Scottish Highland Gathering and Games

Men tossing tree trunks, hurling 16-pound hammers, sheepdogs a-leaping, Scottish dancers dancing, bagpipers piping, drummers drumming - no, it's not the 12 days of Christmas, it's the two days of the 144th Scottish Highland Gathering and Games, which takes place this Labor Day weekend at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

"There is literally going to be something for everyone," says Floyd Busby, spokesman for the Caledonian Club of San Francisco, which has organized this annual event since 1866.

Read more at the SF Chronicle site.

96 Hours: Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble

The strains of Latin jazz will heat up the city streets when the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble plays this Sunday in Union Square as part of the ongoing free Jewels in the Square performances. Far from a kiddie show, this group of about 15 young musicians, who range in age from 10 to 18 years old, display a serious professionalism.

Founded in 2001 by Bay Area bandleader and San Francisco State University faculty member John Calloway along with Arturo Riera and Sylvia Ramirez, the ensemble boasts a resume that any professional would envy, including opening for jazz greats such as the Cuban bassist Israel "Cachao" López, and jamming with the likes of noted pianist Chuchito Valdés.

"It's quite an opportunity for a student musician," Ramirez says. "We are really unique - we've been around since 2001 and have never charged the students to participate. We recruit from all over the community, especially public schools, where kids may have a lot of natural talent and some training, but they might never have had access to private instruction in music."

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

96 Hours Family: Take Flight for Kids

For a kid who can't walk, how about the opportunity to fly?

The Take Flight for Kids festival, which takes off Saturday at the Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose, aims to open up new worlds for kids with special needs, who are physically or cognitively challenged or from at-risk groups, by giving them a chance to experience flying - not just by riding in a plane or helicopter but also by taking the controls of the plane.

Sponsored by the Valley Medical Center Foundation Project and the San Jose Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 62, the flights are the experience of a lifetime, says organizer Dean McCully, and for many of the 200 or so lucky kids - who go up with their families - it might be the first time they've ever been in a plane.

"We put the kids in the co-pilot seat and when the pilot says, 'OK, the plane is yours,' they take over," McCully explains, admitting that the pilot, of course, doesn't take his or her hands off the main controls. But for a few minutes, the kids are able to direct the plane and feel what it's like to command the craft.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Riding the Wave

WestWave Dance Festival
Cowell Theater, San Francisco
July 12, 2009

By the time we got to the Cowell Theater, full of anticipation for the 2009 WestWave Dance Festival, the line stretched far into the parking lot of the Fort Mason Center making the distance between us and the seats of the Cowell Theater feel like they were miles away. Patiently determined theatergoers, however, looked undaunted by the 20 minute wait (at five minutes to curtain) and box office mixups and by the time the show finally got underway half an hour late, the mood was unaccountably good-humored despite the obstacles.

(photo of Amy Seiwert by Andy Mogg)

In the long foggy San Francisco summers, WestWave Dance Festival's concentrated showing of local choreographers has long been an indispensable annual event for Bay Area dance aficionados. So it was happy news that despite tight financial times, producer Joan Lazarus was forging ahead with the festival this year, albeit in a shortened version -- one night only and with a limited number of companies participating.

Some of the work has been seen before, but worth a second--or third-- viewing. Katie Faulkner's seductive film "Loom" which traces the threads of a relationship played out between Faulkner and Private Freeman made an appropriately moody lead-in to "Until We Know for Sure," which the same two dancers performed live to snippets of music drawn from Maria Silva and Alfredo Duarte, among others. Floating in patches of light, Faulkner and Freeman melded one movement into the next with an ease and fluidity that still managed to surprise the eye with its impulsiveness. It doesn't hurt that the both of them have technical strength to burn--Faulkner's stability in a deep plie on half-pointe was mesmerizing, and Freeman's steady and attentive partnering was the linchpin on which the entire encounter turned.

Linchpins also leapt to mind while watching Amy Seiwert's latest "Response to Change" in which the choreography turns on split-second catches and fiendishly speedy interlocking of limbs. Dressed in purple tunics and t-shirts, Im'ij-re's four couples (Robin Cornwell, Vanessa Thiessen, Sharon Wehner, Kathi Martuza, Kevin Delany, Koichi Kubo, Matthew Linzer and John Speed Orr) work with seemed --given the score by Mason Bates entitled "The Life of Birds"--a fitful birdlike theme, although the demands of secure pointework seemed to make some of the women slightly cautious at first, though their confidence seemed to blossom as the piece developed, and one could only appreciate Thiessen's bullet-like pluck-- a pleasant counterpoint to Martuza's matter-of-factly, almost slyly, delivered supple extensions.

Also on the program was the premiere of Manuelito Biag's "Terra Incognita," a fractal of a dance that moved through solos, duets and trios for Biag, Kara Davis and Alex Ketley accompanied by song fragments composed and sung by Faulkner on guitar. On first view, "Terra Incognita" looks disjointed, dancers sussing out admittedly beautiful phrases of movement in a set dominated by bare lights and chairs. Davis and Ketley play out a tender pas de deux, Biag dances a solo with weighty moves that recall tai-chi, Davis flies about the space in an impassioned solo like a wild woman-- but still, this looks a bit like a dance being workshopped and still in progress. Nevertheless, as phrases of movement and music repeat and reassemble in ever-growing patterns a certain kind of organic order emerges. Even if the whole never seems to really cohere into a complete statement, it was worthwhile, both for the concept and the execution.

"Terra incognita" could well have described "*FLASH REAL* a Song Dance Cycle" Kim Epifano's mystifying and oddly frustrating journey through two years' worth of work which opened the evening. Accompanied live by composer and didgeridoo player Stephen Kent -- who also created the sound bed for this first of a multi-part work-- Epifano sang, swooshed and flew about the stage, drawing props and clothing Mary Poppins-like out of a capacious suitcase and seemingly menaced by a dangling crystal chandelier that loomed over the whole procedure like the sword of Damocles. I'm a bit of a skeptic at heart and any piece with a lot of running in circles tends to make my eyes narrow, but "*FLASH REAL*" was simply perplexing. Even though I had some awareness of Epifano's journeys to China, Tibet and Ethiopia, and followed her recent work, I couldn't fathom at all where she was taking us, although the collaboration with Kent looks like an avenue worth exploring.

Whether "Wake", the title of LEVYdance's offering on the WestWave program, refers to awakening, or to a funeral is unclear, although this lengthy duet for Brooke Gessay and Scott Marlowe felt as though it tended far more toward the sepulchral. As esoteric as I found "Wake," though, it's maybe a little unfair to try to re-evaluate this 2008 work based on this performance. Solemnly slow motion hip swivels and shoulder rolls were jarred out of focus by an obviously distracted and bored toddler who ran about the aisles and was finally removed shrieking from the auditorium. While I couldn't condone the impulse that led her parents to take her to what was obviously an adult event that was just too long for her, I also couldn't help but sympathize with her.

The evening closed on a similarly dark note with Patrick Makuakane's "From the last to the first," performed by the hula troupe Na Lei Hulu i Ka Wekiu. Beginning with a wailing lamentation and moving through somber ground through traditional dances to broadly curvacious choreography set to Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," this was hula seen in a serious mold. Unfortunately, although the power of the group and the sway of the mass of dancers onstage, in another context, might have been alluring and provocative, I was hoping not to leave the theater so depressed.

96 Hours Family: Grind for the Green's Eco-music conference

With President Obama pushing to create millions of new "green-collar" jobs, being eco-conscious might not just be a good idea, it may become a lucrative one as well. But buying organic, starting your own garden and living the sustainable life can be expensive, and for many people, it might feel as though the green movement is a nice but unavailable crusade that has all but passed them by.

"While certain parts of the Bay Area are very eco-conscious, for people in some parts of the city, like Bayview-Hunters Point, they just don't have access to some of the resources, the technology or information that would allow them to live in an ecologically conscious, self-sustaining way," says Ambessa Cantave, who with wife Zakiya Harris founded Grind for the Green in 2007, an organization dedicated to bringing ideas on how young people can shape a green future for themselves and practical resources for sustainable living to underserved communities.

Read more in the SF Chronicle site.

Queer Tango throws out the leader follower rules

"Where the man leads the lady must follow," wails one of the women in the cult classic "Strictly Ballroom."

And indeed it might appear that the social dance milieu - where the gender roles of a male leader and a female follower are seemingly built into the structure of the dance - is at odds with modern life in which gender roles are less confined. But in the world of Argentine tango, a growing community of dancers is looking to break the strictures of traditional gender roles.

Queer tango - which has become popular with festivals in Hamburg, Berlin, Stockholm and, of course, Buenos Aires - is not just for gay and lesbian dancers, but rather a more all-encompassing term for tango that embraces ambiguity in the leader-follower system. This not only allows dancers to take on nontraditional roles, but also gives them license to switch roles back and forth while dancing. San Francisco plays host to a regular milonga, or tango party, called QueerTango Cafe, on the second Sunday of each month, and now organizers Amy Little, Winter Held and Auriel are co-producing the first International QueerTango Festival to be held in the United States beginning Wednesday and running through the weekend.

Read more at the SF Chronicle site.

96 Hours Family: Reflections at the Exploratorium

Kids tend to rush around the Exploratorium, but the young boy whizzing around me stops short with an impressed "Whoa!" He stares at the life-size upside-down image of himself that has appeared in front of a giant spherical mirror and experimentally waves his hand at himself, mesmerized by how real his doppelganger appears.

Once used by NASA for a flight simulator, the enormous mirror comes to the Exploratorium via the Chabot Space and Science Center, and it greets - and entrances - visitors to the museum's latest exhibition, "Reflections."

Read more at the SF Chronicle site.

Review: Sylvia at American Ballet Theatre

Michele Wiles and Roberto Bolle in Sylvia. Photo: MIRA.

Sylvia at American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House, July 1, 2009

Sylvia: Michelle Wiles, Aminta: Roberto Bolle, Eros: Daniil Simkin,

Orion: Cory Stearns, Diana: Kristi Boone
Conductor: David LaMarche

Gods and goddesses are at play in American Ballet Theatre's lavishly appointed production of Frederick Ashton's Sylvia, and to judge from the reception given the ballet by the audience at its Metropolitan Opera House run last week, this lovely work with its charming score by Leo Delibes is still much beloved, even after falling out of the active repertoire for decades until the Royal Ballet's 2004 revival.

Although I grew up on the company, I've only been able to see ABT intermittently over the past several years, and so I've lost track of the newest dancers, and can no longer reliably tell you on which corps members you should train an experienced eye. I can, however, report that glamour remains despite Nina Ananiashvili's recent farewell to the company, and there are some promising dancers whose performances stand out, even to the occasional viewer.

Among the handsome transplants to the company is the Italian star danseur Roberto Bolle, who danced the role of the shepherd Aminta who falls in love with the titular huntress, played on Wednesday evening by Michelle Wiles. Bolle has had the opportunity to dance the role at the Royal Ballet (he partners Darcey Bussell on the DVD that's available commercially) and has obviously benefited from the coaching at the institution where Ashton created Sylvia.

He makes a gallant partner for Wiles. Both are tall dancers, and though I had the sense that the Ashton choreography forced both of them to sacrifice the length of their lines in favor of getting all the steps in, Bolle presented Wiles to her best advantage in their pas de deux.

Michele Wiles and Roberto Bolle in Sylvia. Photo: Gene Schiavone.

Wiles is a technically superior dancer, which must be-- and here I'm only guessing-- why she was assigned one of the most taxing of Ashton's roles. The choreographer jam-packs the evening with solos for the ballerina (Margot Fonteyn in the original production) and doesn't stint on the technique--a fusillade of hops on pointe, peripatetic jumps that coyly switch directions on a dime, light little gargouillades that seem to skim across the stage. And yet, although Wiles manages to execute, one can't help noticing that it's a struggle.

At this point, I hasten to add that the above criticism is not necessarily what I would describe as a technical deficiency. However, it does, in my mind, open an insight into why Ashton often looks fussy, and even dated. Pointe work--and more specifically the use of the feet in pointe shoes-- has, I think, changed vastly in the nearly 57 years since the ballet premiered.

Nowadays, particularly as the technology of the pointe shoe has changed, dancers are more apt to spring in the Russian fashion or even jump onto pointe. Shoes--like the Gaynor Mindens that are so popular for their ability to hold the dancer securely on pointe--are nonetheless difficult to hold in the right position when it comes to performing hops en pointe. And because the current fashion is to pop onto pointe and use the shank as a prop, rather than relying solely on the muscles of the feet to hold the position on pointe, the ability to rise slowly through the foot, or smoothly and articulately roll down to flat are out of style. The result is that Ashton's steps, which demand complex changes of weight and quick jumps, mixed with fluid eleves onto pointe, tend to look jerky, sometimes unsteady and even perplexingly capricious.

Wiles barrels through the role, and in a certain sense her attack and damn-the-torpedoes approach fits the idea of the fiercely independent huntress Sylvia. When she flies across the stage into Bolle's arms, it's as much a testament to Sylvia's spirit of derring-do as her besotted love for Aminta. Delicacy is not her strength however --her legs have a gorgeous length to them, but those bourrees looked a bit too sluggish--and ultimately Wiles' Sylvia is less beguiling than brassy.

In general, the men seemed to fare better at managing the Ashton style. Cory Stearns took to the role of the evil hunter Orion with a zest that launched powerful turns. As Eros, Daniil Simkin very nearly stole the show, easily navigating the quick beats and footwork that makes Ashton so interesting, and broadly interpreting his mime. One could easily comprehend his winning over the icy Kristi Boone as the austere goddess Diana.

As the ballet spins toward its happy finale with a flood of gods and demi-gods, Veronika Part lent a serenity to Terpsichore, partnered by Alexander Hammoudi as Apollo, and Maria Riccetto and Isaac Stappas hit just the right graceful lilt as Persephone and Pluto. Leann Underwood and Jared Matthews took on the roles of Ceres and Jaseion, but it was Misty Copeland and Craig Salstein who stole the scene in the last act with their saucy and adorable commitment to the otherwise mystifying characters of the two goats.

ABT's season at the Metropolitan Opera House continues through July 11, 2009 with Romeo & Juliet.

96 Hours: Home Depot's Kids Workshops: safety, skill

On Saturday morning, you might notice a brigade of shorter-than-usual do-it-yourselfers heading through the aisles of Home Depot. Follow the sound of chattering voices and pounding hammers and you'll find dozens of youngsters sitting on upturned buckets and making projects at the Home Depot's Kids Workshops.

Read more at SFChronicle.com

Rest of post here.

Check it off: Dining outdoors

Another feature from the Check it off column in the SF Chronicle.

As the warmer weather kicks in, thoughts turn to dining in the great outdoors. Whether you're firing up the grill for Father's Day, planning a fancy al fresco buffet or just relaxing out in your garden on a weekend, here are a few things that can make your next outdoor gathering a bit more pleasant.

- Sun tea jar. An easy, cheerful addition to any outdoor party is a tall glass of sun tea. Make it in a large glass jar. Just fill the container with cold water, add three or four tea bags and set it in the sunlight for three to four hours. Pour the tea over ice and serve. Solar power never tasted so good.

- Frozen fruit. If you don't care for watered-down drinks, consider freezing some fruit the night before for use in your beverages the next day. Slices of lemon, grapes, chunks of pineapple, pieces of mango or raspberries can be a refreshing addition to iced tea, lemonade or a simple glass of fizzy water.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

96 Hours: San Ramon's Art and Wind Festival

Sled kites, diamond kites, delta kites - whatever your favorite style might be, for a high-flying time, consider dusting off your old kite and taking it out for a spin with the kids at the San Ramon Art and Wind Festival, which takes place on Sunday and Monday in San Ramon Central Park.

In addition to the regular arts, crafts and food booths, rock-climbing wall, face painting and inflatable bouncy houses that make any outdoor festival fun, kids can learn all about the ways of the wind in free kite-making workshops (10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 1:30-4 p.m.) in the community center, where they can also make wind socks, wind bonnets and wind wands.

Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle site.

USF dance teacher made great leaps

There's something about Kathileen Gallagher that immediately makes even a new acquaintance feel like an old friend.

Lively and informal, Gallagher - the architect of the University of San Francisco's dance program - bustles with cheerful energy and doesn't look at all like someone who will be retiring this year after 41 years at the university. As the associate professor passes students in the hallways of the Koret Health and Recreation Center on her way to her office - which looks into the newly named Kathileen A. Gallagher Dance Studio - she has a solicitous greeting for everyone and seems to remember, in a maternal way, little things about each student.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

She's moved on, but ballet is in Bramer's blood

An edited version of this story first appeared in the SF Chronicle.

Hidden talent has always graced San Francisco Ballet’s corps de ballet, and in her nine years with the company, former dancer Dalene Bramer gave many a luminous and memorable performance in roles small and large. A Santa Rosa native who started dancing when she was three, Bramer arrived at the San Francisco Ballet School at the age of eight, and in 1996 was named an apprentice before joining the corps in 1997. Bramer attracted notice for her warmth and grace in roles as different as “The Pennsylvania Polka” in Paul Taylor’s “Company B” and the White Cat in “Sleeping Beauty.” She could dance a contemporary lead in Hans van Manen’s “Grosse Fuge” and give Balanchine a brilliant glow as a soloist in “Diamonds.” Now finishing her degree at USF’s School of Law, Bramer has turned her ballet-honed professionalism and prodigious intelligence to a new career, but she stays connected to the institution where she grew up by serving on the San Francisco Ballet Board’s School Committee.

As a student, what is it like in the days leading up to the showcase?
It was so exciting, especially as an advanced student, because you prepared all year long for that one performance. The teachers really coached you and helped you develop as an artist into the role that you were dancing. Irina Jacobson and Lola de Avila were my mentors at the school and Irina coached me in the lead in “La Sylphide” when I was 15. We would have rehearsals for a couple of hours a day at least and she would explain who the character was, the emotion behind what you were trying to portray, as well as technical aspects, like, “Put your heel forward more here. Turn out!” She broke it down so that each step was as perfect as it could be. The day-to-day class and exercises give you the foundation so that you have the base to support whatever is demanded of you. When you’re being coached, you’re finally able to bring yourself to the next level as an artist, rather than just doing the steps. It enables you to become an individual.

Did that experience being coached help you when you went into the company?
When I got into the company it was a little bit shocking. It had been a really nurturing environment in the ballet school and I had so many people who were really looking out for me. But once you get into the company, it’s a whole different set of people that are supervising you and teaching you the choreography and you really don’t know them very well. You’re no longer being coached or scrutinized as you were before—you have to do it for yourself. You have the tools and you know what you need, but you have to shift your mindset and be able to correct yourself with having someone constantly telling you what to do.

How did you find out that you’d gotten into San Francisco Ballet?
About three weeks before my last Student Showcase, I broke my fifth metatarsal. I was on crutches, which was somewhat devastating, because Helgi [Tomasson] had created a ballet for the school called “Simple Symphony,” and he had choreographed my part for me, which was an amazing experience for a student. My roommate was my understudy, so when I broke my foot, I started teaching her my part from the couch. I came to all the rehearsals on crutches, trying to encourage my friends and just be there. Well, right after the showcase I got a call from Helgi to meet with him, and he offered me a contract. He said he had had the opportunity to see before I broke my foot but then also in rehearsals for the role that I was supposed to perform and decided that it was worth giving me the chance. I think that it makes a difference, showing that you have a positive attitude--that you’re willing to be a team player and not be negative about the circumstances that you’re in.

Can you tell me about being in St. Mary’s LEAP program and how you came to pursue law?
It’s a tremendous opportunity for dancers, which meant that I was able to get an education and receive an undergraduate degree while I was still dancing. You know, dancers are going six days a week—you get Monday off and that’s it. So it’s hard to pursue an education because there’s just no time. At LEAP, they structured the program so we could have classes on Sunday evenings, even after performances. It was really fun to discuss philosophy and get your mind on something else, so that you’re not completely hyper-focused on dancing.

My last year dancing I knew I wanted to get a master’s degree, but I still wasn’t sure in what. St. Mary’s offered a para-legal program, which I thought that might be a good field for me, but I wanted to make sure. As it turned out, I really loved the research and writing class and I decided law was a good fit for me There’s a lot of artistry in law, in crafting an argument and delivering something that’s persuasive. It takes a lot of planning, just like choreography.

What are some of the things you hope to accomplish by being on the School Committee?
My role, I feel, is to help the school keep moving forward and to try to give it a young perspective. I think one of its most important functions is to develop young dancers into successful people. Of course, not every dancer who goes to the ballet school ends up becoming a professional--usually only one or two get into a company. But the skills that you learn from ballet—dedication, hard work, focus and determination, the knowing that if you put everything you have into it you’ll really see results—that inner strength can really carry you through your whole life wherever you go. In law school I’ve found a lot of those skills transfer. Having composure, grace and also the ability to perform under pressure is really useful when everyone is looking at you and expecting you to perform.

There was a matinee of “Diamonds” in which you danced one of the soloists--you hit a wonderful arabesque that stayed there, it seemed like, forever.
[Bramer laughs.] I remember that like it was yesterday! That was one of the magical moments when everything just comes together. I appreciate your remembering that. You know, it’s hard as a dancer not seeing the audience or their appreciation of you. You can feel them and their energy as you’re dancing, but you don’t necessarily know when people notice you. But the few moments when things just work perfectly—well, those always stay with you.

San Francisco Ballet School 2009 Student Showcase: “Allegro Brillante,” Stars and Stripes.” Wed-Fri, May 20-22, Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard Street at Third St. All tickets $32. For more information, sfballet.org or (415) 865-2000.

Goldrush adds a fresh twirl to square dancing

It's warm in the low-ceilinged, wood-paneled hall at the Cordelia Fire District, but the doors are open, letting an evening breeze in to cool the ring of young dancers who are walking their paces with good-humored grace.

"Turn and deal ... Ferris Wheel!" calls Scot Byars, an affable, energetic man dressed in white pants and a cheerful red shirt. He is working with the young square dancers of Goldrush, an exhibition group that Byars, 49, and his wife, Erin, 53, founded in 2007.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Dance review: Smuin Ballet opens spring season

Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue seems to be the theme of Smuin Ballet’s spring season, which opened at the Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Friday, and which continues through May 17.

In the new/borrowed category is Trey McIntyre’s flirtatious “The Naughty Boy!” which opens the program. Sporting a red furry mohawk of a cap, a pert Jessica Touchet plays a Cupid-like interloper romping through the amorous interludes of four couples. Danced to a recording of Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G, McIntyre’s contemporary speediness is likable, if not ground-breaking, and he maps out his steps with a precision that utilizes deft pointe work and pinpoint accuracy in the partnering to entertaining and sometimes dazzling effect, particularly from the spicy-sweet Jean Michelle Sayeg. But he also misses a few opportunities to steer “The Naughty Boy!” into more unusual territory. When Touchet inserts herself into Erin Yarbrough-Stewart and Aaron Thayer’s romantic pas de deux, for instance, the twining, interlocking trio looks like a promising conceit. But just as things get interesting, Cupid exits, leaving behind a very lovely and sentimental, but garden-variety, duet.

If the praise sounds a mite lukewarm, the problem is that Michael Smuin at his best and most inventive sets a high bar that’s hard to match. Immediately following McIntyre’s ballet on the program is Smuin’s miniature gem “Bouquet,” made for San Francisco Ballet in 1981 and a work that captures the best impulses of the imaginative, evocative ballet choreography of the 1970s. There are nods to the classics in quotations from “Sleeping Beauty’s” famous Rose Adagio and Balanchine’s “Apollo” in the opening quartet, in which a delicate, playful Yarbrough drifts into the sphere of three romantic suitors, but Smuin’s inclination here is toward an unabashed modern romanticism that admirably captures the disquieting ache of Dmitri Shostakovich’s music.

For those more familiar with Smuin’s late period razzle-dazzle, the company also premiered a suite of dances from his last story ballet, “St Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet,” which he choreographed in 2003 for Dance Theatre of Harlem to songs and musical interludes out of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s 1946 musical of the same title.

The company has edited the original ballet down to suite of dances that sketch the rivalry between jockey Little Augie--played on opening night by the a jazzy, swaggering Ryan Camou--and the owner of Rocking Horse Club, Biglow Brown, danced by Matthew Linzer, both of whom are in love with the same woman, Robin Cornwell’s glamorous Della Green. The results are mixed. On the one hand, we lose bizarre, confusing plot elements like the Death character and the perplexing multiple finale numbers, but on the other, the drama of the races, the shooting and its aftermath are also gone and what remains still doesn’t make a lot of sense. Key numbers like “Come Rain or Come Shine” and “It’s a Woman’s Prerogative”--danced with winning charm by Terez Dean and Shannon Hurlburt-- are still there, as is Tony Walton’s colorful, Matisse-like backdrop. But despite the high-kicking spirit and Broadway jollity, the bits and pieces just doesn’t seem to hang together, although to be fair, neither did the complete original ballet.

An edited version of this review first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Tina LeBlanc retires from San Francisco Ballet

An edited version of this appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.
(photo: Erik Tomasson)
Whenever a favorite dancer gives a retirement gala there’s a bittersweet mood in the audience and Saturday night was no exception as San Francisco Ballet bid farewell to Tina LeBlanc, who retired from the stage after dancing ten years with the Joffrey Ballet and 17 years as a principal with SFB.

Never a diva, but always a star, LeBlanc is the quintessential American ballerina--a dancer of can-do amiability with brains, pragmatism and a remarkably unpretentious freshness onstage and off. Even the ticket stubs for the gala occasion on Saturday night at the War Memorial Opera House said simply and without formality, “Tina’s Farewell.”

“You know, it’s funny, it actually feels like a family gathering,” remarked Rory Hohenstein, a former soloist with SFB who has guested with the company for the last few programs of their 2009 season. “But I saw dress rehearsal and already we were getting a little…” he wiped at his eyes.

Bill Repp, the doorman who enthusiastically greets patrons at the Grove Street entrance to the War Memorial Opera House—commiserated for a moment, “I’ve seen of course lots of dancers retire through the years, but this, this is one of the hardest,” he said shaking his head, “Tina is such a lady. She just commands so much respect from everyone.”

Devotees waiting for the doors to open so they could stake a spot in standing room reflected on LeBlanc’s qualities.

“When she first came to San Francisco Ballet, I had the impression she was a very technical dancer,” recalls Paul Dana, “But she proved to be so much deeper of a dancer than that.”

“I’ve seen many Auroras, and she was the first one since Margot Fonteyn to make me cry,” adds Tab Buckner. “Every gesture, the way she captured the mood of the music, in everything she did there was such logic in the way it unfolded. She is unique.”

Asked which of the many partnerships of Tina’s stands out in their memories, the crowd returns an unhesitating chorus. “Gonzalo!”

LeBlanc’s tremendous generosity onstage has never warmed a partnership so well as the one she shared with former SFB principal Gonzalo Garcia, who returned as a guest artist from New York City Ballet to present her in Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux” with just the kind of tenderness, nobility and abandon that she inspired in him in so many roles. Long-beloved as he rose through the ranks, Garcia’s partnership with LeBlanc was one of the magical events at San Francisco Ballet and from the roar that went up from the audience at their first steps onto the stage, clearly no one at the Opera House had forgotten.

Garcia’s beats were as lofty as we remembered--his exuberance still thrilling, but when LeBlanc looked at him meltingly, he turned his eyes to the audience for an instant as if to say, “Am I lucky or what?”

His gallantry was the perfect frame for LeBlanc, who even in this last performance took risks, playfully pushing the musicians and conductor Martin West with her crystalline phrasing, nailing a series of turns with a flourish and sailing—even floating—into Garcia’s arms in the coda.

Interspersed throughout the evening were video clips from LeBlanc’s long career, mixed in with tributes from her colleagues. Predictably much of the video, assembled by Austin Forbord, featured her astonishingly brilliant technical moments, breathtaking turns and virtuoso pointe work. But while most interviewees are inclined to mention her technique first, they almost always end by talking about how moving and engaging her dancing became, and there was no better place to see that sensitive and intelligent artistry than in Lar Lubovitch’s “My Funny Valentine,” which she performed on Saturday with Griff Braun, of Lubovitch’s company.

During intermission, LeBlanc’s early ballet teacher, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet’s Marcia Dale Weary, recalled her young student. “She was so sweet, but so focused-- I knew right from the start that she would be a ballerina,” remembered Weary, “She still looks like the same little girl to me,” she added wistfully.

LeBlanc has always been best at playing real women, not airy-fairy types. While other dancers can look like unfamiliar, otherworldly creatures when you see them off stage, LeBlanc is always strikingly real—the same person you see onstage is the person you meet offstage. Even in dreamy roles like the Adagio from Helgi Tomasson’s 1995 “Sonata,” which LeBlanc danced with Ruben Martin in the second half of the program to the accompaniment of David Kadarauch on cello and Nataly’a Feygina on piano, she manages to compress a womanly earthiness into the expressiveness of an arching back or extended limbs.

“As a tall partner, I thought there would never be a possibility for me to work with this woman who made everything look easy,” said former SFB principal Benjamin Pierce, whose duet with LeBlanc in 2000 in Julia Adam’s “Night” remains etched in the memories of those who saw it. “I admired Tina so much but she was like a forbidden fruit, so ‘Night’ was like a gift. She had a reverence for the duality of two people working together and of her place in a big, beautiful company.”

Often hailed as the company’s premier technician, and admired by colleagues and audiences alike for her sunny vivacity, LeBlanc’s very presence in a ballet could immediately ground an entire cast. For her finale, LeBlanc shifted to Balanchine classicism with the pas de deux and polonaise from “Theme and Variations.” Partnered attentively by Davit Karapetyan, LeBlanc navigated the hair-raising choreography with extraordinary nerve and grace.

No matter whom the partner, when LeBlanc looks at him, there is a particular tilt of his head as he looks back at her and the warmth of her smile as she balanced steadily on one stretched pointe seemed to inspire Karapetyan, who walked around her gazing admiringly.

At the curtain call, as tears streamed down LeBlanc’s face, Helgi Tomasson led a parade of dancers--including Nicolas Blanc, Pascal Molat, Gennadi Nedvigin, fellow ballet moms Katita Waldo and Kristin Long, Joan Boada on crutches and LeBlanc’s former partners David Palmer and Parrish Maynard—who paid one more tribute to her. Garcia fell, only part-comically, to both knees before her, but perhaps no men affected her more than her two young sons Marinko and Sasha, whose pride in their mom’s evening was clear.

At the end, LeBlanc took one last bow, mouthing to the audience, “I’ll miss you” as the curtain fell.

96 Hours: Koret Museum Days

The Koret Foundation marks Mother's Day, as well as its 30th anniversary, Sunday by sponsoring free admission at 17 Bay Area museums and science centers. Participating museums are the Asian Art Museum, Bay Area Discovery Museum, Chabot Space & Science Center, Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Exploratorium, Judah L. Magnes Museum, Lawrence Hall of Science, Legion of Honor, de Young Museum, Museum of the African Diaspora, Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Zoo, San Jose Museum of Art, Tech Museum of Innovation and Zeum.

Koret Museum Day: Free admission at 17 sites: "

Dance review: Eifman Ballet's 'Onegin'

It would be hard to overstate just how beloved Alexander Pushkin's 19th century poem 'Eugene Onegin' is to the Russian people. It has inspired Tchaikovsky's famous opera and John Cranko's 1965 ballet, and its translation alone has sparked endless controversies. So there's a whiff of hubris surrounding Boris Eifman's re-envisioning of this classic romantic story, which received its West Coast premiere when Cal Performances presented Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg in Zellerbach Hall over the weekend.

It would be hard to overstate just how beloved Alexander Pushkin's 19th century poem "Eugene Onegin" is to the Russian people. It has inspired Tchaikovsky's famous opera and John Cranko's 1965 ballet, and its translation alone has sparked endless controversies. So there's a whiff of hubris surrounding Boris Eifman's re-envisioning of this classic romantic story, which received its West Coast premiere when Cal Performances presented Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg in Zellerbach Hall over the weekend.

By the same token, though, it would be hard to overstate the popularity of the Eifman Ballet, an intense and dramatically gifted troupe of 55 dancers, founded by artistic director and choreographer Boris Eifman in the 1970s.

If you're looking for the lyricism of Cranko's choreography, however, the romanticism of Tchaikovsky's opera, or really anything resembling Pushkin's czarist-era tale, this is probably not your ballet. True, a naive young Tatiana still falls in love with the cynical and feckless Onegin, and he needlessly kills her sister's fiance, Lensky. Tatiana still marries a blind colonel and rejects Onegin's advances in the end, but that's about all that's left of the original.

Once you let your preconceptions go and decide not to worry about details of the story line, you can sit back and simply enjoy the stream of bizarre dream episodes, the high-flying acrobatic pas de deux and the seductively mesmerizing rock concert panache.

Set to a recorded pastiche of greatest hits from Tchaikovsky interspersed with screaming rock guitar solos by Alexander Sitkovetsky, this "Onegin" unfolds in a turbulent post-Soviet milieu, a reasonable parallel to the nihilism of 19th century Russia.

As the dewy-eyed, bookish Tatiana, Maria Abashova is charmingly gawky and coltish, though the sheer muscle behind her textbook pitch turns would make a Martha Graham dancer blanch. Abashova pairs well, interestingly enough, with the engaging Natalia Povoroznyuk, who plays her sister, Olga. By turns louche and anguished, Oleg Gabyshev's handsome Onegin overshadows Dmitry Fisher's Lensky, but it's Sergei Volobuev who seems to have the most fun - in unrelieved black, from his beret and shades to his shiny jacket, except for a thick gold chain around his neck - as the blind colonel.

It would be too simplistic to dismiss Eifman's style as all flash and shameless eroticism. His attempts to take a venerated Russian story and place it in the context of the New Russia may be audacious, but they also reveal not just an undeniably appealing streak of wild romanticism, but a keenly observed parable about the self-questioning doubt that dogs the modern Russian character - and the destructive yearning for the unattainable hearts' desire that dogs us all.

This review first appeared on SFGate.com.

Clogging falls in step across America

Afternoon sunlight pours through the windows of ODC's Shotwell studios as Ian Enriquez's clogging class thunders away in the first-floor studio.

Sweating and intently focused, the dozen or so dancers track his moves and repeat them. Any misstep will be plainly heard, but the class - which is peppered with students from all age groups - pounds gamely away at the wooden floor to the not-exactly bluegrass strains of 'Let's Hear It for the Boy.'

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Albany Middle School teacher puts on the hits

There's an earnest cluster of middle school kids up on the stage singing, but it sounds as if the volume is low.

"Exit signs!" booms a voice from the back of the theater. Everyone lifts their chins, and the voices project to the green exit signs at the back of Albany High School's Little Theater as a great bear of a man dressed in jeans and a black Lahaina Divers T-shirt strides up the aisle.

It's the first dress rehearsal of Albany Middle School's annual musical, and veteran drama teacher Tom Gamba is steering the 90-plus-student cast of his latest, "The Directors," toward Thursday's opening night.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Dance Review: Lerman's solemn, moving 'Dances' grips audience

'Try that word out loud - genocide,' says dancer Benjamin Wegman during Sunday night's performance of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's 'Small Dances About Big Ideas' at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco. 'It's a lot for one person to take in,' he concedes.

Tackling difficult issues - mass killings, bodies exhumed and identified, rape, torture - Lerman and her 11 dancers trace stories from the Holocaust to the mass killings in Bosnia and Rwanda. They're told often through specific histories, not only of victims, but also of those who sought justice, a "bone woman" who traces the graves of victims of the Rwandan genocide, the Polish activist Raphael Lemkin, who first used the term "genocide" and three Fates, led by the regal Martha Wittman, who interweave among the victims and the judges.

Read more at SF Chronicle.com.

Ditching your lawn? Plan replacement carefully

Estimates vary, but those lush, green turf grass lawns can account for 50 to 80 percent of a household's yearly water usage - adding up to thousands of gallons of water per acre of lawn."

Conserving the copious amounts of water that thirsty lawns suck up has become such a priority that counties from Marin to Santa Clara are offering homeowners rebates for removing their lawns. Even small businesses are offering incentives, such as the Ploughshares Nursery's "Tear Out Your Lawn" challenge in which customers can get 20 percent off drought-tolerant plants through May 31 if they remove 40 percent of their lawns.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Jelly Belly Stickerpalooza: Fun that sticks

Move over, Willy Wonka. The Chocolate Factory might be fun, but for a truly scrumdiddlyumptious outing mixed in with a bit of sticker creativity, check out the Jelly Belly Factory's Stickerpalooza, which started on Wednesday and runs through Friday at the factory's Fairfield (Solano County) location.

Although the factory tour is a memorable and fun trip for the family, lines for it can be long during spring break. But if you have an intrepid member of your party who's willing to wait in the tour line, the rest of your group can have fun with Stickerpalooza, says Barbara Marino, a spokesperson for Mrs. Grossman's. The beloved Petaluma sticker company, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, is bringing a bit of sticker fun to the candy factory. It certainly beats staring at the jelly-bean portrait of Ronald Reagan for half an hour.

Read more at Jelly Belly Stickerpalooza: Fun that sticks.

Mudflat Festival: Learn about Richardson Bay

If you have a hankering to get down and dirty, head off to the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary's second annual Mudflat Festival. Timed to coincide with the reopening of Richardson Bay sanctuary's 900 acres to boats and public access, the event on Saturday will feature wildflower walks, a compost demo, plus art and poetry exhibits featuring works by kids from all over the Bay Area. The centerpiece, though, will be the opening of the beach area for kids to play in the mudflats and the tide pools.

Read more at SFGate.

The critic gets criticized

Interesting letter to the Chronicle today criticizing my criticism:

Editor - Having read the dance reviews of newly adopted dance critic Mary Ellen Hunt over the past couple months, I am dismayed at the improper and outdated direction in which The Chronicle is channeling its dance criticism. Hunt's articles offer little more than eloquent narratives of the works she is 'reviewing.'

When you look beyond the veil of her elaborate use of long descriptive words that she strings together in a poetic phrases you can see that there is almost no actual reviewing involved in her writings. In the past several decades much literature on the nature and purpose of dance criticism has been published, yet it seems that only a few dance critics and no newspaper editor outside of New York City have stumbled upon it.

Dance criticism has evolved to a much greater level than dealing with summaries and description as is characteristic of Hunt's writings. It has now been shown that it's possible to add a level of intelligent analysis to a review! If a dance review doesn't address the values of a piece of art (why was it made, why is it deserving of a review, how it adds to or advances the art form, how it challenges convention, how it directs culture) the review offers little contribution and is nearly pointless.

By only offering description and summaries of works in your dance reviews you are not cultivating an audience of intelligent viewers who will be inspired to engage in seeing dance or even continue reading your articles, you are only cultivating an audience who knows how to appreciate a well-worded summary. Having been a professional dancer and pursuing academic dance research, I am constantly frustrated at how rarely the general public approaches dance with intelligent thought.

- Elliot Gordon Mercer

Mercer, who danced with Company C, seems to have a very particular idea of what critics writing for a daily newspaper should be doing. So what do you think out there?

Read more at the SF Chronicle site.