Next act for Dennis Nahat, after Ballet San Jose

Photo: John Gerbetz

Next act for Dennis Nahat, after Ballet San Jose:

Dennis Nahat is never one to sit still. The former artistic director of Ballet San Jose - his successor, Jose Manuel Carreño, was just announced by the company last month - Nahat says mediation with the company he guided for 40 years has yet to come to a conclusion since his unceremonious removal a year and a half ago. But for Nahat, looking forward is more important.

Nahat, himself a former star with American Ballet Theatre in the 1970s, is busy directing his new school and production company in San Jose, Theatre Ventures International.

And much of the last year he spent collaborating with the Dalian Acrobatic Troupe and the United Star Performing Arts Corp. in China to develop a spectacular production titled "Yulan" - don't think "ballet," but rather Cirque du Soleil - which debuted on the Hong Ji Grand Stage in Dalian in November. This fall, thanks to San Jose's sister city program, "Yulan" comes to San Jose, followed in December by his second venture, "The Terracotta Prince."

Q: What do you think about the changes in leadership at Ballet San Jose?

A: I was rather intrigued that they announced an artistic director, when I was told at the time they removed me that there was not going to be an artistic director. Look, I understand how things go and how they change. If they're going to bring someone in like that and everyone likes him, then that's the way it happens.

Q: Tell me about Theatre Ventures International.

A: When I left the ballet, the City Council said to me, if you're going to open up a school, please don't go anywhere else, stay in San Jose. ... I didn't want to create more trouble, so when we had the opportunity, we opened our new facility in San Jose but in District 1, not downtown. We are now a nonprofit school and production company.

Q: How did "Yulan" come about?

A: The Dalian Acrobatic Troupe talked to me about creating a new show for them. When we started discussing what to do, I said, well, let's not do a war story - everyone running around with a sword or a fist in the air, because that's what everyone expects from China. Let's use the artists for what they can do and we will find a topic that any audience can respond to, not just Chinese audiences who know the myths already. So I talked to the teachers about what they liked most about working with the students. One of them said, "I see them when they are very young and I love to see how they grow up, like flowers." So I asked them what the most famous and beautiful flower in China was, and they said the yulan.

Q: With "Yulan," you choreographed and directed?

A: Yes, both, and came up with the concepts. I worked with two other choreographers and with designers for the lighting, the visuals, there are five projectors running video continuously throughout the show. All of this we created in Shanghai with a team, but based on my concepts. I worked through interpreters, of course, because I didn't speak the language, but I gave the lighting and scenic designers photos of examples of what I wanted. And the music, which I commissioned from Hollywood composer Paul Chihara, who worked on Michael Smuin's "Tempest," is being mastered for a commercial CD release as we speak.

Q: What's the story of "Yulan"?

A: The yulan is the magnolia, the most famous flower in China. How long does it take to create something that beautiful and that desirable? It takes millions and millions of years to get to that point of beauty, so don't destroy it.

Q: What other plans do you have beyond "Yulan" and "The Terracotta Prince"?

A: When other people came to see the premiere in Dalian, they said, "You have to come do something for us - come to Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin." So, I'll be returning to China to talk about that with them. A new theater in Hangzhou contacted me and would like to have "Yulan" there permanently as an attraction to launch in the fall. Of course, that would be at the same time "Yulan" would be here in the fall, so we would have to build a second production right away, hire new artists and train them, but anything is possible in China - whatever you can think of can be done.

Niles Canyon Railway: Trip takes you back 150 years

1927 Robert Dollar steam locomotive on the Farwell Bridge
Photo courtesy of the Pacific Lcomotive Association.

Whether or not you have a train aficionado in the family, a great summer excursion is the Niles Canyon Railway, a piece of American history that chugs through Alameda County from Fremont to Sunol and back on the first and third weekends of each month.

Passengers board beautifully renovated coaches pulled by mostly early-to-mid-20th century steam or diesel locomotives for the round trip along a 7-mile route through a canyon largely untouched in the past 150 years. You can start out from the Niles Station in Fremont or from the restored 1884 Sunol Depot, but either way, passengers have the option to stay on the train or get off and stroll around, then catch a later train back.

Read more at Niles Canyon Railway: Trip takes you back 150 years - San Francisco Chronicle.

Estonian National Ballet review: Polished

Estonian National Ballet review: Polished:

Eve Andre in "Time." 

Photo: Harri Roospuu

The U.S. debut of the Estonian National Ballet on Friday night at the Palace of Fine Arts was the highlight of the gala that opened Lep-Esto 2013, a four-day celebration of Estonian culture in San Francisco.

Now directed by Toomas Edur, the 87-year-old troupe offered two works that showed off a select coterie of sleek, polished performers.

Tiit Helimets, the Estonian-born San Francisco Ballet principal who danced with the Estonian National Ballet until 1999, was instrumental in bringing his compatriots to San Francisco. He was also the choreographer for a piece commissioned for the festival, "Time," set to a recorded score by Paula Matthusen. Helimets is a superlative partner, so it was unsurprising that much of his contemporary ballet played out in sharp shifts of weight and suspended shapes produced by unusual partnering.

Though "Time" felt spatially constrained - I longed to see these gorgeous, athletic dancers cut broad pathways through space - the sculptural qualities that Helimets evoked were intriguing, though too often marred by the strobe of flash photographs from the audience.

Nanae Maruyama, Eve Andre and Jonathan Hanks hurtled through a compact, muscular trio, while Nadezda Antipenko unfurled spectacular lines partnered by the four men in the final section of the piece. Most engrossing though was a meditative central pas de deux for Anatoli Arhangelski and Svetlana Danilova.

Helimets himself also took the stage in the White Swan pas de deux from "Swan Lake," attending to guest artist Alexsandra Meijer, on loan from Ballet San Jose, with princely gallantry.

The evening got off to a sonorous start with the appearance of the Estonian Youth Wind Orchestra, who played a heartfelt rendition of the Estonian anthem "Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm" as the audience joined in, harking back to the Singing Revolution of the '80s and early '90s. Estonian singer Hanna-Liina Võsa offered six songs composed by fellow countrymen. Her accompanist, pianist Hando Nahkur, also gave an emotive, improvisatory version of Schumann's Arabesque No. 18 on an instrument that didn't do justice to his playing.

It was a shame that Marina Kesler's affecting "Othello" got left to the end of a long program, because it was an engaging, if perhaps a bit overlong, piece. Kesler's version of Shakespeare distilled the tragedy to an essence of love, jealousy and betrayal for five couples, arranged to recordings of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt that were by turns stentorian and intimate.

Kesler's choreography veers from formalistic to jazzy with sometimes puzzling, even cartoonish results, but at its best, "Othello" was surprisingly absorbing in its mix of austerity and sensuality. A mesmerizing interlude for four women set to "Spiegel im spiegel" was reminiscent of the choreographic architecture of Hans van Manen.

As Desdemona, the diminutive, steely Andre brought sweetness to her pas de deux with Arhangelski, whose Othello was resolute and earthy if not particularly uxorious. Sergei Upkin nearly stole the whole thing with his gleefully swaggering Iago, capping an auspicious debut for this elegant Baltic company.