© Erik Tomasson and SFB 'Dybbuk' reviews 'Afternoon of a Faun' reviews 'Other Dances' reviews 'Glass Pieces' reviews Garcia in reviews Patten in reviews recent SFB reviews more Renee Renouf reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

The Dybbuk is based on classic Yiddish folklore and Solomon Ansky’s 1916 play. The program notes exhibit only a brief translation to the the words of the score. A full translation of score would aid the audience in this highly condensed version of a young girl’s possession by her love because his suit was spurned by the parents for a wealthier match. This detracts from comprehension but not from the visual power of Robbin’s intense nod to his Hebraic heritage, abetted by the cabalistic images Ter-Arutinian mounted on the back scrim.

Robbins does wonderful things with the hands and arms of the elder men whose white union-suit-like leotards were veiled in ankle-length transparent black tunics, the arms blacked striped like traditional prayer shawls. Together with the use of a thrust heel and close order group usage Robbins conveys orthodoxy even as Garrett Anderson, Rory Hohenstein, Hamsuke Yamamoto and Steven Norman break out into powerful torso stretching, arm thrusting variations. Jaime Garcia Castilla, James Sofranko and Matthew Stewart were fleet angels, one whose white leotard arms bore red pointed cloth. The heads of the men were hooded to near anonymity, and later when they don wide-brimmed black hats for the exorcism ritual.

Gonzalo Garcia’s portrait draws strength not just from his prodigious technique and concentration, but I believe Spanish awareness of the unearthly import through flamenco and gypsy traditions. Van Patten’s technique and usually neutral expression finds an appropriate place as the victim of family decisions. Dressed in wafting white with a touch of period in the sleeves, she is subdued but playful with her four friends similarly garbed. It is when she is being possessed, exorcised and dying that her attentiveness, a listening to her muscular movement like a witness participant, is quite effective.
 

Afternoon of a Faun was first danced by Tanaquil LeClerq and Francisco Moncion, a study in tensile delicacy and strength with a hint of wildness. Ruben Martin and Yuan Yuan Tan matched and danced nicely but I felt the underlying tension of attraction versus narcissism required more than a dusting.

No matter which way one regards Other Dances, one sees Makarova and Baryshnikov's Russian edge in this unforgettable musical tribute to dancing, to Chopin, to sheer ambiance and euphoric dancing. The peculiar astringency of St. Petersburg schooling lingers in the imagination. Le Blanc surmounts the challenge with her sweetness, humanity and being utterly enthralled with her delight in Robbins’ nuances which makes this evanescent trifle a constant joy. Boada also plays it straight; while he has the technical smarts, he could have used his Basilio from Don Q to spice the delivery. Program notes credit Nicholas Blanc with comments. Maybe next year? Molat also?
 

Glass Pieces reveals a great deal about the dancers as they march across the stage on diagonals, garbed in motley practice clothes, change directions before starting to follow the leads of the soloists outfitted in peach, pale blue and yellow Milliskins, the girls with head bands which echo 23-Skiddoo Twenties flappers. Six soloists contrast with lineal reaches and stretches, like birds banking for a slow curve in the first movement, their formations gradually echoed by the corps before the abrupt halt of the music. Muriel Maffre and Pierre Francois-Vilanoba provide their chiseled schooling to sculpted port de bras, echoed and mirrored arabesques and slow turns as a line of women marches along the back scrim of squares, graph paper much enlarged in the second movement. In the third movement the corps wears garments with a uniform design but varied colors. At the conclusion they move like a phalanx. The Dybbuk as in Glass Pieces later and to a happier degree in Dances at a Gathering, not performed this season, Jerome Robbins reveals his amazing knowledge of group dynamics. His collective works are never just about a corps de ballet and the principal dancers; they demonstrate an innate perception about clusters of people and their behavior filtered through classical form and idiomatic accents, people oriented, diverging from Balanchine’s classical mold. We are so much richer for the difference; long may this perception and Robbins' dances flourish.