San Francisco Ballet @ Lincoln Center

Above: San Francisco Ballet‘s Vitor Luiz and Vanessa Zahorian in Helgi Tomasson’s TRIO; photo © Erik Tomasson

Saturday October 19th, 2013 (evening) – Welcoming back to New York City one of the world’s greatest ballet companies: San Francisco Ballet!  I had hoped to attend both of the Company’s programs during their first week at Lincoln Center, but things didn’t turn out that way. When the Company were last here in 2008, I went to see everything they offered, and I fell in love with all the dancers. Fortunately tonight I was able to see many of those beautiful dancers again, though I missed some other favorites – like Lorena Feijoo and Taras Domitro. I very much admired the Company’s programming, bringing works to New York City that we’ve not seen before. 

Above: the Company in Helgi Tomasson’s TRIO; photo © Erik Tomasson

Helgi Tomasson’s TRIO, which opened the performance, is a four-movement work in the Romantic style danced before an antique/Renaissance backdrop (by Alexander V Nichols). Mark Zappone’s costumes, in shades of wine and dusty Autumn flame, set the dancers off beautifully. Tomasson’s ballets always please the ear as well as the eye: TRIO is danced to Tchaikovsky’s richly melodic Souvenir de Florence.

After a striking entrée where the ballerina is held aloft, the gorgeously elegant, the dark-haired Vanessa Zahorian swirls thru lovely supported pirouettes and covers the space beautifully with her joyous dance; her cavalier, Vitor Luiz, shows off some unusual flourishes in his combinations. Their duet, backed by the ensemble, is filled with demanding partnering motifs; they gave a wonderful performance, setting the tone for the entire evening.

Above: Sarah Van Patten and Tiit Helimets in TRIO; photo © Erik Tomasson

New York City has Wendy Whelan and San Francisco has Sarah Van Patten: I feel these two dancers might be sisters under the skin. Ms. Van Patten’s striking presence and passionate physicality transcend the steps and music. In the adagio of TRIO she appears first in a sensual duet with the marvelous Tiit Helimets; we are basking in their expressive perfection when the charismatic Anthony Spaulding suddenly appears, making his own claim to the ballerina. The trio’s passions and tensions ebb and flow thru their pas de trois, a finely-crafted dance drama.

Maria Kochetkova, a petite ballerina with who radiates enormous charm and technical authority, dazzled the audience with her ebullient dancing; she and her vividly handsome partner Davit Karapetyan led the ballet’s third and fourth movements which range from classic partnering à la Russe to some stylized motifs that maintained the ballet’s freshness.

Among the ensemble, soloist Hansuke Yamamoto made an outstanding impression. This Tomasson ballet made me crave a revival of his 2000 Beethoven work for New York City Ballet: PRISM. 

Martin West
conducted the Tchaikovsky score for TRIO and also had the baton for the evening’s second work: Christopher Wheeldon’s GHOSTS set to music by C F Kip Winger.

Above: Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith in Wheeldon’s GHOSTS. Photo © Erik Tomasson.

Christopher Wheeldon’s GHOSTS, which premiered in 2010, is performed by an ensemble of dancers in gossamer white beneath the pallid glow of a full moon. CF Kip Winger’s score has a cinematic feel, with passages of Romantic styling mingled with quirky, more angular effects.

Christopher Wheeldon (who was on the Promenade this evening during the intermission) describes GHOSTS as a “mass gathering of souls … creating only atmosphere, not story.” The ballet’s marriage of music and mood evoke a dreamworld in which the dancers move with sonnambulistic grace, often falling to the floor only to rise again in a restless quest for some elusive sense of closure.

The ravishing Yuan Yuan Tan and her superb partner Damian Smith perform an ethereal pas de deux; Seeing Yuan Yuan Tan onstage again reminded me of a very special hour Kokyat and I spent in Jessica Lang’s studio two years ago when the ballerina was rehearsing with Clifton Brown for an appearance at Fall for Dance.

Sofiane Sylve (above in a © Erik Tomasson photo) is a more restless spirit: the beauteous ballerina is still
missed here at Lincoln Center where she danced as a principal at New
York City Ballet from 2003 – 2007. Sylve in GHOSTS casts a spell in her pas de trois
with Mr. Helimets and Shane Wuerthner.

Soloist Clara Blanco, a
particular favorite of mine during the Company’s last New York visit in
2008, stood out among the ensemble…I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

Above: from Wayne MacGregor’s BORDERLANDS, photo © Erik Tomasson

BORDERLANDS, a 2013 Wayne McGregor ballet, has a strong contemporary feel and demands great stamina and focus from a dozen of the Company’s generously talented dancers. Set in an enormous bare-walled enclosure, the stage is first bathed in steely-grey light; this will shift to Autumnal gold for the central pas de deux and then to vivid neon blue as the ballet moves to its end. The dancers wear shorts, displaying their leggy allure. They often stand or kneel around the edges of the space to observe their fellow-dancers.

In this austere, stylized ballet the music of Joel Cadbury and Paul Stoney ranges from the kozmic and other-worldly thru a cinematic/romance to a rock-like statement and a final anthem. The dancers move with athletic intensity; the choreographic and partnering demands are strenuous and the dancers come and go throughout the work: their relationships uncharted, sometimes mechanical and always mystifying.

The San Francisco dancers threw themselves with complusive energy into this unusual movement style: particularly excellent work from Frances Chung and Mlles. Sylve, Van Patten and Kochetkova, and from the ever-fascinating Mr. Spaulding.

Above: Maria Kochetkova and Lonnie Weeks in McGregor’s BORDERLANDS. Photo © Erik Tomasson

All photos in this article are copyright: Erik Tomasson.

Repertoire and dancers: Saturday evening, October 19th, 2013:

Trio
Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson
Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Conductor: Martin West

Vanessa Zahorian, Vitor Luiz
Sarah Van Patten, Tiit Helimets
Anthony Spaulding
Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan

Ghosts
Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon
Composer: C.F. Kip Winger
Conductor: Martin West

Yuan Yuan Tan, Damian Smith
Sofiane Sylve, Tiit Helimets, Shane Wuerthner

Borderlands
Choreographer: Wayne McGregor
Composer: Joel Cadbury and Paul Stoney
Conductor: Martin West

Maria Kochetkova, Jaime Garcia Castilla
Sarah Van Patten, Pascal Molat

Frances Chung, Carlos Quenedit
Sofiane Sylve, Anthony Spaulding
Koto Ishihara, Lonnie Weeks
Elizabeth Powell, Francisco Mungamba