Cheryl Burke goes from TV to 'Tango'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

Pointe magazine – Stepping up your training

Kathleen Breen Combes knew at 14 that she wanted more serious training. A student at Fort Lauderdale Ballet Classique, Combes had gone to summer programs since she was 10. “I was always the one who wanted to stay for two more weeks,” says Combes, now a principal at Boston Ballet. “So it was easy to make the decision that I wanted an intense environment year-round.”

Tall and powerfully built, Combes felt that the Harid Conservatory could help her prepare for professional life. “Usually in your school, you’re the best one,” she notes ruefully, “and then all of a sudden, you have people around you who’re just as talented, just as focused.”

Dancers have to be made of tough stuff. Many decide to pursue a professional career in their teens, and make the choice to leave home to attend prestigious conservatories and ballet academies at a relatively young age. What are some pitfalls to watch out for and what are graceful ways to navigate the transition?

Read more: Pointe magazine – Stepping up your training

Epagomenal Festival: Celebrate everything Egypt

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

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

Pointe magazine: Dominique Larose

Petite, rosy-cheeked and quick to break into a smile, Dominique Larose looks every bit a regular 15-year-old. As she starts across the floor in grand allegro, however, the shy droop of her head suddenly unfolds to a regal length. Larose’s upper body lifts and her back arches into pliant arabesques. Her flexible extensions only enhance the impression of gazelle-like grace. A student at Ayako School of Ballet in Belmont, California, Larose seems to shed any adolescent coltishness with her poise and calmly focused concentration.

That focus was an asset last January, when Larose was one of the youngest dancers to compete in Switzerland’s prestigious Prix de Lausanne. After performing a variation from La Bayadére and a solo from Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia, Larose was offered a three-year scholarship to the Zurich University of the Arts—an opportunity she plans to pursue.

Read more: Pointe magazine – Dominique Larose

Iron Science Teacher: Exploratorium contest

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

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.

Read more at Check Out S.F. Family Pass: Free sightseeing

Diablo Bowmen Archery Club's annual open house

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

Pointe magazine – A Spotlight for Everyone?

For many professional ballet dancers, following the dream means a series of clear upward steps, from corps to soloist to principal. Until last year, you might have said that Nevada Ballet Theatre’s Alissa Dale was right on track.

A trainee with NBT in 2004, Dale got into the corps the next year and advanced to soloist in 2007. But in 2009, as NBT changed its artistic leadership, it also changed from a tiered company of principals, soloists and corps members to a 23-member ensemble of dancers, all equals—an unranked company.

Read more: Pointe magazine – A Spotlight for Everyone?

InkBoat sets sail with 'Crazy Cloud Collection'

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.

Read more at InkBoat sets sail with 'Crazy Cloud Collection'

SFB Student Showcase

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

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.

Read more at Museum of Pez Memorabilia: Dispenser display

'The Consumption Series': Exploring boundaries

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.'

Read more at 'The Consumption Series': Exploring boundaries

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

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

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

'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.

Read more at 'Chomp 2!': Carnivorous plants at Conservatory

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Tilden Nature Area's Little Farm

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.'

Read more at Tilden Nature Area's Little Farm

Stephen Pelton gets ready for 'The Dance Hour'

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.

Read more at Stephen Pelton gets ready for 'The Dance Hour

Maria Kochetkova: A Free Soul (Pointe Magazine)

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.

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.

Read more at Spring Celebration & Easter Parade in S.F.

Pointe magazine: Maria Kochetkova

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.

Read more: Pointe magazine – Maria Kochetkova

Golden Gate Skate: Figure skating competition

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.

Read more at Golden Gate Skate: Figure skating competition

Preview: San Francisco Dance Film Festival

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.

Read more at Preview: San Francisco Dance Film Festival

Adia Tamar Whitaker returns to S.F. State

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.

Read more at Adia Tamar Whitaker returns to S.F. State

Beethoven's Wig: Zany lyrics to classical music

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.

Read more at Beethoven's Wig: Zany lyrics to classical music

Dance review: 'The Cinderella Principle'

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.

Read more at Dance review: 'The Cinderella Principle'

Black History Month at Habitot touts community

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.

Read more at Black History Month at Habitot touts community

Dance Review: "Two-Year Old Gentlemen"

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.

Read more at Dance Review: "Two-Year Old Gentlemen

Orion Children's Author festival

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.

Read more at Orion Children's Author festival

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

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...

Read more at Dance review: Savage Jazz Dance's jazzy 'Agon'

World on Stage: Zimbabwe troupe at museum

"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

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.

Read more the SF Chronicle site.

'Bright River': Barsky revisits 2004 musical

'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

'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

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

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.