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San Francisco BalletProgramm 7: April 2001 San Francisco, Opera House by Renee Renouf |
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During this program Christopher Stowell danced his farewell to his San Francisco audience. I understand, however, that he, and Ikolo Griffin, who is joining Dance Theatre of Harlem as a soloist, will appear in some of the European venues this summer. It’s nice that the company’s spectacular summer abroad will have their participation.
Pacific (1995) Lou Harrison’s Trio for Violin Cello, and Piano provided the musical inspiration of the Morris commission for San Francisco Ballet’s participation in the UNited We Dance Festival, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. I saw it twice, and was so overawed by the programs themselves that Morris’ contribution seemed to be terribly thin. It is not thin, it is translucent with references, not only to the sea, but to the cultures residing on the shores against which the Pacific Ocean surges. This time I found myself in tears on two occasions. The men are stripped to the waist. With the women they wear something which is a cross between samurai hakama and the Indian dhoti. The white floats into blue for the men, the women have green at the torso, floating into white, and the main couple are dressed in red. The costumes ripple and sway, emphasizing the water the dancers evoke. The tie dye process and fusion of sartorial styles provide a visual hint of the amazing connections which Mark Morris makes of this trio, beautifully performed by Roy Malan, Violin, David Kadarauch, Cello and Ray Bogas, Piano. Three men stand in near samurai position, a broad a la seconde, as the light rises. There is much use of the still erect torso, but a slight inflection to the left as the right working leg provides a sweeping rond de jambe to the back, propelling the body into a turn. The arms are held, relaxed to the side. As with arms later in a slightly bent evocatory movement, palms facing the body and held forward and up, Morris establishes with uncanny accuracy, the sense of the forward rush of wave movement. When this augments jetes either solo, ensemble or the entire group, the sense of the tide hits the eye with an eerie truth. If one could blur the specific bodies in favor of intuitive perception, the impression was quietly overwhelming. To such movements, Morris adds several references to yoga postures, making them visible salutations to the cultures which reside on the shores of this immense body of ocean. He adds a lunge or two from martial arts, and arms which extend shoulder level like perennial guideposts to the pilgrim. Much of this section is provided to the women, but it returns later to be mixed with earlier gestures. Arms crossed at the chest move into the Indian pataka mudra, slightly . apart, but the two gestures repeated evoke a chant or mantra. Peter Brandenhoff was particularly in tune with these gestures, giving them clarity, weight and distinction within the demands of the music. Tina LeBlanc and Christopher Stowell danced the couple on several occasions, but in the final performance of the season, Kristin Long and Gennadi Nedviguine executed the movement as a totally harmonized yin and yang. At various performances Jason Davis, Katita Waldo, Julia Adam, Lorena Feijoo, Muriel Maffre, Julie Diana and Chidozie Nzerem provided wonderful moments in this tide and timely wrought work
Magrittomania (2000) This year’s reception of Magrittomania testifies to its marvelous appeal. A spring, 2000 exhibition of Magritte at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art may also have helped. It was most salient to see Possokhov’s invention, filled with secondary and tertiary references, not competing with the immediately universal connection of the nightmare tapped into by Julia Adam’s Night. Last year the two were danced back to back and the audience was so struck by Adam’s theme, they didn’t focus on Possokhov’s accomplishment. This year, no such problem! The audience caught on and loved it. It was a terrific vindication to Possokhov’s grasp of his developing craft. So did the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee. Hartshorn and Connaughton won an award for visual and lighting design and Yuri Possokhov for one of two choreographic awards for the 1999-2000 season. For all its virtuosi dancing, Magrittomania is a near classic exposition not only of Magritte, but on the European version of Our Man in The Grey Flannel Suit. When Helgi Tomasson revealed that the 2001-2002 season include works by Adam, Possokhov and Wheeldon, he adroitly placed each young choreographer’s essay on different programs. Possokhov places L’homme Magritte down stage left from whence he rises, doffs his black bowler and begins to dance a solo to indicate what is it all about anyway. There are wonderful attitude jetes en tournant sometimes forward, sometimes back, covering the stage, an expansive use, wide a la seconde jetes as well, excellent use of male classical dance vocabulary. Roman Rykine reprised his role with added sharpness and luster. He was joined with equal verve by Gennadi Nedviguine, Joan Boada and Pablo Piantino, who outdid themselves in the trio to klesmer music. When L’homme Magritte focuses a flashlight on Tan/Maffre/Waldo in a red dress, Possokhov follows with a solo where one hand is grasped behind the back by the other, something of an Adam’s rib analogy. Apples have already appeared, and women wearing men’s jackets. The solo demands long reaching movements, a supple torso and an enigmatic waiting air. Created on Tan, the change in body mass which Maffre and Waldo represented changed the crystalline quality of the piece. Maffre and Pierce danced a large, warm emotional exposition while Waldo and Damian Smith seemed to blend more totally with the ensemble. The use of Beethoven’s fateful theme from the Fifth Symphony was used with telling effect in the pas de deux, with great swaying forward and back in sitting position, the faces of both figures masked with gauze. London audiences will see Magrittomania in August, the sole venue in Europe, probably due to the sets. They’re in for a treat.
Symphony in C I’ve exceeded my spatial limits. The company dances one of Balanchine’s most felicitous works with clarity, joy, warmth and musical comprehension. A whole raft of principals and soloists did themselves proud.
This final company program was an utter stand out and stand alone in brilliance.
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