A Transcendent "Diamonds"
Jewels
Kirov Ballet
Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, California
October 17, 2003
By
Rachel Howard
Copyright
©2003 by Rachel Howard
Overheard walking out of the Kirov’s Fokine program at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall: "If that’s ballet, I’m there!"
The
enthusiastic convert was a man, probably 35-ish, and seeing as we’d
just been treated to a particularly lustful rendition of Scheherazade,
I guessed his newfound zeal was inspired more by the scantily clad
physiques on display than by the stunningly recreated Bakst sets, or the
Maryinsky Orchestra’s lush sound, or, one coudl only hope, the dancing
itself.
But perhaps
I am too skeptical. For if that man had returned to see Jewels
the following Sunday, I’d lay bets that he, like so many in attendance,
would have walked out of the far more demure "Diamonds"
spouting equal zeal. With Daria Pavlenko in the lead and a crystalline
corps, this sometimes perfunctory finale to Balanchine’s only full-length
abstract work was one of the best I've ever seen.
read review
Living Graham
Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
San Jose, Caliifornia
October 17, 2003
by
Rita Felciano
Copyright ©2003 by Rita Felciano
What
do you do as an artistic director if you program a masterpiece that will
outclass nearly any other ballet you choose to stand beside it?
Add to this conundrum a budget that has just been cut by twenty percent
and a deficit of over a million dollars. You also have thirty-five dancers
who want to be on that stage and who will not relish doing so in front
of empty seats, of which there are 2665 for every performance.
One thing that you can do is rely on what you already own and then you call on your friends for help. Which is exactly what Dennis Nahat, the ever ebullient and ever resilient artistic director of the struggling, but dancing better than ever, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley did for its first program of the new season.
Framing
an excellent performance of Graham’s Appalachian Spring
were two guaranteed crowd pleasers, Michael Smuin’s 1982 Stravinsky
Piano Pieces and Nahat and Ian Horvath’s US from 1975.
They were safe choices. Clearly, even if he were inclined to do so, Nahat
did not feel that he could take risks.
read review
What's
On This Week
October 20-26, 2003
OCT
21-NOV: 2 SMUIN BALLET
Michael Smuin's chamber ballet troupe opens 10th anniversary season with
premiere of "Tango Palace", plus "Suite Gershwin"
and Smuin's version of "Les Noces."
Oct. 15-18, 21-25,29-Nov.1, 8pm, Oct. 11-12, 18-19, 25-26, 1-2, 2pm, October
12, 7pm, Cowell Theatre, Fort Mason Center, Marina Boulevard at Buchanan
Street, San Francisco, (415) 495-2234, www.smuinballet.org.
OCT
22 AND 26: LIVELY FOUNDATION
Presenting "Bat Tales", a theater, music, comedy and dance program
based on bat legends around the world.
Oct. 22, 11am, Herbst Theater, Oct. 26, 3pm, Veteran's Building Green
Room, Mezzanine Level Ballroom, 401 Van Ness Ave. at McAllister, Civic
Center, San Francisco, (415) 346-8959, http://www.ticketweb.com.
OCT 23-26: KATE CORBY & DANCERS
Kate Corby presents "While I Wait, Dances from the Homefront, Past
and Present", a multi-media dance work exploring American military
involvement from women's perspectives, with works by guests Megan Nicely
and Company, and Nora Stephens of New York.
Oct. 23-25, 8pm, Oct. 26, 7pm, 848 Community Space, 848 Divisadero St.
at McAllister, (415) 771-4787, http://www.848.com.
OCT: 23-25 MOTION LAB
Kathleen Hermesdorf provides the often quirky choreography; her artistic
partner Albert Mathias provides the pulsing original, live electronic
music. "As Above, So Below" will feature three world premieres
investigating alchemy through body, music, image and light.
October 16-19, 23-25, 8pm, ODC Theater, 3153
17th Street at Shotwell, San Francisco, (415) 863-9834,
http://www.odctheater.org.
OCT
24: ALWIN NIKOLAIS A CELEBRATION TOUR
The Nikolais/Louis Dance Foundation and Ririe Woodbury Dance Company present
an evening of Nikolais dances, exploring physical space and spellbinding
movement with sound, light, multimedia effects and costumes.
Oct. 24, 8pm, Memorial Auditorium, 551 Serra Mall at Galvez, Stanford
University, Palo Alto, (650) 725-2787, http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.
OCT 24-25: SJDANCECO AND DANCEWORKS SJSU
Presenting "Inspired by..." an evening featuring the works of
South Bay choreographers Maria Basile, Heather Cooper, Carlos Gonzales,
Richard Kear, Gary Masters, Jeannine Vogt, Mara Williams.
Oct. 24-25, 7pm, Dance Studio Theater/SPX 219, one block into campus from
4th and San Carlos, (408) 924-5046, http://www.sjDANCEco.org.
Calendar Listings courtesy of IN DANCE, a FREE monthly publication of Dancers' Group at http://www.dancersgroup.org
Faulty Magic
Motion Lab
ODC Theater,
San Francisco, California
October 17, 2003
By
Rachel Howard
Copyright
©2003 by Rachel Howard
Motion
Lab's latest show billed itself as a night of "kinetic and sonic
alchemy," the elements involved being Kathleen Hermesdorf's choreography
and Albert Mathias' looping, club-like music. As a program note even explained,
"Alchemy is an ancient system of natural magic that 'implants heavenly
things in earthly objects by means of specific alluring charms used at
the right moment'." Blame it on bad magic, then, or faulty timing,
but Friday's show at ODC Theater, which continues next weekend, was sorely
lacking in either transformation or transfixing moments.
read review
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