'Fanfare' reviews 'Dances At a Gathering' reviews 'Glass Pieces' reviews Maffre in reviews Possokhov in reviews recent SFB reviews

Dances At a Gathering (premiere 1969)
Composer: Frederick Chopin
Costumes: Joe Eula
Lighting Design: Jennifer Tipton
Pianist: Daniel Waite
Green Pink Blue
Joanna Berman/ Lucia Lacarra Sherri LeBlanc
Lorena Feijoo Joanna Berman Katita Waldo
Yellow Mauve
Tina LeBlanc Yuan Yuan Tan
Kristin Long Julie Diana
Brick: Blue Brown
Gonzalo Garcia Stephan Legate Roman Rykine
Hansuke Yamamoto Peter Brandenhoff Gonzalo Garcia
Purple Green
Damian Smith Vadim Solomakha
Benjamin Pierce Ruben Martin

Glass Pieces (premiere May 12, 1983)
Music: Philip Glass
Design: Jerome Robbins/Ronald Bates
Costumes: Ben Benson
Lighting: Ronald Bate
1.Leslie Young; Tiekka Schoffield; Sherri Le Blanc; Zacharu Hench; Kirill Zaretskiy; Parrish Maynard
2.Muriel Maffre, Cyril Pierre
3.Akhnaten - Corps de Ballet

In mid 2003, Fanfare will enjoy its 50th birthday. Dear Robbins has such a distinct funny bone, and it does surface here. He plays pranks - adolescent male variety - and when danced to Britten’s use of Henry Purcell - you see a variation of everything we subsequently enjoy in his ballets and musicals. I don't care of the costumes are dated. They have an out-dated dignity to them and never mind the retro nature of them, the dignity is there, reinforced by the heraldic tunic of the Major Domo.

He makes the women sprightly and a little twittery as well, quite suitable for Vanessa Zahorian’s Piccolo or the Harp of Katita Waldo.

The fun parts, of course, are the Trumpets where Pablo Piantino and James Sofranko played “I dare you” and “can you do better” with their legs, torsos and most of all, their dead pan glare. Chidozie Nzerem’s moustache positively quivers when he portrays the Tuba, his authoritative pointing heaven ward doing credit to the circuit speaker tradition and the call and response nature of revival churches, a relished wonder to behold. The Percussion with Peter Brandenhoff, Guennadi Nedviguine and Parrish Maynard is a high point, the gestures of skipping rope like the best of an impromptu imitation of the Marx Bros., but somehow better.

For a curtain riser, Fanfare places everyone in a good mood.

Jerome Robbins has a magical capacity to bring life to minimalism, which is certainly required in the music of Philip Glass. Zen enlightenment it is not in my opinion, but Robbins’ sense of the ordinary somehow brings it to life by elevating the commonplace habit of walking. And what an education it is to see the San Francisco dancers in the deliberately motley garments criss cross the floor at a brisk tempo, gradually adding a quirk or two after the initial straight path. Each personality is motorized, and what an interesting segment it provides a practiced eye in the sources of balance and even compensations in a dancer’s technique.

Muriel Maffre rates a red milliskin unitard, thoughtfully partnered by Cyril Pierre. She approaches the pas de deux with thought and intellect.I couldn't help thinking how much Robbins’ might have enjoyed working with her.

The company makes Glass Pieces worth seeing every so often, if scarcely as a steady diet.

Review order was reversed to dwell on Dances at a Gathering. I have come upon it many years after many of my colleagues, but I certainly join them in being transported by this one of Robbins’ several masterpieces of atmosphere and relationships. It’s scarcely surprising that the ballet rates 5 pages in Nancy Reynolds’ Repertory in Review, and is virtually replete with expressions of wonder, exclamation and satisfaction. Dances at the Gathering was created for New York City Ballet after Robbins’ twelve year absence from this company. It followed Robbins’ 1956 romp, The Concert, and was prelude to In The Night, all inspired by Frederick Chopin’s music, with Other Dances created for the Save The Dance Library Gala. Chopin seems for Robbins’ what Tchaikovsky was for Balanchine, a musical lodestar evoking unparalleled invention.

I managed to see two casts. The first cast seemed a little self-conscious with the second cast more a coherent group, particularly the trio of women. Feijoo clearly excelled as the Woman in Green. The challenge in this piece is to convey mood, technical ease under the guise of being ordinary, the ballerina element cloaked in community. As mentioned before, the second cast trio of women were truly quite good friends. I found Gonzalo Garcia more apt in the role of Brown than sober-sided Rykine, who is an elegant dancer. Alas, Possokhov danced only once. Benjamin Pierce cannot muster the emotional depth and focus Possokhov brings to a role, Pierce’s encounter with Blue, danced Peter Brandenhoff with his understated ease, lacked focus and contact.

For all my questioning who danced what, the power and the sweetness of this work is well nigh overwhelming. Since we see a work two seasons in a row, I look forward to seeing this Robbins’ masterpiece again and to enjoy discovery of its nuances and depth.