Arts Review

'Onegin' comes to S.F. Ballet

2012-01-26T10:24:00.000-08:00

The words that comes up the most often when talking about John Cranko's sweeping ballet "Onegin" is "life changing." Ask anyone who's seen the ballet what they thought of it, and you're likely to get a rapturous account of a performance that changed the way they saw classical ballet. And when San Francisco Ballet at last brings Cranko's iconic masterwork to the War Memorial Opera House stage Friday, it will be the fulfillment of a long-held dream for Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson.

Company C Contemporary Ballet review: 10th season

2012-01-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

The emphasis was on the contemporary as the intrepid Company C Contemporary Ballet embarked on its 10th anniversary season Friday night at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek with a peppy, agreeable program showcasing works by a few of the latter-day choreographers with whom the troupe has cultivated relationships over a decade of performing.

The evening's most effective moments came wrapped in Paul Taylor Dance Company alum David Grenke's "Vespers," a duet for Jacqueline McConnell and Oliver Freeston to Tom Waits' version of "Waltzing Matilda."

Oakland Ballet to delay spring program

2012-01-21T10:22:00.000-08:00

In a cost-cutting move described by its director as "risk avoidance," the Oakland Ballet Company is postponing its spring performances, which had been planned for May 18-20 at the Malonga Casquelourd Center in Oakland.

Artistic Director Graham Lustig said that after disappointing ticket sales for "The Nutcracker" at the end of 2011, the company - which has an annual budget of $600,000 - faced an $80,000 deficit.

San Francisco Ballet review: Gala's depth, daring

2012-01-21T10:19:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Ballet dispelled any lingering gloom from the damp, chilly evening with a gala opening on Thursday night at the War Memorial Opera House that deftly showcased the company's notable versatility.

In a program that ran the emotional gamut from dark and brooding to fiendishly nimble, modernity and drama took center stage, with not a Petipa tutu in sight. The oldest ballet excerpt on what felt like a briefer gala program than usual was Vasily Vainonen's 1932 Soviet-era chestnut "The Flames of Paris," and the most recent, Christopher Wheeldon's sleek, candy-colored "Number Nine," was created in April for the Ballet. That's a span of 79 years and, it just so happens, almost traces the life span of San Francisco Ballet itself.

'A Wintry Mix': Metaphor for immigrant issues

2012-01-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

Although it's felt less like winter and more like spring in the Bay Area this year, Davalos Dance Company takes the brisk chill of the season as its inspiration in "A Wintry Mix," which the company performs this weekend at CounterPulse.

"I liked the metaphor of winter - the rain, the sleet and snow, with maybe just a little sunshine mixed in," choreographer Catherine Marie Davalos says. "I love that texture and palette."

'The Stinky Cheese Man': Kids book turns into play

2012-01-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

If you were about to become lunch for a giant, what kinds of desperate stories would you spin to save yourself?

Wits and wackiness come in equal parts in William Massolia's cheerfully nutty play, "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales," which the Griffin Theatre Company will perform Sunday at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco.

S.F. Ballet plays to its strengths in 2012 season

2012-01-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

If San Francisco Ballet's exhausting, whirlwind schedule takes a toll, director Helgi Tomasson isn't showing it as he sinks comfortably into the couch in his office in between fittings for the costumes for San Francisco Ballet's new production of Don Quixote and rehearsals for the company's upcoming production of "Onegin."

But then perhaps everyone is simply used to this level of activity, as the company prepares simultaneously for the launch of "Onegin," the opening gala and well, pretty much the entire run of the 79th season's 18 ballets.

S.F. Ballet season opening

2012-01-15T10:09:00.000-08:00

"What impresses me this year is the quiet ambition Tomasson exhibits," Hunt says. "He's very modest about the past accomplishments of the company, and this season they dive into big new productions like 'Onegin' and 'Don Quixote', as well as complicated premieres that call on not only the skills of the dancers, but also the musicians and designers and all the artists that must come together to make the next five months happen.

"He's built a strong organization, but it's been very carefully done with just the right soup�on of experimentation. As the Ballet heads toward its 80th anniversary, that's an underappreciated achievement."

San Francisco Ballet 2012 season at a glance

2012-01-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

"Chroma," "Beaux," "Number Nine" Rich textures interplay with dramatic color on a mixed program of works that push the boundaries of ballet. Wayne McGregor's riveting "Chroma" stretches the classical lexicon to eye-catching extremes to create a kind of hybrid vernacular to match the pulse of modern life. With "Beaux," Mark Morris creates his seventh commission for the Ballet, using the jaunty music of Bohuslav Martinu as a springboard for nine men to show off a different side of male virtuosity. The evening concludes with the return of Christopher Wheeldon's commission from last season, the high-velocity, kaleidoscopic "Number Nine."

Dennis Nahat out at Ballet San Jose

2012-01-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

Changes are afoot at Ballet San Jose, but a graceful transition still eludes the embattled company, which has delayed its spring season announcement, shortened its "Nutcracker" run and announced a new partnership with American Ballet Theatre, new artistic leadership and the departure of Ballet San Jose's board chair. Now, founder Dennis Nahat, whose future with the company had been in question, confirmed this week that he has received a letter from Executive Director Stephanie Ziesel removing him as artistic director.

"I am flabbergasted at how this has happened," Nahat said during a phone call Wednesday evening. "I don't understand the rationale behind it, and I guess one cannot rationalize it at this point."

Battery Chamberlin: Disappearing gun demonstration

2012-01-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

You may have never noticed the gun in battery No. 4 at the north end of Baker Beach, but that's entirely by design.

Hidden gun emplacements dot the California coastline - remnants of coastal defense systems that stretched back to the 19th century. On Saturday, you can not only see one of those hidden 50-ton rifles but also take part in an actual demonstration of loading and aiming one of the last guns installed during the Endicott period at Battery Chamberlin.

'Future Motive Power': Mugwumpin's take on Tesla

2012-01-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

Science and art, energy and perhaps a touch of madness will all blend together in Mugwumpin's "Future Motive Power," a new theatrical work about the elusive 19th and 20th century genius and inventor Nikola Tesla.

"This is not really a period piece, per se," says Christopher White, artistic director of Mugwumpin, the inventive theater group that he co-founded in 2004. "Although there will be elements of that, as well as elements of the contemporary world creeping in. Tesla had one foot in his century and one in ours."

Top 2012 Bay Area dance performances

2012-01-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Ballet season (Jan. 26-May 7, War Memorial Opera House, S.F.) Drama and romance converge throughout the San Francisco Ballet season, which kicks off with John Cranko's ravishing "Onegin," based on the Pushkin poem. Beyond the returning classics like "Raymonda," "Romeo and Juliet" and "Don Quixote," SFB's repertory programs promise tantalizing premieres from Mark Morris, Edwaard Liang and Ashley Page as well as Yuri Possokhov's latest - a take on "Francesca da Rimini" - and a long-overdue revival of Balanchine's delightful "Scotch Symphony."

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Dance 2011: Highs, lows and top 10 moments

2011-12-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

High: Maria Kochetkova and Gennadi Nedvigin at San Francisco Ballet. In the greatest partnerships in ballet, the union is greater than the sum of its parts, and so it was with these two dancers throughout the 2011 season. It wasn't just that his princely comportment set off her delicate phrasing in "Giselle," or that his rakishness highlighted her vivacity in "Coppelia." So well matched in their impeccable Russian training, Kochetkova and Nedvigin serve up not only artistry of the highest caliber but also that inexpressible, mysterious excitement born of potent onstage chemistry.

Low: The premature retirement of Miami City Ballet Artistic Director Edward Villella. The word that Villella was being ousted by his board sent ripples of outrage through the dance world. Now there are signs that a similar fate may await Ballet San Jose Artistic Director Dennis Nahat. Tracking fiscal health is a board's mandate, but when it ventures into artistic decisions and treats a ballet company like a business machine, the real loser is the art form.

Read more: Dance 2011: Highs, lows and top 10 moments

'Yes Sweet Can': 'Mittens and Mistletoe' circus

2011-12-15T17:03:00.000-08:00

Take a little bit of acrobatics and a little juggling, throw in some trapeze work and clowning, and it adds up to a charmer of a circus cabaret for kids.

This weekend, the 5-year-old Sweet Can Productions kicks off two weeks of holiday performances of its popular "Yes Sweet Can" show at Dance Mission, turning the everyday into magical moments.

Read more: 'Yes Sweet Can': 'Mittens and Mistletoe' circus

'The Jewish Nutcracker, a Maccabee Celebration'

2011-12-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Who wouldn't want to make friends with the Sufganiyot Fairy?

Like her counterpart, the Sugarplum Fairy, she's delicate and sweet, and in the guise of Katy Alaniz Rous - who plays the Sufganiyot Fairy in "The Jewish Nutcracker," which opens at the ODC Theater today - she also looks as if she's got a Yiddishe kop - some real smarts.

"Usually when people hear about a Jewish 'Nutcracker,' they say, 'How is that Jewish?' " says Rous, who also choreographed this unusual production last year. "But you know, the regular 'Nutcracker' isn't really a Christian story; it just takes place at a Christmas party."

Read more: 'The Jewish Nutcracker, a Maccabee Celebration'

Ballet San Jose review: Generous 'Nutcracker'

2011-12-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

A fairly imposing, 6-foot Mouse King was bounding around the entrance to the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, making more than one youngster a little wary about this whole ballet thing as patrons filtered into Ballet San Jose's matinee performance of Dennis Nahat's "Nutcracker."

Fortunately, once coaxed past the dangers of the rodent kind and into the theater, there was plenty to bewitch ballet-goers of any age. Nahat's 1979 retelling of the holiday classic has always been notable for its fresh spin and the wealth of detail throughout the ballet, whose Tchaikovsky score - with some interpolations and rearrangement - was given a sensitive rendering by the Symphony Silicon Valley under Dwight Oltman's direction. The first act especially, with its broad and yet meticulously executed comedy and thoughtfully plotted individual characters set in David Guthrie's textured and decorative Viennese home, just might be the best in the Bay Area's bevy of "Nutcrackers."

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San Jose Ballet's Dennis Nahat may be forced out

2011-12-13T16:57:00.000-08:00

San Jose Ballet Artistic Director Dennis Nahat may be forced out of the company he founded. Apparently, the artistic direction has moved solely into the hands of the board of directors.

"It's a peculiar and precarious situation," Nahat said in a conversation shortly before a matinee performance of his production of "Nutcracker." "I am still an employee of the ballet, I am still management, but if there are changes being made, I am not privy to them."

Read more: San Jose Ballet's Dennis Nahat may be forced out

BALLET REVIEW / Cracking open the joy, awe

2011-12-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

It would be so easy to think of this yearly tradition as a kid's ballet, a socially acceptable night out for the juice-and-cookies set. But if a jaded smirk crosses your lips at the thought of yet another year of "Nutcracker," it's good to remember that for more than a few patrons in the theater, this will be their first ballet, and the wonder it generates can be infectious. For every trick you think you know, there is someone in the audience who won't be able to hold back an awed "Wow!" when the doll pops out of a magic box, or a tree begins to ascend magically - and, news flash, it might not be just kids we're talking about.

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'Danzón,' Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal, review:

2011-12-05T17:10:00.000-08:00

"Tanzt, Tanzt, sonst sind wir verloren," German choreographer Pina Bausch once said. "Dance, dance, or else we are lost."

Now two years after her death, her imperative lives on in her company Tanztheater Wuppertal, which returned to perform Bausch's 1995 "Danzón" on Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall stage courtesy of Cal Performances last weekend.

Bausch's variety of dance theater - evidenced in sprawling evening-length collages of surreal, seemingly absurd vignettes - is sometimes ridiculed, sometimes embraced and often misunderstood. But if her work seems at first glance to be random and incomprehensible, it can also be compelling and intensely personal - a potent dream sequence of images that will bring up different correlations and correspondences in the mind of each viewer. Importantly, what it is for you, may not be what it is for me.

Left Coast Leaning Festival review: hit and miss

2011-12-03T17:11:00.000-08:00

"What are you trying to say?"

It's a question that could be sardonic, frustrated or genuinely curious, and the latest edition of the Left Coast Leaning Festival, which opened at the Forum at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Friday, evoked a combination of those moods in a program of works that was inventive, perplexing, combative and delightful.

This is the third year for Left Coast Leaning, a co-presentation of YBCA with Marc Bamuthi Joseph's Living Word Project, and the mission - to seek out works of a distinctively West Coast voice that "emanate from a guttural, visceral place," as Joseph says - continues to be both provocative and appealing. But as is often the case with festival programs, the lineup of five works - by local performers as well as artists from Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. - is hit-and-miss.

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'Hover Space' review: Shifting possibilities

2011-12-02T17:13:00.000-08:00

There's a wonderful idea at the heart of "Hover Space," which the nervy and rumbustious Printz Dance Project premiered at Z Space at Theater Artaud on Wednesday night. Although ostensibly themes of love and longing thematically tie the 12 dancers together, the centerpiece - literally - of the work is a massive square platform designed by Sean Riley and suspended on chains, covering roughly half the space of the stage.

Bookended by solos performed by choreographer Stacey Printz, "Hover Space" comes in 12 segments in which the dancers work - often in pairs - on, under and around the platform, which not only rises and lowers to reshape the theatrical space but also dips at steep angles to form a surface for the performers to scale, or slide along.

Read more: 'Hover Space' review: Shifting possibilities

Pina Bausch company carries on with 'Danz�n'

2011-12-01T17:14:00.001-08:00

In the world of modern dance, Pina Bausch is indisputably an icon of the postmodern dance movement. The sprawling works she created for Tanztheater Wuppertal redefined what it meant to create a dance. They might be simultaneously touching and yet cryptic, keenly perceptive and also frustratingly intellectual, but always they are movingly human.

Two years after the passing of its director and auteur at the age of 68, the company carries on her legacy with former dancer Dominique Mercy and Bausch's assistant Robert Sturm at the helm. The disarming and affable Mercy was one of Bausch's first recruits to the Tanztheater Wuppertal, and speaking by phone from the company's home base in Germany, he candidly discussed the troupe's direction after Bausch's death, and about "Danzón," her 1995 work that they'll bring to the Cal Performances stage at Zellerbach Hall in UC Berkeley this weekend.

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Fungus Fair at Lawrence Hall of Science

2011-12-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

If you've ever wondered if that little brown mushroom that grows on your lawn is poisonous or whether that pretty shelf fungus you saw on a hike was edible, now is your chance to find out.

This weekend, the Mycological Society of San Francisco's annual Fungus Fair will draw fungi fans from all over the Bay Area for a weekend of getting down and dirty with mushrooms. The Mycological Society has been around since the 1950s, and in addition to leading mushroom field trips and forays, it has sponsored the Fungus Fair since 1969.

Read more: Fungus Fair at Lawrence Hall of Science

Trey McIntyre Project review: Jazzy number

2011-11-20T22:08:00.000-08:00

Smart, vibrant dancing filled the stage at Zellerbach Hall when the 10-member Trey McIntyre Project of Boise, Idaho, brought three ballets to Cal Performances on Friday night.

The robust muscularity of McIntyre's freewheeling choreography was at its invigorating best in "The Sweeter End," a 2011 collaborative effort with New Orleans' Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Set to a loose grouping of old jazz standards like the "St. James Infirmary Blues" and "Trouble in Mind," the piece has a vaudevillian flair and Looney Tunes hyperactivity that suits the deft bravado and swagger of these dancers.

Trey McIntyre Project review: Jazzy number...

Diablo Ballet season premiere review

2011-11-20T22:07:00.000-08:00

If there is a company character to Diablo Ballet, it is the compact swiftness and the gusto with which they attack the stage. There were a few new faces on the roster when the company opened its 18th season at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek this weekend, but on a program of three contemporary ballets, there was no lack of verve and punch in the dancing.

The newest addition to the Diablo repertoire is a sober, somewhat abstract premiere by Val Caniparoli titled "Tears From Above," set to Elena Kats-Chernin's score for two cellos - performed live by Daniel Reiter and Paul Rhodes.

Bathed in Jack Carpenter's crepuscular lighting, suggesting the fading light at the end of a day, the ballet quickly gathers momentum, shifting from undulating arms and spines and into space-devouring sequences. The quartet of dancers - Mayo Sugano, Derek Sakukura, Hiromi Yamazaki and Robert Dekkers - surge and swell in repeated cadences across the stage, before breaking into pensive duets.

Diablo Ballet season premiere review:

Dominic Walsh's offers a 'Rose' to Diablo Ballet

2011-11-20T22:06:00.001-08:00

"I feel that in some ways we've lost our understanding of theater," says choreographer Dominic Walsh, sitting quietly in a shady spot outside the Diablo Ballet studios in Walnut Creek.

Walsh gazes across an unromantic parking lot toward a line of trees as if deeper answers might lie percolating somewhere out there in the sunshine. There's an echo of that questing spirit in his version of "Le Spectre de la Rose," a reinterpretation of the Ballets Russes-era masterpiece originally created by Michel Fokine in 1911. Walsh is just finishing a whirlwind rehearsal of his "Spectre" for Diablo Ballet's 18th season, which opens Friday at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

Dominic Walsh's offers a 'Rose' to Diablo Ballet...

'Nearly 90{ 2},' Merce Cunningham Dance review

2011-11-20T22:06:00.000-08:00

Rarely does an audience have a chance to anticipate the final performance of a great work. But so it was on Tuesday night as the 13 members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company gave the company's final performance of Cunningham's last creation, "Nearly 90," capping eight days of workshops, lectures and events at Stanford Lively Arts.

The company's two-year Legacy tour - which commenced at Cunningham's death in 2009 - continues until the end of this year, when the company will disband permanently. This last appearance at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium felt like a firm push forward from one of modern dance's most influential choreographers.

'Nearly 90{ 2},' Merce Cunningham Dance review...

'Light Moves' review: Meditative digital-human mix

2011-11-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

It's hard for performing artists to think big these days and actually pull it off. Shrinking budgets often lead to an overabundance of caution. That's what makes it all the more impressive that year after year, Margaret Jenkins consistently generates works of ideas and scale like "Light Moves," which the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company premiered Thursday night at the Novellus Theater as part of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts season.

Over the two-year process of creating "Light Moves," Jenkins - along with her collaborators, including composer Paul Dresher, video artist Naomie Kremer and poet Michael Palmer, as well as the eight dancers of her company - has judiciously edited the work, paring away some of the more distracting elements seen in previews last year.

'Light Moves' review: Meditative digital-human mix...

LEVYdance review: Sweet and surprising 'Romp'

2011-11-20T22:04:00.000-08:00

Dance can move you, excite you, even delight, but it's hard to really surprise an audience these days, to keep them guessing. LEVYdance captures that exhilarating feeling that anything could happen with "Romp," which the three-member company - Benjamin Levy, Melodie Casta and Scott Marlowe - premiered on Thursday night at Z Space at Theater Artaud.

An audience of about 100 fits onto the stage of Artaud, where chairs have been arranged in small clusters evenly throughout the space. It creates a maze of cleverly arranged pathways, and before you can even register that the piece has begun, the performers, in street clothes, have inserted themselves into the maze dancing a high-octane folk dance to the music of Brass Menazerie. Bodies fly past your feet, arms swoop over your head, and hips gyrate in a thumping, joyous opening that fits neatly into the interstices of the audience arrangement, just barely missing actual physical contact by centimeters. Keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.

LEVYdance review: Sweet and surprising 'Romp'...

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Family Concert

2011-11-20T22:03:00.001-08:00

Countless youngsters have discovered a love of music by playing the simplest of instruments, a recorder. That was what drew Marion Verbruggen, who began playing when she was 6, into the world of period-instrument music. Now one of the world's leading recorder virtuosos, Verbruggen will appear with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in a family concert Saturday afternoon - with an interactive twist.

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Family Concert...

'From Wallflower to Dance Brigade'

2011-11-20T22:03:00.000-08:00

It's likely she would never describe herself this way, but Krissy Keefer is a force of nature.

Founder of the feminist dance collective the Wallflower Order and its successor Dance Brigade, Keefer has been a provocateur and an institution in the modern dance community since 1975. And with its new show at the Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this weekend, Dance Brigade celebrates Keefer's 35 years of modern dance theater.

Pragmatic and disarmingly direct, Keefer seems often to be in nonstop motion as she talks about her legacy - you get the sense that this boundless energy is the driving and organizing force behind the agitprop fury and dark humor that threads through much of her work.

From Wallflower to Dance Brigade...

Wayne McGregor's 'Entity' review: Order from chaos

2011-11-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

A danced investigation of movement exploring the intersection of creativity and cognitive neuroscience: Is there anything that sounds drier and less sexy? And yet, that inspiration results in a giddy, sometimes thrilling, occasionally frustrating blend of motion, ideas and imagery in Wayne McGregor's "Entity," which his London company, Random Dance, performed last weekend at the Novellus Theater in its Bay Area debut as part of San Francisco Performance's fall season.

Parsed out in two acts - the first with music by composer Joby Talbot and the second an electronica score by Coldplay collaborator Jon Hopkins - "Entity" explores a kind of metascience, a creation examining the way we create. It's a heady topic to take on through the medium of dance, in which technique, speed and stamina have advanced to a dazzling degree and yet our understanding of the brain-body connection that inspires choreographic creativity is limited.

Wayne McGregor's 'Entity' review: Order from chaos...

Pirate Store brings bucks for educational programs

2011-11-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

For the truly discerning pirate, there's really only one place to shop in San Francisco.

Eye patches, treasure shining kits and the handy Scurvy Begone, in convenient jelly bean form, are just a few of the delightful items to be found at the Pirate Store. Proceeds from the store benefit 826 Valencia, which provides writing education workshops, after-school tutoring and a wide range of other educational programs for kids.

Pirate Store brings bucks for educational programs...

'A Cat in Paris': Stylish animated film at Kabuki

2011-04-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

Parents who wistfully crave the great storytelling and artistry of classic cel animation might consider letting the gracefully nimble feline of 'A Cat in Paris' take kids on the adventure of a lifetime. The film is presented as part of the 2011 San Francisco International Film Festival.

Created in stylish, hand-drawn 2-D animation by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli and set among the rooftops of Paris, the film is a noir-ish thriller for the 8-and-up set.

Though younger children might find the story a complex one to follow - the festival will be showing an English-language version of the 65-minute film - the imaginative tale of the young Zoé and her heroic cat, Dino, has a modern-day fairy-tale feel, complete with chilling villains and a nail-biting, high-stakes chase over the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral.

'A Cat in Paris': Stylish animated film at Kabuki...

Imagination Playground: Architect focuses on fun

2011-04-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

What if playgrounds exercised the mind as well as the body? A whole new kind of play space comes to the Bay Area Discovery Museum this weekend, with the unveiling of the Imagination Playground.

At a time when teaching kids construction skills and the value of working with their hands is garnering interest, the Imagination Playground brings together the concept of a safe, social space with the notion of unstructured free play.

Imagination Playground: Architect focuses on fun...

Bike About at the S.F. Zoo

2011-03-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

What does a kangaroo have for breakfast? Does a flamingo need to stretch in the morning? Are snow leopards cranky when they awaken?

You can get answers to these and other burning questions at the San Francisco Zoo's monthly Bike About tour, the next of which takes place Saturday.

'It's great because you can have the zoo all to yourself,' says Sarah Riemer, who helps coordinate the early-morning tours during which docents guide small groups of families around the zoo."

Bike About at the S.F. Zoo...

Women's History Month: S.F. maritime park, piers

2011-03-03T22:31:00.000-08:00

Women at sea are the focus as the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park celebrates Women's History month throughout March.

The festivities include the free photography exhibition 'Women Who Changed Maritime History' at the Visitors Center on Jefferson Street. On Saturday at 1 p.m., the kids can take a break and sit in for Maritime Story Time's 'The Tale of Henry and Harry.' On Sunday at 3 p.m., a park ranger will lead a tour of the small crafts at the Pier's floating docks.

Women's History Month: S.F. maritime park, piers...

Carlos Acosta, in 'Swan Lake,' talks about future

2011-02-25T14:57:00.000-08:00

Carlos Acosta, in 'Swan Lake,' talks about future:

At 37, the Cuban-born star Carlos Acosta has achieved the kind of international recognition accorded to the likes of Baryshnikov and Nureyev, although sitting in Ballet San Jose's studios, where he's rehearsing with Alexsandra Meijer for his guest appearance this weekend in Dennis Nahat's 'Swan Lake,' Acosta looks remarkably unassuming.

Flying from London to San Jose and jumping straight into rehearsals has left remnants of jetlag written on his handsome features, but when he stands up to dance, the exhaustion magically falls away, revealing the charismatic smile and trademark energy and style that has made him one of the true ballet superstars of his generation.

In a break between rehearsals, he spoke about the challenges of "Swan Lake," his thoughts on retirement and the future of ballet.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/23/DDP61HQ6K6.DTL#ixzz1F0w4Yrfz

Tulipmania: Pier 39 begins celebration of blooms

2011-02-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

"I tell people that not all 39,000 bulbs will bloom at once,"says Denise Dirickson, the director of environmental services at Pier 39, where Tulipmania begins Saturday.

But 39,000 is about the number of bulbs that Dirickson and her team of gardeners planted in the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In the coming weeks, they'll adorn the gardens and barrels around the pier with a riot of purples, pinks, oranges and yellows.

Tulipmania: Pier 39 begins celebration of blooms...

'Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies' review

2011-02-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

Navigate through the many layers of esoteric images collaged together in Jess Curtis/Gravity's latest work, 'Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies,' which had its world premiere Thursday night in the Forum at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and you may come out the other side feeling a little lost.

Realigning our views of the human form seems to be the mission, wrapped up in neo-burlesque packaging. The six-member multinational cast takes us in directions that are by turns fanciful and non sequitur, as they drift, skulk and cavort with gusto through a spare white landscape furnished with an assortment of detritus that might have wandered in from other stories - boxing gloves, a ukulele, a single skate dangled over a naked mannequin, a porcelain tub, a refrigerator. They're all props in a strange quotidian drama.

'Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies' review...

Kids Create: Workshops in Mayan embroidery

2011-02-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

Intricate and colorful, the geometric patterns of Mayan embroidery techniques will be a jumping-off point for the Kids Create workshop Sunday at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.

Aimed at kids from 5 to 10 years old, the Kids Create workshops, which meet the first Sunday of each month, focus on multicultural art activities, often tied into museum exhibitions like 'Modern Maya: Huipils From the Collection of Paul and Kathleen Vitale,' which opens Tuesday and runs through May 1. For this week's Kids Create event, youngsters will learn about the symbols and embroidery methods of the Mayans and apply them to making bookmarks, which they will be able to take home with them.

Kids Create: Workshops in Mayan embroidery...

'Elixir of Love for Families - the Movie': opera

2011-01-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

Maybe your introduction to opera was humming along with Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd as a kid - and a new generation of young operagoers might just be captivated by the catchy and familiar tunes after seeing a colorful, family-friendly version of 'The Elixir of Love' at the Herbst Theatre. The film screens three times on Sunday and Jan. 30.

Ruth Nott, education director for the San Francisco Opera, says the hourlong movie - filmed during its 2008 production - was created specifically to help introduce youngsters to the world of opera. Nott says the first such film - based on the opera's 2009 production of Mozart's 'Magic Flute' - was produced for use in schools and community outreach programs, but it received an overwhelmingly positive response from families.

'Elixir of Love for Families - the Movie': opera...

Chinatown Alleyway Tours guided by local youths

2011-01-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

In San Francisco's Chinatown, many tourists - indeed, many longtime Bay Area residents - never make it past the silk purses and bamboo backscratchers in shops lining Grant Avenue. But if you want to get to the heart of Chinatown, see it through the eyes of the kids who grew up there and who now lead the Chinatown Alleyway Tours, offered every Saturday morning from Portsmouth Square.

These are not your typical tours, pointing out only the cosmetic highlights of one of San Francisco's oldest immigrant communities. The guides who lead the tours - usually a few of them at a time - are savvy, lively storytellers and knowledgeable politically, as well as historically. A couple of hours spent with them walking down the byways and alleys will help you get to know a side of the neighborhood behind the touristy side of the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.

Chinatown Alleyway Tours guided by local youths...

Cheryl Burke goes from TV to 'Tango'

2010-12-30T22:16:00.000-08:00

It's only a few weeks after Cheryl Burke and her partner, NBA star Rick Fox, were eliminated from 'Dancing With the Stars,' but the 26-year-old Atherton native, now appearing in 'Forever Tango,' looks composed as she sinks into a chair on the stage of the Marines' Memorial Theatre and crosses her ankles gracefully. Her black spike heels look as if they'd be the perfect height for dancing a tango with a small forward, but these are not dancing shoes, she laughs, as she launches chattily into topics ranging from 'Dancing With the Stars' to being a dance beginner again.

Cheryl Burke goes from TV to 'Tango'...

Holiday Trains: San Francisco Main Library display

2010-12-16T22:14:00.000-08:00

The little boy is covering all the buttons he can manage with his hands. As soon as a train stops, he pushes one of the oversize red buttons to send it on its way, but it's easy to see why he's obsessive: There is something magical about the San Francisco Public Library's Holiday Train exhibit.

The kids can thank Roberto Lombardi, the Main Library's director of facilities for the delightful display of holiday trains, now in its fifth year. Along with other volunteers from his division, Lombardi, an amateur train collector, constructed the display of electric toy trains and sets up the snowbound village each year in front of the library's Fisher Children's Center on the second floor.

Holiday Trains: San Francisco Main Library display...

San Francisco Ballet duo: From Russia with love

2010-12-05T22:12:00.000-08:00

Slumped quietly under a barre in San Francisco Ballet's studios, Artem Yachmennikov exudes a certain intensity as he watches Elena Kazakova rehearse for Helgi Tomasson's 'Nutcracker,' which opens Thursday at the War Memorial Opera House.

He makes no comment and seems to barely move while the statuesque and elegant Kazakova works out a series of turns with her partner, soloist Vito Mazzeo. But if you follow his eyes, Yachmennikov, who joined San Francisco Ballet with Kazakova in July, has the unmistakable look of a man smitten. In fact, it was in the studio - when they both danced for the Bolshoi in 2008 - that he fell in love.

San Francisco Ballet duo: From Russia with love...

Parol workshops: Filipino Christmas star lanterns

2010-12-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

For some, holiday decorations mean Christmas trees and wreaths, but in the Philippines, you're more likely to see festive star-shaped lanterns called parols adorning the streets and homes.

'Parol lanterns are traditional Filipino Christmas decorations representing the star of Bethlehem,' says Marcus Ante, public programs coordinator at the Exploratorium, who says the parol - from the Spanish word farol, or lantern - originated in the Pampanga province of the Philippines.

Parol workshops: Filipino Christmas star lanterns...

Reindeer Romp: Check out these caribou at S.F. Zoo

2010-11-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

This winter, while Dasher, Dancer and company are getting ready for their midnight trek 'round the world, their counterparts Holly, Velvet, Peppermint and Belle will be doing a little reindeer PR for the herd at the San Francisco Zoo.

Starting Saturday, the four reindeer steers will be on view in a special corral on the zoo's Patas Lawn for admirers to observe up close, and though they won't be able to pet the deer, Jim Nappi, assistant curator of hoofstock at the zoo, says that these companionable animals are not shy.

Reindeer Romp: Check out these caribou at S.F. Zoo...

S.F. Symphony's Dia de los Muertos Family Concert

2010-11-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

On his way through the lobby of Davies Symphony Hall, Donato Cabrera pauses in front of a colorful Ferris wheel, decorated with macabre gondolas in the shape of skulls, and puts on a pair of blue and red goggles at a 3-D Day of the Dead altar covered in images of famous Mexican folk heroes, devised by Rene and Rio Yañez.

Cabrera will bring his enthusiasm to the task of conducting the San Francisco Symphony's third annual Dia de los Muertos family concert this weekend. This year's program celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. And while kids will be delighted by the Mexican flavors and atmosphere in the music, adults may chuckle as they recognize tunes like Jose Pablo Moncayo's lively 'Huapango' and Juventino Rosas' 'Sobre las Olas' from Bugs Bunny cartoons.

S.F. Symphony's Dia de los Muertos Family Concert...

Dia de los Muertos: Altars for Day of the Dead

2010-10-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

For many children, Halloween is all about spooks and scares, tricks or treats, but All Hallows Eve is also the precursor to the Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos, the colorful Latino holiday that helps the living remember and reconnect with those who've passed on. A great, meaningful way to connect with the holiday is to visit the Mission Cultural Center's annual exhibition of Day of the Dead altars.

Visitors young and old will be drawn in by Alfonso Ochoa's altar - and not just for the candies and mole that are part of his tribute to his mother. Ochoa, a mainstay at the Mission Cultural Center, says he has created an altar every year for 20 years. A native of Chihuahua, he calls himself a traditionalist, noting that his altar has traditional elements - like an arch decorated with flowers and delicate banderitas made of papel picado, tissue paper cut into elaborate designs.

Dia de los Muertos: Altars for Day of the Dead...

Circus Oz: Over-the-top show from Down Under

2010-10-07T21:59:00.000-07:00

Traditional circus gets turned on its head when Cal Performances presents the madcap Circus Oz this weekend. The 32-year-old Australian troupe features such eye-popping, gravity-defying and dizzying antics that you might find yourself breathless from gasping, or from laughing - or possibly both at the same time.

Circus Oz was one of the earliest of the nouveau cirques and its style tightrope-walks between intimacy and spectacle, between naughtiness and effervescent hilarity. Youngsters will especially appreciate the color and liveliness of everything from rollicking hip-hop kangaroos to roller-skating tricksters, while older audience members will enjoy the winking Aussie humor and incredible physical finesse and skill on display."

Circus Oz: Over-the-top show from Down Under...

Interview with Trey McIntyre

2010-09-28T19:06:00.000-07:00

Choreographer Trey McIntyre is what you might call an American original. His mix of balletic structures with contemporary flair has a refreshing directness and has made him one of the most in-demand dance-makers of his generation. A Kansas native, McIntyre now makes his home in Boise, Idaho, where his eponymous company, the Trey McIntyre Project, is based.

Though he’s made scores of works for companies from Stuttgart Ballet to Houston Ballet to American Ballet Theatre, McIntyre has recently concentrated on creating pieces for his own company. This season however, he’s been coaxed to create a new work, Oh, Inverted World, for Smuin Ballet, and we sat down to talk about his process and his work.

Tell me about the piece that you're working on for Smuin Ballet.
It started off with the music, which is the first album that the Shins produced. I had met James Mercer--who was the singer and principal songwriter for the band--met them back in the day. He and I had talked about maybe working together on a commissioned work, creating music specifically as a dance score. But then things got busy, they got famous, and there was no even getting to them. But it's music I've always responded to. I think it's just brilliant.

What is it about the music that really captures you?
A couple of things. As pop music, structurally and tonally, I think it's very creative and interesting way that he comes at it. The other thing is that with pop music I really tend to ignore words, ignore lyrics, because they're usually silly. But in this case the poetry is gorgeous. I’ll chew on it all day, I’ll think about a line from the piece and really try to get behind it. It’s just so evocative. So in this case, the words matter—not narratively, there’s not a narrative to the piece at all—but there is always definitely a relationship, and it may just be the sounds of the words, the rhythm, the way it rolls off your tongue.

I guess I tend to work with pop music a lot because with certain artists, I take them seriously. I think there’s incredible artists working in that genre. But also, you know, pop music as an American is the soundtrack of one’s life. And it’s not necessarily the storytelling of the music, but – at least I have experienced this—it’s that I associate certain events in my life, there might have been a radio playing in the background or a song that I went to after something happened and there’s a relationship and an emotional content in the presence of the music. So I think that’s why I keep going back in that direction.

Your style is often described as fresh and very American—although I often struggle with that definition of what makes a dance piece “American.” Do you see yourself as a distinctively American choreographer?
I do, for sure.

What do you think that is?
I know what it is for myself--as a “movement” I don’t know that that exists right now. Part of it I think has to do with coming from Kansas, because there’s a geographic way of being in space. There’s something about living in the Great Plains where you have a sense of expanse, a sense of groundedness, earnestness. I just remember growing up, relating to people in a way that was so straightforward—you get what you get. And good, there's an essential desire to move toward good, to do the right thing and live with an ethic.

So I feel like, movement-wise I create work that is grounded, of the earth, straightforward. I’m constantly coaching dancers away from acting. Ballet has so much built in that, to me, veers toward sentimental at its core. The incline of the head, certain postures--suddenly it goes to a place that I know is inauthentic when I see a dancer do it.

Like a certain formality to it?
Sure, yes, formality is one part. And also stylization—it’s an affect. I really feel like dance, if it gets right to that seed inside of you, if you can get to that place, it’s true, it comes from an authentic place.

There’s a great Stanislavsky quote from acting training—a concept of teaching really, that basically says “real experiences in imaginary circumstances,” which I think is absolutely what I’m trying to get to with dancers. Because I think as an audience member, in any performing art, I respond to the person on stage– they’re showing me, me. So if it’s an approximation of that, I’m only seeing my worst parts. I’m seeing my false self, my ego-filled self, trying to pretend or be something. As an artist I really want to expose and lay bare. Then I think the product ends up being original because it’s true to who you are—it speaks to some bigger truth.

And so, somehow to me that’s an American quality. I don’t know if everybody sees it that way, but I think that’s just how my upbringing is.

I think that’s why ultimately I’ve gravitated toward a smaller town and Boise, Idaho really supports that. It’s a slower pace of life and it’s very community-minded, you know? We all do this together. If there’s a lot of noise in my life I get distracted very easily.

Now does that balance out, do you ever feel that you’re too far removed from the dance community and what’s going on?
No, (laughs) I feel that I’m just right removed from the dance community. I tend to really avoid the dance community altogether, and at least for me as a choreographer, I think that’s important. I would say this to any young choreographer: see everything, learn from what you love, learn from what you hate. But then, I think you reach a certain point where there’s not anything to be gained by seeing other dance. And I think that with dance, maybe more specifically than anything else, there’s something about watching it—your own muscles fire on some level seeing someone moving, even if it’s tapping your toe--there is a physical reaction to it. So I think you digest what you see in a way that it becomes yours, and then it’s very easy for it to become part of your choreography.

I make a conscious effort to really not see a lot of other work. Just for the very reason that I think there isn’t a true force of American dance right now, at least I don’t think so. I want to go somewhere totally different, I want to go get lost on this path and maybe it’s the right path and maybe it’s not, but at least I want to move towards something new and forward, as opposed to being part of a bigger picture where everyone is moving in the same direction.

Coming back to the piece you’re creating for Smuin Ballet, do you have a title? And how did you come to make this piece now?
Yes, it’s the same as the album, it’s called Oh, Inverted World. I can’t tell you why this album was lodged in the forefront of my mind, but every piece happens like that. I’ll sit on music for a decade, and then all of a sudden, “Today’s the day for this piece,” and that was the case here.

Can you tell me a little bit about it?
I first heard the music when I was in my early thirties, and as somebody who was just entering into a relationship, I was really seduced by this music—I was courted with this music. And I look back at that time, at how I was searching for identity at that period of my life and how powerful music can be in that way and how it can awaken certain things in you. When I first heard this music in my mind this whole world opened up --overnight this possibility of who I wanted to be and what was possible. And not all of it positive—at the time I was abandoning certain parts of myself just because I was so tantalized by this world I had invented.

It makes me think a lot about how we tend to do that as people—we want to be passionate about something without thinking it through. A whole society can move in a direction that way. So I guess, I’m really in the piece exploring those ideas in myself, in some ways creating that fantasy world and also exploring some of the sadness that came along with that at the time, the heartbreak as well.

So is it that you felt that you were choosing a particular identity to become, or choosing something to pin yourself to, or was it more that something presented itself and you just decide that was the track you could take?
It was more that latter. And I don’t even know how conscious it was. Part of it was the idea of really being courted so aggressively by somebody in that way was just so tantalizing. Everything about it seemed incredible, but it’s not until that relationship ended that the curtain gets pulled back and all of a sudden you realize, “Oh I really just abandoned myself.”

But I have to say, I don’t know to what extent that’s then what the piece becomes about. Not until the curtain goes up that I say, okay, I see how all those pieces fit together. But those are the things I’m thinking about right now in making the work. You know, I never really understand the work until it’s done. I try to go directly from my own subconscious—I guess getting back to that idea of really getting to what’s most honest. Making choreography to me always feels like the piece is over here already…and if I turn around it’s going to stay behind me, so I’m just trying to get out of the way of it--get my own ego out of the way, my own need to say “I want to make a great piece, I want to impress somebody.”

To what extent does it matter what dancers you’re working with?
Oh, it’s everything. Really. This is the first piece that I’ve made on a company that isn’t Trey McIntyre Project since launching the company full time (in 2008), so it was a big deal. With your own dancers, working with them every single day, the personal advancement has been incredible, I can just keep building and building and building. And that was one of the reasons why I didn’t want to freelance anymore—because I was just so tired of starting over again with new dancers.

And speaking of distraction, I have a very specific way of working--it has to be a very quiet, very focused studio. “Zen” might be even a good word to use. That level of focus is so important to me. I take every nuance seriously in the creation—there’s not a wasted gesture, and so the dancers need to approach it the same way, with great care about what all those details mean. So if there are people that can’t work in that way, I just shut off—switch just shuts off. So I am, and will continue to be very selective about what other companies I’ll work with. It’s very rare that dancers as a group can have that level of sensitivity and focus, and that’s definitely been the case here. It’s been a real joy to work with these dancers.

Choreographing is incredibly vulnerable. I think that personality-wise, I really fell into the wrong profession. I think I’d be a much better painter—you know, just locked away in a room somewhere. I’ve had to acquire the skill of being able to create with people staring at me. It’s not natural to me—I don’t crave being in charge of a room full of people that way. I love the relationship and like finding things within people and helping bring that out. But the level of focus on me is uncomfortable.

So you’re not one of those choreographers who comes in with steps already set and ready to go?
Oh no, no way, not one step. For me it’s been better, the less I can prepare, the better the work is, the more that it’s just absolutely of that moment. Sometimes I’ll even try it--I’ll come up with one phrase the night before and inevitably I will always throw it out. I guess I just really need it to be of that moment—who we are as people reacting to each other. I’ll make a phrase of eight counts and then watch them and see where they go with it, then start to shape it. And then maybe wow, the way she moved her shoulder, I really like that approach, and let’s follow that line. Then it becomes like a tree, branches start to grow off and that’s how the piece comes about. So I’m not looking to them for steps, but it’s collaborative in that I’m finding opportunities in them.

====================
Smuin Ballet performs Oh, Inverted World along with Bluegrass/Slyde and Brahms/Haydn Variations from October 1-9 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater in SF. The program repeats Feb 4-5, 2011 at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek and Feb 23-27 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts on the Peninsula. For more information, visit www.smuinballet.org

Photos by David Allen, courtesy of Smuin Ballet.

Roadworks Street Fair

2010-09-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Art meets heavy machinery at the San Francisco Center for the Book's Roadworks Steamroller Prints Street Fair, where volunteers will turn Rhode Island Street into the ultimate public printmaking workshop, using a 3-ton steamroller - yes, the kind that they use in street construction - as the press.

Leslie Lombre of the San Francisco Center for the Book, which has organized this event for the past six years, says the Roadworks street fair has been growing in scale and popularity every year.

Roadworks Street Fair...

Bay Area Rapid Folders: A club for origami fans

2010-09-02T21:56:00.000-07:00

From peace cranes to sorcerers, gorillas to frogs, the Japanese art of origami is fertile ground for imaginative young minds.

Although it takes patience and attention to detail, even young kids can enjoy learning to make simple origami figures out of paper from the members of the Bay Area Rapid Folders.

Bay Area Rapid Folders: A club for origami fans...

Graham Lustig selected to guide Oakland Ballet

2010-09-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

After a yearlong search, the 45-year-old Oakland Ballet has announced that Graham Lustig is the company's new artistic director. The British-born Lustig previously directed New Jersey's American Repertory Ballet but stepped down last spring when the company restructured.

Graham Lustig selected to guide Oakland Ballet...

Saturday Fun Sails: Fun at Treasure Island

2010-08-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

Many of us zip across the Bay Bridge, never guessing that instead we could be quietly sailing underneath.

The Treasure Island Sailing Center provides a variety of boats - from stand-up paddleboards and access dinghies to kayaks to 24-foot keelboats - along with expert assistance, so that even the most inexperienced landlubbers can get their feet wet. And younger kids can participate, as long as they have an adult with them.

Saturday Fun Sails: Fun at Treasure Island...

Burlingame Artzfest: Music, food, family fun

2010-08-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

Music, art, food and fun for the family hit downtown Burlingame this weekend.

A fundraiser for the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce, the annual event (formerly known as the Burlingame Art and Jazz Festival) showcases local talent: The festival's two stages will play host to Bollywood dancers, show choirs and the winners of the 'Burlingame Idol' competition.

Burlingame Artzfest: Music, food, family fun...

Epagomenal Festival: Celebrate everything Egypt

2010-07-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Mummies - and daddies and everyone else - will celebrate ancient Egyptian style at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum's annual Epagomenal Festival this weekend in San Jose."

Epagomenal Festival: Celebrate everything Egypt...

Arts & Wonders: Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

2010-07-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

If you've been looking for the right time and place for that sequined and feathered outfit, get dressed up and join the conga line for a Carnaval-inspired afternoon Sunday at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

'We love to present a diversity of wonderful artists from all kinds of cultures,' says Linda Lucero, the executive and artistic director of the long-running outdoor festival. 'But we also want them to embrace the idea of public participation.'

Read more of Arts & Wonders: Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

Iron Science Teacher: Exploratorium contest

2010-07-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

There's no wild-eyed master of ceremonies brandishing a bell pepper, but all the fun and madcap antics of a game show are there for Iron Science Teacher.

The contest is a takeoff on the foodie cult TV series "Iron Chef," in which master competitors pit their creative talents against each other to create a concoction around a theme ingredient. In the Exploratorium's version, teachers devise science experiments around a secret ingredient, anything from wire to oil to potatoes to clothespins.

Read more: Iron Science Teacher: Exploratorium contest

Check Out S.F. Family Pass: Free sightseeing

2010-06-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

San Francisco has a wealth of museums and attractions, but if high admission prices give you pause - entry fees for four kids and two adults can cost anywhere from $50 to $90 - there's a new program for San Francisco families that can let them be tourists in their own town.

The Check Out San Francisco Family Pass offers free admission for up to two adults and four children (18 and under) to some of the city's top museums and attractions, including Aquarium of the Bay, the California Academy of Sciences and the San Francisco Zoo.

Diablo Bowmen Archery Club's annual open house

2010-06-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

Latter-day Robin Hoods, take note: If you'd like to build those archery skills, the Diablo Bowmen's annual open house is the perfect place to target.

The Diablo Bowmen Archery Club, which has a 52-acre range on the east side of Mount Diablo, was started in 1954 by a group of archery enthusiasts. Saturday's open house is one of only a few open events that the club sponsors through the year.

Read more at Diablo Bowmen Archery Club's annual open house

InkBoat sets sail with 'Crazy Cloud Collection'

2010-05-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

Fans of Japanese children's TV and manga comics may have already heard of the Buddhist monk Ikkyu Sojun, the roguish, unconventional mischief-maker known as Crazy Cloud. With 'The Crazy Cloud Collection' - which butoh dance and experimental theater troupe inkBoat will premiere this weekend at Theater Artaud - Shinichi Iova-Koga and Ko Murobushi explore the complexity of the human experience through the story of this 15th century poet and monk.

Once a photographer and filmmaker, Iova-Koga's metier is storytelling through visceral imagery; butoh master Murobushi was a student of Tatsumi Hijikata, considered a founder of the butoh tradition. If Murobushi carries on Hijikata's legacy, then Iova-Koga, as well as inkBoat, the company he founded in 1998, is an integral part of the generation that takes butoh in a new direction, a fusion of the form with experimental theater and improvisation. As Iova-Koga and his company set off to Florida to develop the work with Murobushi, we talked about the nature of the collaboration.

SFB Student Showcase

2010-05-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Ballet School showcase, which opened at the Novellus Theater on Wednesday night, and continues through Saturday night, always makes a nice cap on the whirlwind of a season of dance. After just getting over the sentimental "backwards look" as we say goodbye to retiring dancers-- this year we lost the always elegant, and in my opinion, often underestimated Katita Waldo-- we get to square our shoulders and look ahead to the next generation.

Odd though it may sound, I really do enjoy the initial demonstrations from the younger, less advanced students -- Levels 2-5--who showed off a careful schooling and lots of charm. From Level 6, ten ladies and ten men offered a lively re-envisioning of a Tarantella, with nods to Bournonville's "Napoli." But this year, I couldn't help but be struck by the winnowing of numbers --some 46 light blue clad girls populate the Level 2 classes, but by the time you get to the young women of Level 5, there are only 18.

All of this made me think, a little wistfully, of a comment in "Holiday of Ballet," a film about the 1981 International Competition of Ballet Artists in Moscow, which was adjudicated by such ballet luminaries as Alicia Alonso, Maya Plisetskaya and Galina Ulanova. "One of the key problems in the development of ballet discussed during the competition is the problem of preserving classical traditions. It is necessary to maintain the precise choreographic text, purity of classical forms and to foster a fine feeling of classical lines. The technical criteria are becoming greater, more complex and are changing. Only the severity of of classical forms remain untouched...The laws of competition are implacable, "the narrator intones, as faces disappear from the screen and the group becomes more select.

For folks who are always interested in the next generation of dancers, student showcases like this are a treat. We get more than just a passing glimpse of the faces that might crop up as peasants in "Giselle" or in the Dance of the Hours in "Coppelia" next season. There's such a wonderful freshness and energy that emanates from these young dancers, like Geraud Wielick and Henry Sidford, who lent athleticism and power to Parrish Maynard's "Lusions," which the upper level dancers performed to close out the first half of the program.

As I sat in the theater and mused over what it will be like to see some of them as they head into professional careers though, I couldn't also help but hope that this generation of dancers will be encouraged to "foster that fine feeling of classical lines." Unheard of technical feats are becoming the norm-- martial arts moves like tornado kicks and 540s are already showing up in classical variations. Nothing wrong with pushing the envelope there. But, IMHO, it's the search for poetry and artistry that not only wins over an audience, but also ultimately advances ballet itself.

In addition to the dancers mentioned above, Elizabeth Powell gave a notably self-possessed performance, and a standout among the advanced women was certainly Nicole Ciapponi, a young Canadian who's been seen at the Youth America Grand Prix and was a silver medalist at the 2008 Adeline Genee competition. Partnering with Francisco Mungamba in "Lusions," she brought a refreshingly focussed energy and dynamic muscality onto the stage. During the excerpts from "Sleeping Beauty," Ciapponi also danced the role of Aurora in the Vision Scene, but if you missed out last night, you can catch her tonight (Friday) dancing the Rose Adagio. Whichever company she winds up with, she'll be a dancer to watch.

Check out her confidently grounded Shades variation from "La Bayadere" on YouTube.

Museum of Pez Memorabilia: Dispenser display

2010-05-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

Walking into the diminutive and yet charmingly offbeat Museum of Pez Memorabilia, you may not be able to get your kids past the front room, which is essentially wall-to-wall Pez dispensers - featuring everything from 'Star Wars' ' General Grievous to Po the kung fu panda to Hello Kitty and Barbie. But if you can persuade the kids to check out the next room - possibly with the promise of a Pez dispenser of their own on the way out - there's a lot of fun stuff in the actual museum itself.

In fact, according to Gary Doss - the owner and enthusiastic fount of Pez and classic toy information - the display includes just about every Pez character manufactured since the 1950s, when the company began selling the candy holders with the toy heads. In an impressive case housing vintage Pez dispensers, Doss points out Casper the Friendly Ghost, Popeye and Mickey Mouse as three of the earliest characters licensed to Pez.

'The Consumption Series': Exploring boundaries

2010-05-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

Are we consumers, consumables or both? It's the question at the heart of 'The Consumption Series,' the dance-theater piece performed by Charles Slender's FACT/SF troupe.

'I had been living in Russia for a few years,' says Slender, a UC Berkeley grad who danced for Provincial Dances Theatre. 'Every time I came back home to Southern California, I would be struck by the way that American culture, and specifically Southern California culture, consumes. It was much different from the way that Russians consume.'

Smuin Ballet performs Petite Mort, Songs of Mahler and French Twist

2010-05-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

For months, I've been looking forward to Smuin Ballet's spring season, which opened at Yerba Buena's Novellus Theater. In fact it started as soon as the company announced that Jiri Kylian's "Petite Mort" would be on the program.

(Smuin Ballet's Brooke Reynolds and Ryan Camou in Jiri Kylian's
Petite Mort. Photo: Scot Goodman)

Few Bay Area companies even attempt Kylian's work, which is really a pity. But after the performance that the company unveiled last Friday, I can only hope this won't be the last time Smuin Ballet tackles his work--these are ballets that needs to be seen here and the dancers are remarkably suited to the style.

In past years, I've seen quite a few other companies perform "Petite Mort" --it's a favorite ballet of mine. Of course, every troupe puts its own distinctive spin on the piece. Some give it a preternaturally cool execution and gasp-worthy synchronicity, others offer vivid movement quality.

In other versions, I have often admired the perfect execution -- the way the men spin their foils precisely in sync with each other, or swing them widely by the point so that every blade makes the same angle. But in those cases, I'm drawn in by the framework, but not necessarily the heart. What I love about Smuin Ballet's take on Kylian's "confrontation of the sexes" is the easy sensuality that the company brings to the choreography. As I read Kylian's choreography, it's not a sexy ballet per se, but then of course, with a title like "Petite Mort," the underlying sexual tension of man versus woman is hard to miss.

On Friday, as Brooke Reynolds dug into the duet with Ryan Camou with an inspired abandon, the immediate appeal was the sense that I was watching real people -- honest-to-goodness, flesh-and-blood. These were not just aesthetically pleasing, idealized movers doing things that regular folks could never do, but warm-blooded human beings capable of bringing great maturity to the movement.

There's a great move that the couples perform midway through "Petite Mort," in which the men hover over the women's bodies as their partners arch beneath them in a kind of jagged reflection on the floor. The pose itself is one of the memorable moments in this ballet-- a sculptural shape of tension and release that you can appreciate, almost dispassionately, for its abstract beauty.

(Travis Walker and Jessica Touchet in Jiri Kylian's
Petite Mort. Photo: Scot Goodman)

Watching the company repeat the move on Friday night though, I was struck by the sense of conversation between the couples-- not that they were consciously attempting to telegraph a thought or make you read an agenda in their body language, but something far more subtle -- a kind of communion between two bodies that takes you beyond words.

Days later I was still thinking about it --what exactly passed between the dancers, what did I think I saw, what did it all mean?--which I always take to be the mark of a great performance--one that would be worth seeing more than once.

The company's YBC program continues through May 16, before going on to the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek (May 21-22), the Flint Center in Cupertino (May 29-30), and the Sunset Center in Carmel (June 4-5).

We've moved...sort of

2010-05-10T14:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lapse in posting, everyone. I've finally managed to manage a blog migration from FTP publishing to plain old Blogger publishing. Hopefully everything will continue to work seamlessly-- keep your fingers crossed and please bear with me as I work through repairing broken links and such!

In the mean time, I'll be posting a new review later on today! Happy Monday!

'Chomp 2!': Carnivorous plants at Conservatory

2010-05-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

'No, you won't lose any children to the carnivorous plants,' Lau Hodges, guest services manager at San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers, says reassuringly.

She means that none of the hundreds of hungry plants on display at the Conservatory's 'Chomp 2! Return of the Carnivorous Plants' will be eating children - but you just might find your kids losing their hearts to the exquisite cobra-like Darlingtonia californica or succulent Asian pitcher plants.

This blog has moved

2010-04-28T15:30:00.001-07:00

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Tilden Nature Area's Little Farm

2010-04-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

One of the East Bay's open secrets and a long-standing favorite of families in the know is the Tilden Nature Area's Little Farm.

Skirting Wildcat Creek on the western side of Tilden, this free educational farm is open daily and boasts scores of friendly farm animals.

'It's a great place,' says supervising naturalist Dave Zuckermann, who admits that he may be a little biased. 'I grew up in Berkeley, so I've been coming here ever since I was a little kid.'

Stephen Pelton gets ready for 'The Dance Hour'

2010-04-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

Thoughtful, disarming and distinctly nuanced, Stephen Pelton's dance theater works tend to be like the man himself, quietly perceptive. Pelton now spends part of every year in London teaching, and the rest choreographing and working in San Francisco with his eponymous dance company, which he founded in 1993.

This unassuming choreographer chatted about making a dance for Stephen Pelton Dance Theater's upcoming show 'The Dance Hour' - which will also feature works by longtime company members Christy Funsch, Nol Simonse and Erin Mei-Ling Stuart - as well as what attracted him to Europe and ties that draw him back to the Bay Area.

Maria Kochetkova: A Free Soul (Pointe Magazine)

2010-04-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Things are not going perfectly in a rehearsal of the Grand Pas de Deux from Helgi Tomasson’s Nutcracker, and San Francisco Ballet principal Maria Kochetkova is not happy. A running leap onto the shoulder of partner Gennadi Nedvigin lands acceptably, but merely okay doesn’t satisfy Kochetkova.

“I just have to find a way…one, two, three, four,” she counts almost to herself, calculating how many steps she needs to take. They try again, and with unerring aim, she sails into place.

You might think that would be that, but as Nedvigin rehearses his solo, Kochetkova slips on a sweater, pauses to gaze out a window at the view of the War Memorial Opera House and then proceeds to repeat those same four steps over and over again, fine-tuning them even more.

Young and energetic, with porcelain features that belie the steely security of her technique, 25-year-old Kochetkova is part of a new generation of principals at SFB. She seems even slighter in person than she does on film: She dances this same pas de deux on SFB’s Nutcracker DVD. In the hallway, with no makeup and strands of hair escaping a loosely tacked high bun, Kochetkova could easily be mistaken for one of the school’s students. But once she begins to dance, her face—indeed her whole body—lights up with the unmistakable glamour and refinement of a ballerina. Even in the most complex variation, she breathes purity into every step, moving with both assurance and poetry. Each arabesque looks delicately spontaneous yet solidly secure. Her jumps ricochet off the floor with barely a sound. The only hint that any of this is difficult is her heavy breathing—and you must be very close to hear it.

Read more about Maria Kochetkova at A Free Soul | Pointe Magazine

Spring Celebration & Easter Parade in S.F.

2010-04-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

With spring finally in the air, if you're looking for a fun free event to take the kids to, hop down to Union Street on Sunday for the 19th annual Spring Celebration & Easter Parade in the Marina district.

What began as a small, kid-friendly event put together by several Union Street merchants has long since morphed into a daylong, delightfully wacky cavalcade of activities. Along with the perennial face-painting, bounce houses, mini petting zoo and pony rides, Jest Jewels (1869 Union St.) will put out a web of bubble wrap for kids to smash to their hearts' content. The Peekadoodle Kids club will put together a crafts area for an art break.

Golden Gate Skate: Figure skating competition

2010-03-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Olympics might be over, but swirling figures on ice are still dancing in the dreams of the young would-be Kim Yu-Nas and Evan Lysaceks of the world.

For those who can't get enough, the 10th annual Golden Gate Skate at the Yerba Buena Ice Skating Center is a good way to see competitive skating.

With competitors ranging from tots in the under-6-years-old category to adults in the over-60 bracket, it's a little less rigorous than the world championships, but a great demonstration of just how wide the appeal of figure skating can be.

Preview: San Francisco Dance Film Festival

2010-03-05T22:08:00.000-08:00

Movement as seen through the prism of the camera's unrelenting eye is the subject of the first San Francisco Dance Film Festival, which opens tonight at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center in SoMa. Produced by Greta Schoenberg's Motion Pictures and co-presented by Dancers' Group, the two programs offered on the weekendlong festival highlight a veritable smorgasbord of dance film.

The event features seven short dance films, as well as screenings of the work of Karina Epperlein and Mitchell Rose, plus professional workshops taught by local videographer Ben Estabrook, and an interactive multimedia installation that unlocks the complex choreographic patterns of William Forsythe's ballet 'One Flat Thing, Reproduced.'

'It's gone from a one-hour showing of shorts on a hard drive to a full festival,' laughs Schoenberg, whose soft-spoken demeanor belies the energetic vigor she's put into launching this festival. A classically trained dancer and choreographer who grew up in Santa Cruz and has performed locally and internationally, Schoenberg took note of the symbiosis of dance and film while working in Europe in the late '90s.

Adia Tamar Whitaker returns to S.F. State

2010-03-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

There's something thoughtfully impulsive about Adia Tamar Whitaker, the gifted young choreographer whose Afro-Haitian-inspired work has been making appearances all over the Bay Area this season. Fervid and muscular, Whitaker's works reveal the vitality and quirky humor that you see in the woman as soon as she sweeps into the room.

An alumna of San Francisco State University - where she rediscovered a love for dance, inspired by teachers like Albirda Rose and the late Alicia Pierce - Whitaker has since established her own company, Ase Dance Theater Collective in Brooklyn. Still, she is seemingly all over the Bay Area, at CounterPulse's Performing Diaspora Festival last fall and the Black Choreographers Festival in February. Now Whitaker returns to her alma mater to premiere 'Ezili Freda' with the University Dance Theater this weekend at the McKenna Theater.

Sitting down at the Dance Mission studios, only hours before the Black Choreographer's Festival performance, the slender, energetic Whitaker talks identity politics, tradition and love.

Beethoven's Wig: Zany lyrics to classical music

2010-03-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

You might know a lot about Beethoven, but do you happen to know about his wig?

If not, please allow Richard Perlmutter to explain in song during his performance Saturday with his vocal group Beethoven's Wig.

Though there won't be a symphony orchestra at the show, Perlmutter and four other singers will be dressed like any opera stars giving a formal concert, in tuxes and gowns, singing the greatest hits of classical music - but adding in plenty of interactive side notes.

Dance review: 'The Cinderella Principle'

2010-02-27T22:04:00.000-08:00

What makes a family? Complex, sprawling ideas of the modern family - interracial, interethnic, binuclear, blended - are at the center of 'The Cinderella Principle: Try These On, See If They Fit,' Robert Moses' sometimes engrossing, sometimes enigmatic new dance work, which his company, Robert Moses' Kin, premiered Thursday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Novellus Theater.

It's an ambitious effort, and Moses, a dancemaker of passionate ideas, has brought together a multiplicity of resources. Barely visible behind a pale scrim, Anne Galjour delivers the text, giving voice to stories drawn from real-life interviews. In the shadows beside her, violinist Todd Reynolds and beatboxer Kid Beyond unleash an evocative, assaultive original score, reflecting the kind of modern angst in the robotic motions of the 11 dancers inhabiting the world in front of them.

Black History Month at Habitot touts community

2010-02-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

Music, dance and storytelling are part of life in Africa, and when Jiji La Watoto appears at the Habitot Children's Museum on Sunday, they'll offer a virtual journey into the heart of a warm, rich culture.

During the hourlong presentation - part of the museum's daylong Black History Month celebration - kids can play with tot-size drums and shakers, listen to stories about Africa, learn some Swahili so they can sing along, watch African dancers and show off a few African dance moves. But unlike the weekly classes for 2- to 5-year-olds that Jiji La Watoto conducts at Habitot, Sunday is geared toward getting the whole family involved.

Dance Review: "Two-Year Old Gentlemen"

2010-02-08T22:02:00.000-08:00

Raw movement and spirituality coincide in Ronald K. Brown's eloquent 'Two-Year Old Gentlemen,' which his 25-year-old dance company, Evidence, brought to the Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts over the weekend.

An undercurrent of ceremonial solemnity often marks Brown's distinctive mix of African dance, modern and hip-hop, and in this meditative communion for five men - danced by Brown, Arcell Cabuag, Waldean Nelson, Joel Sule Adams and Otis Donovan Herring - he investigates questions of masculine identity in a post-feminist era.

Orion Children's Author festival

2010-02-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

Indulge a love of books at Orion Alternative School's annual Children's Author and Illustrator Festival. For anyone with a bookworm in the family, or even if you're just looking for unusual gifts for a child, the festival is a great chance to check out some of your favorite authors or discover new ones, says event spokeswoman Sharon Grant.

The daylong event, which raises money for Orion's school library, brings in half a dozen local authors and artists for book signings, so people can meet an author in a low-key, intimate setting.

In addition, the writers will give individual talks throughout the day in Orion's comfortable classrooms. Sometimes, Grant says, illustrators will even do an impromptu drawing demonstration.

Dance review: Savage Jazz Dance's jazzy 'Agon'

2010-01-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

It's always tricky when you mess with a ballet that many consider iconic, and it takes a steady hand to tackle the complexities of Igor Stravinsky, as the Savage Jazz Dance Company did with its premiere of 'Agon,' in the Laney College Theater on Thursday night.

Director and choreographer Reginald Ray-Savage has long been candid in his admiration of Balanchine. But though he slips in a few choreographic quotations from the original for the fans - Alison Hurley's pinwheeling arms reflect the pinwheeling legs of Balanchine's original, and cascading canons for Genna Beattie and Melissa Schumann recall his playful gaillard dance - he heads in his own direction here, with mixed results...

World on Stage: Zimbabwe troupe at museum

2010-01-25T12:21:00.000-08:00

"In Zimbabwe, music and dance are a part of everyday life.

On Saturday, the Chinyakare Ensemble of Oakland will bring the infectious enthusiasm that comes with traditional dance, music and storytelling from the southern African country to new audiences at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, part of the museum's World on Stage ethnic performance series."

Read more of World on Stage: Zimbabwe troupe at museum

Santa Cruz Fungus Fair: Mushroom fun

2010-01-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

Santa Cruz Fungus Fair: Mushroom fun:

Glistening with an olive-gold allure, the Amanita phalloides has a disturbing appeal when viewed close up. Not isolated under glass or plastic - so close you could put your nose right on it accidentally, the death cap, as it is more commonly known, nestles innocently enough in its basket, surrounded by baskets of other poisonous cousins - none of them quite as alluring as this most deadly of toadstools.

But that whiff of danger is just one of the things that makes a visit to the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair - now in its 36th year - not only educational but also entertaining.

'Bright River': Barsky revisits 2004 musical

2010-01-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

'Bright River': Barsky revisits 2004 musical:

Love. Death. War. Life. Transit. That's how Tim Barsky describes his underground beat-boxing musical hit, 'The Bright River.'

It's been more than five years since "The Bright River" made its debut on the Ashby Stage in the East Bay. But since the beat-boxing flutist presented his initial run in Berkeley, and then later at the Traveling Jewish Theatre in December 2004, this mystical journey through the land of the dead has gathered a grassroots momentum and now returns for a monthlong run at the Brava Theater Center with a fresh staging and new sets and costume designs.

Read more at the SF Chronicle site.

'Yes Sweet Can': Circus arts-based theater

2010-01-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

'Yes Sweet Can': Circus arts-based theater:

Intimate, surprising and humorous, Sweet Can Productions offers more than the average circus - and 'Yes Sweet Can' promises not just to entertain, but also to help dispel the doom-and-gloom of modern life with some magical thinking.

Featuring a quartet of talented performers - Beth Clarke, Natasha Kaluza, Kerri Kresinski and Matt White - "Yes Sweet Can" takes inspiration from Barack Obama's 2008 campaign slogan. Director Joanna Haigood, who founded the aerial Zaccho Dance Theater, says she's thrilled to be a part of it.

Read more at the SF Chronicle site.

Lorraine Hansberry's 'Black Nativity' uplifting

2010-01-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

Lorraine Hansberry's 'Black Nativity' uplifting:

Around this time of year, it's easy to feel grumpy about the seasonal stress, especially as harried shoppers careen zombie-like against you on your way through Union Square, but if you can make it a few blocks up the hill to the Marines Memorial Theatre, a couple of hours with the gospel inspiration of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's annual 'Black Nativity,' directed by Stanley E. Williams, can not only warm, but even uplift.

Narrated with unbridled preacherly resonance by Michael Leroy Brown, the show comes in two parts - a Christmas pageant-style re-enactment of the Nativity story, and a second act set in a modern-day church and delivered with all the gusto of a Baptist revival. There's a lot that has to fit onstage and this year's setting - Jedd de Lucia's vaulted Gothic interior -manages to accommodate a choir, soloists, dancers, plus a three-man band - the superbly reliable Kenneth Little, James "Booyah" Richard and Omar Maxwell under the musical direction of Arvis Strickling Jones.

Read more at the SF Chronicle site.

Two S.F. dancers to graduate from Bolshoi

2010-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Two S.F. dancers to graduate from Bolshoi:

In a roomful of gazelle-like young dancers in City Ballet School's South of Market studios, Jeraldine Mendoza has wedged herself in the narrow space between the ballet barre and the wall and is pushing one leg, extended against the wall, very nearly to her ear as she casually chats with Emma Powers, who stretches with offhanded ease on the floor.

Even more remarkable than this show of flexibility is that in April both Mendoza and Powers will graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow - the first American women so honored in the Bolshoi academy's more than 200-year history. Even over the holidays, as they visited their families in the Bay Area, the two girls couldn't resist the impulse to go back to City Ballet to take classes with Galina Alexandrova and Yuri Zhukov, the teachers who gave them their foundations in the Russian style of ballet.

Read more at the SF Chronicle site.

Review: Keith Hennessy's 'Saliva'

2009-12-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

Only a hand-scrawled sign with the word 'Saliva' on an orange-and-white-striped construction barrier on Clementina Street hinted that there might be any kind of event going on Sunday night under the freeway.

But despite the chill, scores of people congregated under the graceful curving Fremont Street off-ramps, where performer and choreographer Keith Hennessy reprised his groundbreaking 1988 solo 'Saliva,' an inchoate mass of impulses, ideas, rage, humor and participatory episodes designed to elicit a response in the viscera.

San Francisco has a proud history of guerrilla art, and in the grand tradition, the police came by earlier in the day with a warning - lending a legitimizing whiff of the illegal to the proceedings. But with the air of a champion of public art in public places, Hennessy was characteristically unbowed.

Reworked 'Carol' a bit less inspired

2009-12-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

A faint scent of spiced cider lurked in the air at the opening night of the American Conservatory Theater's "A Christmas Carol," the company's peppy seasonal favorite, calculated to dispense cheer and dispel the chilly midwinter gloom.

There would no doubt be a lump of coal in the stocking of anyone who'd grouse about a production that wears its merriment so prominently, and director Domenique Lozano keeps Charles Dickens' evergreen tale of Christmas redemption - adapted by Carey Perloff and Paul Walsh, with music by Karl Lundeberg and musical direction by Laura Burton - zipping along, without dwelling too much on any particular episode.

'SenseScape': Chinese dance tradition updated

2009-12-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

'SenseScape': Chinese dance tradition updated:

Traditional, classical Chinese dance gets a fresh flourish of energy in Lily Cai's newest creation, 'SenseScape.'

The Shanghai-born Cai is known for her blend of modern dance and Chinese influences, but whatever dance idiom she chooses, Cai's trademark is to give each work a unique texture. Cai - who founded her troupe in 1988 - credits the initial impetus of 'SenseScape' to composer Gang Situ, her longtime collaborative partner, who has created a partly original, partly sampled score for the work.

"It's about the human senses and the chi," Cai says, referencing the concept of energy and flow of life forces. "My technique itself is about the chi. In the past when I've choreographed, always I see an image first, but this time, I worked from the inside. I keep telling my dancers that the movement is just the result, like when you laugh or cry, you sense the sadness or happiness, then you start the action."

Left Coast Leaning Festival dazzling, dizzying

2009-12-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

Before the curtain went up on Thursday night's opening of the Left Coast Leaning Festival, curator Marc Bamuthi Joseph noted that not only was the three-day event designed to highlight the work of artists from Pacific states, but he hoped that it would define a left coast aesthetic.

Set in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts flexible Forum space, with no proscenium and the vast, floor-to-ceiling backdrop only a few yards from the audience, the first challenge for the festival, co-presented by YBCA and Youth Speaks, was the limitations of, and possibilities afforded by, the space. The effect of video projected onto the backdrop was similar to sitting too close to an IMAX screen - exciting, even thrilling, but also a little nausea inducing.

Filmmaker trains camera on Paris Opera Ballet

2009-12-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

Filmmaker trains camera on Paris Opera Ballet:

Real life is the script for Frederick Wiseman, the documentary filmmaker, who turns his lens onto one of France's grandest institutions, the Paris Opera Ballet, in his latest film 'La Danse,' which opens Friday. Taking the viewer into the nooks and crannies of the Opera's venerable Palais Garnier and Opera Bastille, Wiseman observes the company in a 'fly on the wall' fashion - dancers in rehearsal, at rest, meeting with administrators, costumers dying swaths of fabric and meticulously beading elaborate costumes - uncovering stories large and small in the process.

Shrinking 'Nutcracker' to child size

2009-11-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

Shrinking 'Nutcracker' to child size:

Like most people in the ballet world, the soft-spoken Mark Foehringer has had long experience with 'Nutcracker.' But with his latest production - which the Mark Foehringer Dance Project|SF will perform twice a day at the Zeum from next Sunday to Dec. 20 - he's hoping to capture the interest of young audiences with a child-scaled ballet that he describes as more like 'danced storytelling.'

Q: Did the Zeum come to you with the idea of a "Nutcracker"?

A: Actually it worked the other way. We were putting together a long-term plan for the company, and one of the pieces of that plan was that we would do a show to help develop young audiences. Usually our shows are contemporary or abstract - more grown-up things, but we wanted to open up our work to kids.

One of the things I liked was that the theater at the Zeum was not in constant use. I think it was originally built as a teaching theater, and there have been workshops and some productions in it, but they hadn't had a lot that brought the theatergoing experience to that age range of 2 to 4 years old.

'The King's Only Daughter'

2009-11-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

'The King's Only Daughter':

A thrilling energy blended with traditional storytelling is the heart of every performance by Oakland's Diamano Coura West African Dance Company. Colorful, ebullient and rich with infectious rhythms, Diamano Coura's latest show promises to be no exception as the company presents the U.S. debut of Nimely Napla's 'The King's Only Daughter.

In many West African communities, dance, music and theater blend not just with each other but also with daily life - an idea reflected in "The King's Only Daughter," which, Napla says, "is a dance drama, with music, song, everything together."

Diablo Ballet opens on solid ground

2009-11-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

Diablo Ballet opens on solid ground:

With plucky reliability, Diablo Ballet opened its 16th season at the Lesher Center for the Arts over the weekend, performing three very different works that showcased the nine-member company's dependable energy and unflagging enthusiasm.

Central to the success of the program was George Balanchine's "Apollo," a great classic of 20th century ballet, which elevated matters to a level worthy of this sturdy company. As the Greek god of the title, Jekyns Pelaez is refreshingly naturalistic and playful, rather than stylized. More formal - if a trifle stern at times - was Tina Kay Bohnstedt's Terpsichore, whose softness and delicacy in a duet with Pelaez was one of the evening's highlights. If there's a complaint, it's that the tempos of the recorded music by Igor Stravinsky seemed to drag, particularly in the duet for Mayo Sugano and Jenna McClintock as the muses Calliope and Polyhymnia respectively.

Hip-hop dancers heat up the night

2009-11-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

Hip-hop dancers heat up the night: It might have been a cold damp November night, but things were hot inside the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre as the 11th Annual S.F. Hip Hop DanceFest got under way Friday with the first of two weekend programs.

As the audience walked in, the mood was already enthusiastic as hip-hoppers from around the world messed around onstage and competed genially with each other. Of course, messing around in this case meant showing off acrobatic twisting turns in the air and sweeping balances on one hand.

Founded in 1999 by Micaya, the three-day festival now attracts some of the best hip-hop crews in the world, but what's been the most impressive is to track the perceptible rise in level of groups who've long been part of it, such as Loose Change and the irrepressible New Style Motherlode.

In fact, the evening got off to a screaming hot start with New Style Motherlode's "Invasion Involved," a futuristic alien incursion - a sort of "Terminator - Rise of the Machines" tinged with bling. The Oakland company encompasses youth-oriented dance teams as well as an adult troupe, and for this effort multiple groups took the stage pulsating with an almost freakish energy. With densely interlocking choreography by, among others, co-directors Corey Action and Teela Shine-Ross, the ensemble's bag of tricks included tightly wound group work, a little bit of skateboarding and a stellar turn by martial artists James Solis and Richard Ines, who swiped through the air and tossed off corkscrewing double flips and 540-degree turns as if they were nothing.

Rest of post here.

Gary Masters gives ballet a modern spin

2009-11-23T10:44:00.000-08:00

Gary Masters gives ballet a modern spin: "Veteran choreographer Gary Masters is perhaps best known for his modern dance work, but ballet is the idiom of choice for his latest, 'Fete for Three,' his third work for Diablo Ballet, which kicks off its 16th season at Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts this weekend.

Masters - who is on the faculty at San Jose State University and also directs his own company, sjDANCEco - has deep connections to modern dance giant Jose Limon, who inspired him to found the Limon West Dance Project of San Jose, the West Coast ensemble of the Limon Company."