokhov with his solo appearance at end minimal, limited to his serene, powerful grand jetes, both alone and with the three other men.

Tomasson empasized the technical bravura of Garcia and Joada, adding mirror imaging gestures and phrases between Garcia and Blanc, employing Miner and Le Blanc for contrast. Boada partnered Miner and Vaselli with his usual courtesy, while the LeBlanc-Garcia partnering provided some glinting excitement.

Le Carnival des Animaux substituted Martin, Le Blanc and Starbuck for the original principals in Ratmansky's gentle evocation of Saint-Saens' music. All three managed to make their mark. Starbuck's hen provided just the right sense of the compelling wonder towards the cockerel.
Maffre's Jellyfish is an exquisite bit of quiver and bend, while her interpretation of The Dying Swan is acutely tuned to contrast for the creature life around her. I hope this piece stays in S.F.
Ballet's repertoire forever.