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.'

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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'