A small preface just to say that this was quite the weekend: rehearsal, what I think was a memorable birthday party for “Kevin”, Don Q. Also watched the first Harry Potter film. I guess I never realized that it was released the same year as Fellowship of the Ring. That’s kind of crazy to think about. It’s probably going to take me a while to watch the rest of the HP series.
Due to a rather late Saturday night, I unfortunately missed the SFB company class viewing at the WMOH. But I did make it to the show on time despite quite a bit of traffic in the city. I think I only missed one show out of the season this year. I feel relieved that the SFB season is finally done, at least from my season ticket perspective. If the status quo is maintained, I’m most likely not going to renew season tickets next year; the commute to sf is just too long.
I don’t think I would have made this post except for holy crap Frances Chung completely blew me away. It wasn’t pristine perfect, but, wow, she’s really proving her mettle as a principal. To say that I was a little miffed when she got promoted instead of Elana Altman would have been an understatement. But FC has been growing on me. There’s something about her dancing that sends shivers up my spine. I can’t exactly place what it is, but there’s a very crisp or fresh quality to her movement that consumes the stage. Maybe she’s developed a lot over the past few years, or maybe I just never noticed it quite so much before. Anyway, her Kitri was fantastic.
Vitor Luiz, who played Basilio, has got some hops. I think after this show, it’s safe to say that he’s a jumper and not a turner. I remember being impressed by his jumps the first time I saw him onstage, and here’s more confirmatory evidence. The guy gets crazy hangtime in his jumps, but some of his pirouettes were noticeably off balance. Still, he got through the Act 3 pdd and variation, even if he did look like he might have been out of gas by the end of it.
Also wanted to give a deserved (and compulsory) shoutout to Elana Altman as Mercedes. I still have a hard time not paying attention to her whenever she’s on stage. She just exudes so much presence and flair.
A final dancer shoutout to Koto Ishihara, who had the leggiest version of the Cupid variation I’ve ever seen. Like, most ballet dancers have pretty(,) long legs and crazy lines, but I nearly laughed out loud during Koto’s Cupid variation. How the hell are her legs so long?
The new costumes were very vivid. I don’t have a great memory of the old costumes SFB used in the last production, but the new ones were nice. The bridesmaids tutus were freaking adorable.
As a final note, it was really weird to watch Don Q after WB did it last year. It just seems so much more familiar now, despite rather broad differences in the (mutable parts of the) choreography.