© Erik Tomasson SFB 'Fancy Free' reviews 'Fancy Free' reviews SFB 'Carousel' reviews 'Carousel' reviews SFB 'Pacific' reviews 'Pacific' in reviews 'Fifth Season' reviews recent SFB reviews more Renee Renouf reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

Pacific was San Francisco Ballet’s new work for the United We Dance celebration of the United Nations’ 50th anniversary. This perhaps is its second revival. With combined seasoned and new dancers to the Morris use of Lou Harrison’s music, the ensemble adhered nicely,and included Muriel Maffre in an ensemble role she enjoys with Morris; witness his green costumed essay, Sandpaper Ballet. What shines is Maffre’s ability to accept the parameters, quietly lending that extra something to the ballet. Morris shines in ensemble emphasis, adding solo bits primarily as spice. He showcases the group, using soloists as adjuncts, rather than the heart of this work.

Tina LeBlanc and Nicholas Blanc danced with cool lyricism, emphasizing the swelling motion Morris employed generously, one arm en haut leading the body like the sideways rush of waves spreading, curling, foaming sideways along with a frontal surge. Steve Norman, perhaps James Sofranko, brought their previous performances to add strength and coherence to the ensemble.

Created in 2002 for New York City Ballet, Christopher Wheeldon’s setting of Carousel received its local premiere, one of flurry of ballets mounted on the Richard Rodgers’ musical output celebrating his birth centenary. This charming pas de deux received a definitive interpretation by Sarah Van Patten and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba. While couples swirled, partnered and circled, Van Patten ventures from mid- stage right expectantly, innocently, around the moving circle with Vilanoba at its center. He sees her, watches her, a distance stalker. The group dissipates, the two confront each other before Vilanoba begins his skillful chase, Van Patten resisting, gradually intoxicated by this dark, compelling stranger.
 

The pas de deux is utterly rapturous, testimony to Wheeldon’s skill and talent. He makes Rodgers’ music sound more significant that it is. The Van-Patten-Vilanoba partnering is technically secure, dramatically believable, worthy of being performed by itself.

Following intermission Tomasson’s The Fifth Season provided a background for three couples and their spectacular techniques: Lorena Feijoo with Davit Karapetyan; Yuan Yuan Tan with Tiit Helimets, Sarah Van Patten with Pierre-Francois Vilanoba. Sandra Woodall dressed them in leotards with tones of grey to black, brilliants glinting on the one visible shoulder strap (the second is skin-toned). She also created moving white canvas panels splashed, with apparent random in black, the brush strokes resembling Chinese cliffs removed from nature.

Feijoo and Karapetyan create an opening, pensive mood; a handsome couple, technically secure, Feijoo seemed wound around her own emotional concerns, Karapetyan supporting her superbly with his grand port de bras and lengthy lines.

Tan, Helimets, Van Patten and Vilanoba follow, waltzing, briefly changing partners, pleasant but a tad distant. Feijoo and Karapetyan dance a romance where the Feijoo emotion flowers more, making more of a connection. She conjures up images of Latin romance; Karapetyan is not far behind.
 

Out bursts Van Patten in a tango, at first in solo form, then supported and lifted by Helimets, Karapetyan and Vilanoba. Strong, assured, she commanded the stage. With her performance in Carousel, she made me realize just how strong dramatically she is. Van Patten’s attack is based on theme and situation, Feijoo’s strong suit in drama stems entirely from personal emotion and reaction. What an intriguing contrast, both valid.

The Largo as danced by Tan and Helimets is almost romantic, certainly intimate and reflective,a garden stroll before the finale.

Following the second Intermission the curtain rose on Jerome Robbins’ 1944 classic, Fancy Free. It was like greeting an old friend; the casting was mostly perfect: Garrett Anderson danced John Kriza’s original role, Pascal Molat inherited Harold Lang’s original showoff, Gonzalo Garcia assuming the Robbins’ role Grace Roberts’ Borzoi Book of Ballets records. I urge Roberts’ account to anyone wanting a definitive appraisal of the ballet. She points out Robbins followed Petipa’s formula in repeating movements; in some of the solos that’s something - like the opening double tour, then the splits executed with terrific glee by Pascal Molat. Anderson touched the lyricism Kriza gave to the role he danced throughout his career with American Ballet Theatre. Garcia invested the Robbins solo with a Latin dash, if not the acerbic edge remembered in Robbins’ dancing. SFBs sailors were easily a knock out punch; I could imagine Robbins himself grinning with pleasure.

Vanessa Zahorian essayed Janet Reed’s part,different in size, more muted then I remember the Reed attack. Erin McNulty danced with a broader movement than Muriel Bentley whose style was more compact and sharper. I have little recollection of Shirley Eckl in blue, but it provided Elana Altman a chance to don a blonde wig. Quinn Wharton was the proprietor in this second class bar on a Manhattan side street on a warm summer night.

Jean-Pierre Frolich remarked, in the pre-performance interview with Chip O’Neal, that Fancy Free was a story, asking the audience listening to him to watch the dialogue happening in the body. “That’s why it became the basis for the musical “On The Town,” he commented. While San Francisco Ballet will never metamorphose into mounting musicals, in Fancy Free they have both the dancers and a ballet that is the next best thing, a gem still glinting its facets sixty-three years later.