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San Francisco Ballet3rd February 2005 San Francisco, War Memorial Opera House by Renee Renouf |
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Maelstrom was Mark Morris’ first work for San Francisco Ballet; how quietly startling it remains, arms like becalmed windmills,hands like flashlights thrust forward to face the audience, bodies sometimes tilting like unsteady wooden toys; stops and starts in profile, bodies held in different postures, and a literal echo of the music. Muriel Maffre’s articulate port de bras lifts the smallest inflection of the music and choreography to the sublime. Megan Low, also gives a memorable inflection to the work as do Stephen Legate, Guennadi Nedviguine and Moises Martin. With a host of new dancers participating, it is apparent that San Francisco Ballet is exposing its dancers to new challenges, diversifying the talent pool. From Beethoven and Morris, Stanton Welch takes ten dancers and the audience into the sprightly clarity of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as the basis for Falling, his fourth San Francisco Ballet. With Welch’s technical facility and Mozart, it’s hard to see how a work might fail in its purpose. I hope to see it again to verify initial impressions. Welch has a penchant to enter his dancers, or principals, from the rear of the stage, if not always from the center. This emergence from the murky depths has typified at least three of his works for San Francisco Ballet, and it happens again in Falling. He also engages in quirky gesture of body and gesture, not unlike a physical equivalent of world play or nonsense verse. His premiere cast served him admirably as did Holly Hynes, his designer. At first glance, Falling is the best of the four Welch has created thus far for San Francisco Ballet. Then there is Company B and the intriguing casting of Pascal Molat in Tico-Tico, Guennadi Nedviguine is the Boogle Woogie Bugle Boy, the inspired use of Lorena Feijoo in Rum and Coca-Cola and Brett Bauer’s lengthy grand jete reach in Oh, Johnny. Molat is Gallic, but has physical adaptability for Tico-Tico while Nedviguine’s assignment was a fascinating challenge for this ultimate classicist. There were moments when Nedviguine actually hit the American idiom in his assignment; he simply needs to perform it with sufficient frequency to feel more comfortable; his stamina and form is there without question. Feijoo’s capacity to swoosh, swivel and dip langorously received full display; she knows the code and how to deliver it. Sarah Van Patten did not seem comfortable in I can Dream, Can’t I? A handsome young dancer, she seems difficult to read and slow to full engagement.
It’s an interesting and thoughtfully varied program.
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