The Pursuit of Happiness
Don Quixote
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, California
January
28, 2004
by
Paul Parish
Copyright © 2004 by Paul Parish
published 9 February 2004
San
Francisco Ballet's winter season opened for real last week with the first
program in rotating rep, a smash-hit opening night performance of our
new-last-year version of the Petipa-Gorsky Don Quixote, starring
the dancers for whom it was made, the Cubans, Lorena Feijoo and Joan Boada.
To say these two are perfect for the roles is as much an understatement
as saying that John Wayne was right for Stagecoach. Feijoo and
Boada are sensational in the roles—in terms of virtuosity this year's
performances topped anything I saw last year, Feijoo turning triple and
quadruple pirouettes as the take-offs for diagonals where she
hurls herself through the air into Tchai-pas dives. But their
virtuosity is merely a pre-requisite for presenting mythic energy; these
characters are archetypes, albeit comic archetypes—nobility in adversity,
expressed not as Stoicism but as unconquerable high spirits.
read review
Seasons Change in San Francisco
Quattro Staggioni, Study in Motion,
Tu Tu
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, California
February
5 , 2004
by
Ann Murphy
Copyright © 2004 by Ann Murphy
published 9 February 2004
It
is busy around here. Full moon’s up, Venus’s gleaming in the
sky and in the moonlight you can just make out the silhouette of the flowering
cherry trees. By day, crocuses shoulder through the ground and magnolias
are flouncy with flowers like Southern girls in pink party dresses. Into
this still pale but fragrant February comes a week in which several men
view the world: Helgi Tomasson, Yuri Possokhov and Stanton Welch in program
II at the San Francisco Ballet, Stephen Petronio, with haunted new dances,
then 84-year-old Merce Cunningham, making old work seem new and necessary.
Here are
some notes about SFB.
read review
Engraved Images
Interscape
and Sounddance
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
(presented by Cal Performances)
Zellerbach Hall
UC Berkeley, California
February 7, 2004
by
Rita Felciano
Copyright ©2003 by Rita Felciano
published
9 February 2004
What
can you say at this point about Merce Cunningham? That he is a genius?
That imagination must be a powerful elixir to keep his racked body going?
That his dancers look like gods sent to earth for our delection? It has
all been said before by better minds with more insight. And yet, the spirit
aches to hang on to the experience for even a smidgeon. Language can do
that. Imperfectly to be sure, but that's all we have.
Walking
away from a Cunningham performance, having seen those beautiful dancer
athletes who have been formed by the same clay, been refined through the
same smelting process and yet turned out looking as individually distinct,
leaves the heart—as should be clear by now—overflowing.
read report
What's On This Week
February
8, 2004
Big Moves
Perfectly timed for pre-Valentine's Day fun, this sophisticated evening
offers guests unlimited tastes from a chocolate buffet, stocked with the
work of chocolatiers and candymakers from around the Bay Area. Meanwhile,
the performance showcase offers bite-size performances in modern, family-friendly
burlesque, hip hop, belly dance, and even a romantic fashion show from
San Francisco's Go Figure. All proceeds from "A Taste for Dance"
benefit the programs of Big Moves.
Feb. 8, 5pm, First Unitarian Church, 685 Fourteenth St. (Castro), Oakland,
415-756-5593, www.bigmoves.org.
February
10-14, 2004
San Francisco Ballet
February 10, 11, 13
Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons) (Tomasson/Vivaldi)
Tu Tu (Welch/Ravel)
Study in Motion (Possokhov World Premiere)
February 12, 14 (mat & eve)
Don Quixote
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco
http://www.sfballet.org
February
11, 2004
Budapest Dance Ensemble
"Gypsy Spirit, Journey of the Roma" traces the historical route
of a 2,000-year-old musical diaspora that stretched from India to the
Middle East and across Europe. The legendary Budapest Dance Ensemble —
led by Zoltán Zsuráfszki, one of Europe's most accomplished
choreographers and the master of the cimbalom (Hungarian dulcimer) —
performs a wide-ranging sampling of the Gypsy's passionate traditions,
including Spanish flamenco, Bulgarian melodies, Romanian folk tunes, and
improvisational Hungarian csárdás (the "tango of the
East").
Feb. 11, 8pm,
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way (Telegraph), 510-642-9988,
www.calperfs.berkeley.edu.
February
12-13, 2004
ODC/SAN FRANICSCO
"Dancing Downtown"
February 12, 7 pm
Opening-night celebration for “Dancing Downtown 2004.” Brenda
Way's Noir and three premieres.
February 13, 8 pm
KT Nelson's RingRoundRozi, Brenda Way's Fiendish Variations
and Noir
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard St., SF, 415-978-2787,
www.odcdance.org.
.
February
13, 2004
Scott Wells & Dancers
Performing Zen, If You Don't Mind, three works including a premiere.
Featuring dancers: Jessilito Bie, Christine Cali, Melecio Estrella, Gabriel
Forestieri, Frieda Kipar and Gitta Sivander.
Feb. 13-14, 19-22, 8pm, 848 Community Space, 848 Divisadero St., SF, 415-931-8648,
www.848.com.
February
14, 2004
Meredith Monk
Performers include: Meredith Monk, Fred Frith, Chris Brown, Dina Emerson,
Randall Wong, Allison Sniffin, Cecilia Englehard, Mills Contemporary Performance
Ensemble, Mills vocalists. Programs will include: excerpts from "Atlas,"
"The Games," "Songs from the Hill," "Three Heavens
and Hells," "Light Songs," and the world premiere of the
instrumental version of "Night" from "Politics of Quiet"
Marathon in Two Parts
Part One: Saturday, February 14, 2:00 p.m.
Film Interlude: "Ellis Island" and "Book of Days"
Part Two: Saturday, February 14, 8:00 p.m
Concert Hall, 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm, Mills College Concert Hall, 5000 McArthur
Blvd. (High), Oakland, 510-430-2296, www.mills.edu.
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