Dance Reviews

Jul 28, 2002 - Artown Brings San Francisco Ballet to Reno's Hilton Theater

By Jack Neal

That the San Francisco Ballet is as elegant, fresh and loaded with talent as its home city comes as no surprise. Critical acclaim is nothing new to SFB. The company opened a two-day stand Saturday night (7/27/2002) at the plush Reno Hilton Theater before a large and enthusiastic audience.

This very special event is sponsored by Reno's Artown Festival. It's not just a feather in the cap of Artown. Thanks to the shrewd smarts of Artown's Karen Craig, Beth MacMillan and Tim Jones, it's one of the festival's crown jewels of booking.

Helgi Tomasson, the company's artistic director and chief choreographer, chose his road-show program astutely. Opening with Balanchine's glittering "Rubies" (from his full length ballet "Jewels"), followed by three ballet excerpts for two dancers - the Pas de Deux from Act II of "Swan Lake," a Handel Chaconne for Piano and Two Dancers and the Pas de Deux from "Paquita," the program closed with the fresh and breezy "Sandpaper Ballet."

That Tomasson's roots are in the Balanchine school was evident from the casting of Vanessa Zahorian, Gonzalo Garcia and Muriel Maffre in the principal roles for "Rubies." Musicality and simplicity is demanded for the visualization of Stravinsky's "Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra." Each of the principals - Zahorian and Garcia as a couple and Maffre as a single - play off Stravinsky's witty, lyric score to create performances as sparkling as the emeralds, diamonds and rubies that inspired Balanchine to mold this droll encounter with pure dance. All three principals impress for the all-encompassing technique and dramatic focus they bring to their work.

As geometric in dance as it is musically, "Rubies" is a perfectly cut gem. Adorned in Karinska's vivid red costumes against a black backdrop dripping with sparkling stones, the entire troupe of "Rubies'" dancers sets a tone of precision, control and beautifully matched sets of dancers that places SFB in a league with world-class ballet companies.

The pas de deux middle portion of the program was no less impressive. Julie Diana and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba are the enthralled young couple who deal so eloquently with love in "Swan Lake." These two have a subtly smitten stage rapport that allows them to love and long on the fleeting wisps of Tchaikovsky's haunting melodies. Tomasson's athletic raptures for his "Chaconne for Piano and Two Dancers," utilizing the fine collaborative efforts of pianist Roy Bogas, was virtuosically danced by Kristin Long and Yuri Possokhov. Performed between two pas de deux from the classical vocabulary, "Chaconne" is dazzlingly entertaining and thrilling. Both dancers are articulate and dashing. Equally as articulate and exciting are Lorena Feijoo and Vadim Solomakha, who so seamlessly dance the Pas de Deux from "Paquita" with their own expressive, virtuoso moves.

Modernist Mark Morris's "Sandpaper Ballet," visualizing Leroy Anderson's tuneful and lighthearted music (such Anderson pieces as "Fiddle Faddle," "The Girl in Satin," "Syncopated Clock"), is a breezy, funloving collection that is reminiscent of Gene Kelly's most buoyant dance excursions from the halcyon days of MGM musicals. By leaps, bounds and much strutting about, and with intricate and jaunty little points of footwork, the men and women of the corps de ballet have a field day with Morris's sensational lighter-than-air piece. Isaac Mizrahi's pert green and white cheerleading-like clothes, including gloves to accentuate the positives of the cast's flashy hand and joyous arm movements are no less a joy than the dancing itself.

Joys, also, are all other aspects of this Northern Nevada outing with San Francisco Ballet. The lighting was radiant; the sound rich. The use of the huge Reno Hilton stage and its posh red curtain makes the San Francisco Ballet as elegantly at home as it is on it's own stage with the trappings of the gorgeous gold curtain of San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House. Being at home in Reno is something local fans of great dance hope will become a regular part of San Francisco Ballet's yearly plans. As if the movers and shakers of Artown need that hint.

The San Francisco Ballet's second Reno performance is today, Sunday, July 28, 2002, at 2 p.m. at the Reno Hilton Theater, 2500 East Second Street, Reno. For ticket information call 775-789-2285. For information regarding other Artown events call 775-322-5443.