Love and Loss
The moment arrived two-thirds into the program, near the peak of Donald Byrd’s “Love and Loss.” For more than an hour, the beautiful bodies on screen had been doing eloquent things, to curiously numbing effect.
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San Francisco Ballet capped artistic director Helgi Tomasson’s departing season with his “Swan Lake,” headlined by four promising casts. On opening night I saw Frances Chung as Odette/Odile, and she was technically impeccable, emotive without crossing over into camp, and athletically powerful—but she didn’t believably click with Joseph Walsh’s playboy-esque Siegfried. Then I received emails from strangers reporting that Sasha De Sola’s debut in the role had left them dazzled. So I returned to see her second go at it with Max Cauthorn as Siegfried, and am I ever glad I did. Growing up in Fresno, California, I used to re-watch the Royal Ballet’s “Swan Lake” with Anthony Dowell and Natalia Makarova on VHS and dream of getting out of the dry valley to such a life of beauty. At this point, though, it’s been many years since I’ve been truly moved by a performance of “Swan Lake.” De Sola and Cauthorn took me back to a state of wonderment.
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Sasha De Sola in Tomasson's “Swan Lake.” Photograph by Erik Tomasson
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The moment arrived two-thirds into the program, near the peak of Donald Byrd’s “Love and Loss.” For more than an hour, the beautiful bodies on screen had been doing eloquent things, to curiously numbing effect.
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