Category: ballet

Despite having a groupon ticket, I was tempted to not go to Ballet San Jose’s Swan Lake last night. But upon learning that Carlos Acosta from the Royal Ballet was guesting, I guess I had to go.

Carlos Acosta was stellar, very classically clean. His age expectedly shows in the big jumps, but he still executed them cleanly; his turning ability is still tops, with superhuman control. His stage presence was extreme, and he exuded an air of confidence. The problem, I think, was that his Siegfried was somewhat mismatched with Alexsandra Meijer’s Odette/Odile, though. It’s at least partially due to the choreography, which I think is more overt and the least subtle of any productions I’ve seen (intentional, I believe, to facilitate viewing by new audience members). Her acting in both roles seemed a little too Hollywood, a bit over the top, especially compared to Acosta’s demure, understated performance.

Some other unique things about the performance, which I’m not sure contributed much: having Baron Von Rothbart as a dancing role was a little odd. It wasn’t very obvious to me what benefit there is to this, except to showcase another male dancer. Same with the Court Jester role, which was done admirably by Akira Takahashi. (Nahat’s Romeo and Juliet also had a jester role; luckily, I don’t recall his Giselle having one. But it shouldn’t really become a thing in ballets.) Adding elements of humor helped a little with the length of the ballet, but I really think Swan Lake should be capped at 2.5 hours. On the other hand, it was interesting (although not supremely exciting) to see a full-on Act 4. Someone should tell Dennis Nahat that a 3 hour ballet is too long. I understand that, with their relatively short season, it makes sense to have longer shows to showcase more dancers, but at 3 hours, it becomes mentally taxing to follow.

I feel like Meijer is in a strange stage artistically. She’s around 28 years old, near the top of her technical ability, but something seems missing from her artistically. Or maybe I’m just comparing her to Sarah Van Patten, who has artistic maturity far beyond her age. AM’s Odile was actually enjoyable to watch, but she had some missteps during her fouettes; she started out solidly, including some doubles in the mix, but there was a small imbalance that resulted in her falling off pointe near the end. I think her insistence of sticking with doubles was partly to blame, and her ending was also forced. (I guess SVP also didn’t have the cleanest of fouettes when I saw her last year.) The rest of AM’s black swan pdd was solid, and I liked certain nuances, but it probably doesn’t rank among the best ever.

Her white swan was good as well. The nits: do her feet wing? It might’ve just been my viewing angle, but her line seems broken at the feet during arabesque penchees. On the other hand, she has freakishly long legs and arms, so her lines are already ridiculous. Another thing I noticed is just how fast she does partnered pirouettes. I think this is because she’s crazy thin (even for a ballerina) and thus has little angular inertia or something, but it did seem like some Odette turns seemed a bit fast and lacked the languid quality of other Odettes. Same with her serres, which were impressively fast from the 8th row, but I doubt the back of the orchestra saw them.

The audience was very warm and enthusiastic. A solid performance overall, just wish it were a little shorter.

I’m still baffled by the decision of SFB to have an extra performance of Giselle this past Sunday evening, but I’m not going to complain when orchestra center seats are half off and available. Thanks to FM for getting the tickets. Second row center is a pretty nice experience, and it’ll probably be a while before I can do that again at the WMOH. It was definitely the youngest I’ve seen the center orchestra section of the audience, probably because an extra performance means there’s no seat grandfathering by all the older season subscribers. It was also funny to see other WB adults around; two were also in the same row. I guess the practitioners are also patrons of the arts.

Notwithstanding the fact that Elana Altman was not in the performance, the show was spectacular. I doubt Maria Kochetkova needs more superlatives thrown her way, but her Giselle was amazing. Mad scene was good, hops on pointe were good, penchees were good. What really impressed me, though, was her jumping sequences in Act 2. The stillness of her upper body was intense, and she gots some hops. Although I wonder why she doesn’t have a more pronounced battu. Maybe it’s intentionally subdued? I have no idea, but this season I’ve noticed that her entrechats seem a little less cross-y than some others.

What’s up with Joan Boada, who was supposed to be Albrecht? I’ve been impressed all two times I’ve seen him perform, but does he keep getting injured?

Also, as Myrtha, I think this was the first time I’ve seen Frances Chung not smile. It threw me for quite the loop. I’m not sure she has quite the gravitas (or is it just height? they’re correlated at the least) of, say, Sofiane Sylve or Elana Altman, but her performance was convincing enough, and I’m happy to see her in a role that’s not her usual bubbly ones. (Side note: Really wish I could’ve seen Muriel Maffre as Myrtha. I bet she killed (pun!) in that role.)

Also, since it’s been brought up a few times, the amorality of the story is kind of strange. Albrecht is kind of a douche, and Hilarion was really a better person. Perhaps the moral of the story is that life isn’t fair and people die, and some people turn into ghosts.

I’m too lazy to write about the gala two weeks ago, although there were many good things about it. I will say that I’m glad I finally saw “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” — I can strike that off the bucket list. Overall, it was a fine showcase of talent, and I might be a repeat attender.

I don’t know why the trek seems so much farther from Mountain View versus Palo Alto, but getting to the War Memorial Opera house seems to be that much more of a chore this year. Those extra 5 minutes really kill.

Also, what the crap is up with the constant price hikes for standing room tickets? $30 for the full lengths is excessive. On the other hand, maybe they’re just trying to contain the crowd, or something. Makes me wonder whether I want to go see Giselle next weekend. The answer would be “no” but for the fact that Elana Altman is doing Myrtha on Sunday.

“Symphonic Variations” was very pure, very clean classical ballet. Judging by the amount of applause, people don’t seem to like that nowadays. I thought it was a nice piece, and would definitely welcome more Ashton in the repertoire.

After reading a few critics’ reviews, I was interested in what “RAkU” would bring. The martial arts-esque dancing by the male corps was believable in most parts, but looked strange to me at points. We all know Yuan Yuan Tan has come into her own as a dramatic actress after The Little Mermaid last year, and Possokhov does a good job of building this ballet around her strengths. Both Damian Smith and Pascal Molat were great in their roles. The lack of a clear explication of the story was a bit confusing for a piece that appeared to be very story-centric. I don’t think this is a dog, but I’m not convinced that “RAkU” is one of Possokhov’s better creations. The main gripe I had is one that I also overheard from one of the ushers, which is that it had one too many endings. Not as bad as RotK or AI, but still…

“Symphony in C” probably ranks as my favorite non-full-length classical ballet, and I would be hard pressed to imagine it being pushed out of the top 10 ever. One seldom appreciates just exactly how awesome SFB’s corps dancers are; this piece and “Artifact Suite” — another of my favorites and also to be reprised this season — really bring that to light. This viewing of “Symphony in C” wasn’t the best I’ve seen, but it still makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Maybe it’s because I’ve mentally typecasted her, but Lorena Feijoo just seemed slightly cold, despite her dancing technically well (to my eyes). There was a rare mistake by Maria Kotchetkova during that eternal balance in the second movement, where she fell off pointe during that mesmerizing and interminable balance. Elana Altman, even in the soloist role, was terrific. But the real question is: who is this Nicole Ciapponi person, and where did she come from? She was fantastic in the third movement, radiated energy, and definitely held her own amongst far more veteran dancers.

I missed the beginning of the Super Bowl because of the driving time, but the football season ended when the Chargers were eliminated from the playoffs.

It’s also a little depressing looking at the turnover in the corps over the past 2 years or so. Such is the frailty of life.