RAkU
A one-act RAkU, now playing in SF Ballet’s mixed bill Program 6, can serve as a perfect example of creative synergy when the whole exceeds the sum of its parts, and spectacularly so. Mere words cannot explain the divine harmony that streams from the stage throughout the entire piece.
A simple story, which could be expressed in haiku, follows the Japanese literary tradition of extreme intensity of feelings delivered in a highly-restrained style of gracious fatalism.
Beautiful love, sorrowful parting, illicit passion, treacherous violence, and overwhelming loss – all the emotionally charged twists of the plot are only a part of the ballet’s enormous success. The major components are predictably stellar. Profoundly-tragic and poetic music by Shinji Eshima seems to penetrate the very bloodstream of its listeners.
Choreography by Yuri Possokhov is intense, precise, poetic, technically merciless, and therefore allowing dancers to show off their ultimate best.
Yuan Yuan Tan, Damien Smith, and Pascal Molat are exactly those dancers, performing at the height of their talent.
Gaetano Amico, Sean Orza, Jeremy Rucker, and Quinn Wharton as a quartet of warriors show impeccable skill and impressive synchronicity in the haunting Japanese folk and martial art-inspired dances.
The stage set, the costumes, and the video and lighting bring this production to perfection. (Scenic and projection design by Alexander V. Nichols; costume design by Mark Zappone; lightning design by Christopher Dennis).
Not only is it hard not to fall in love with the piece, it is impossible to blink while watching it.
Raymonda Act III
Program 6 in San Francisco Ballet opens with a lavish staging of the famous third act of Alexander Glazunov’s Raymonda, choreographed in 1966 by Rudolf Nureyev (after Marius Petipa). New gilded set and white-and-gold fairy tale costumes (scenic and costume design by Barry Kay) are very much in tune with the classic dance depicting the wedding celebration of a Hungarian princess.
Dreamlike-gorgeous Sofiane Sylve as Raymonda and Tiit Helimets as Jean de Brienne are followed by a cast of regal characters in a whirl of complex and fascinating variations like Hungarian Cortege led by Elana Altman (Countess Sybille) and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba (King of Hungary) and Grand Pas Classique. To round up the classic feast, there are four solos from other acts of Raymonda, beautifully performed by Sarah Van Patten, Frances Chung, Vanessa Zahorian, and Charlene Cohen; and amazing female pas de trois (Dores Andre, Nicole Ciapponi, and Courtney Elizabeth), and male pas de quatre (Daniel Daivison, Isaac Hernandez, Steven Morse, and Hansuke Yamamoto).
Guide to Strange Places.
(World premiere)
Composed by John Adams and choreographed by Ashley Page, Guide to Strange Places is the last part of Program 6. Maybe that was the reason that many audience members vacated their seats before it was over on the opening night.
The best dancers of SF Ballet were still doing their magic onstage, but honestly, I couldn’t help thinking that they deserved better.
Chaotic busy music (this time of year, alley cats’ howls seem like a better option) and chaotic crowded movements failed to create anything coherent.
There were several duets in action, but it was impossible to follow their dynamics. I felt perpetually distracted by too much of an unsynchronized presence around the principals, and by the satellite-image backdrop from the what’s-up-with-that category.
Strangely for the Company that must try really hard to disappoint, the Guide to Strange Places comes across as a flop.
Program 6 runs through April 3. Tickets by phone: 415-865-2000, or at: www.sfballet.org.
Images: courtesy SF Ballet.
1. Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith in SF Ballet's RAkU
2. Sofiane Sylve and Tiit Helimets in SF Ballet's Raymonda Act III
3. Maria Kochetkova and Gennadi Nedvigin in SF Ballet's Guide to Strange Places
Photography by Erik Tomasson.
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