San Francisco Ballet, Program 5: Dances by Tomasson, Possokhov, Balanchine
Mar 14, 2005
By
ALLAN ULRICH
allan@voiceofdance.com
Sarah Van Patten and Vadim Solomakha in
Balanchine's The Four Temperaments. Photo by Erik Tomasson.
.
This - and there's no more honest manner in which to state it - is retread fortnight at the San Francisco Ballet. With the exception of Yuri Possokhov's new Reflections, introduced last Wednesday, everything offered up this week and next at the War Memorial Opera House has been revived and, in some cases, revived again. I am all in favor of programming from repertoire, and the Ballet's publicity wing could advertise it as "a month of encore favorites," but there are limits. Even artistic director Helgi Tomasson's immensely enjoyable male quintet, Concerto Grosso, part of Program 5 seen Sunday (March 14) afternoon, might be put away for a while, at least until the Paris engagement in July. Perhaps the overly familiar fare may have been responsible for the considerable number of empty seats, an unusual sight for a Sunday matinee (or maybe a substantial number of subscribers are Irish and were participating in the St. Patrick's Day parade).
Concerto Grosso was an opening night pi'ce d'occasion from 2003, and Tomasson's Meistens Mozart was a special event too, produced in 1991 for the citywide festival marking the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death. Possokhov's Study in Motion, new last year, is back; and so is George Balanchine's The Four Temperaments, revived for last season's Balanchine week. Much of the drama yesterday derived from an extraordinary number of cast changes, not all cited by the voice-over announcer (how about a board in the Opera House lobby listing the changes, as is done at New York City Ballet?).
Everything, of course, served a need. Meistens Mozart, which is set to a tape of the T'lzer Knabenchor's performances of songs by Mozart and his contemporaries, was notable for its off-handed charm 14 years ago and still provides a fine showcase for younger performers who are rarely caught in the spotlight. The six dancers meet in courtly encounters; the passing passions of youth are tastefully conveyed and the casual framework preserved. Some of the humor is not dating well at all. The disgusted reaction by the other dancers to the sneezes emitted at this performance by Sarah Van Patten (those sneezes are in the text of the Dittersdorf song we hear) suggested she had wiped her nose on her sleeve.
Generally, the cast, which also included corps members Courtney Elizabeth, Alexandra Lorey, Jonathan Mangosing and Rory Hohenstein and soloist Peter Brandenhoff, made a persuasive case. Perhaps, Mangosing's leaping solo shatters the framework established by Tomasson. This is not the place for exhibitionism, but for youthful exuberance. Still the current cast, while technically strong, misses the striking personality quirks of earlier teams, which included Christopher Stowell, Eric Hoisington and Grace Maduell.
Concerto Grosso reunited Pascal Molat with Garrett Anderson, Jaime Garcia Castilla, Pablo Piantino and Hansuke Yamamoto, as well as music director Andrew Mogrelia conducting a rather steely performance of Geminiani's arrangement of Corelli's "La Folia" Concerto. A terrific bunch of guys: Molat's solo, marked by infinitely soft landings on one knee brought him to the attention of local audiences and he goes at with tremendous verve and the winking relish of a great magician. Note, too, Castilla's almost poetic attack in the midst of all those pyrotechnics; is there a major assignment in the offing for him?
The reprise of Possokhov's Study in Motion exuded a measure of glamour, especially among the four men, whom it's easy to call the "Franco-Danish Dream Team" - Nicolas Blanc, Pierre-Fran'ois Vilanoba, Molat and Brandenhoff. There's charisma, too, in most of the female complement - Lorena Feijoo, Katita Waldo, Kristin Long, Rachel Viselli - whose encounters with the men generate sparks. Possokhov's rueful, post-coital ruminations - the women in Benjamin Pierce's white bras, the men in purple pajamas, all dancing through gauzy curtains - hold the attention intermittently, and the music, assorted Scriabin piano works (performed by Michael McGraw) is eminently apt.
San Francisco Ballet in Yuri
Possokhov's Study In Motion. Photo courtesy of SF Ballet.
.
There's passion aplenty here, and Possokhov's language - melding pointe work to a florid and almost expressionist deployment of arms - often looks arresting; the bisecting of the women's body's with a lot of cantered torsos suggests an essential tension. Possokhov is careful, too, to juxtapose solos with small ensembles. The problem here is structural. With Blanc alone beginning and concluding the work, the choreographer hints at a cyclical shape, but what's missing here is an emotional progression, an arc that makes sense on any level. Study in Motion runs 31 minutes and because of the sameness of tone among these loversinteractions, wears out its welcome ten minutes before it ends. Still, it remains Possokhov's most promising contribution to the company's repertoire, and the dancers, apparently, delight in its stylized physicality.
The program ended Sunday with a good, but not quite memorable reprise of The Four Temperaments, that 1946 treasure set to Paul Hindemith's commissioned score for piano and orchestra, a masterful representation of the four ancient classical humors and a landmark in American neo-classicism. No performance of The Four Temperaments (staged by Sandra Jennings and Gloria Govrin) is without interest. This one began promisingly in the three couples stating the architectural parameters of the Theme; Emily Halpin Ambuul/David Arce, Courtney Clarkson/Brett Bauer and Pauli Magierek/Chidozie Nzerem.
Gonzalo Garcia, who has inherited the Melancholic variation from Blanc, lent his customary enthusiasm, but that great diagonal promenade upstage needed more arch in the back, more gravity in the bearing, more of a progression. Van Patten's volatile extensions buoyed the Sanguinic duet, but partner Vadim Solomakha appeared to be sleepwalking through the assignment. Again, as it happened last season, Damian Smith's crumpled Phlegmatic left the most lasting impression - a case of art concealing art - and here, too, the corps women - Joanna Mednick, Erin McNulty, Brooke Moore and Mariellen Olson - proved most appealing. Elana Altman rendered the brief Choleric solo like a thoroughbred at the starting gate, joyfully uninhibited in her extensions. Mogrelia conducted; the pianist was Roy Bogas.
Program 5 of the S.F. Ballet subscription season runs in alternating repertory through March 22 at 8 p.m. www.sfballet.org.
