A festival of new works in search of ballet’s future must be valued as much for the conversation it catalyzes...
I can’t remember the first time I saw “Swan Lake” or “Serenade,” but I will never forget the first time...
Of their recent premiere of Liam Scarlett's “Frankenstein,” Isabella Walsh, newly appointed corps de ballet dancer with San Francisco Ballet, notes, “it's kind of a sad ballet, but really interesting. It's like nothing I’ve done before.”
I wonder if it’s been like this for New Yorkers: You see one Justin Peck ballet, set to an orchestra...
“What is dance now?” artistic director Helgi Tomasson asked in the middle of San Francisco Ballet’s gala, making a pitch for the massively ambitious Unbound Festival that will crown this company’s 85thseason with 12 world premieres by 12 international choreographers unveiled in four days. If we may recast Tomasson’s question a bit more specifically, to “What is ballet now?”, this was a perfect question for the moment.
For his 2009 revamp of San Francisco Ballet’s “Swan Lake,” artistic director Helgi Tomasson added a Prologue. The idea was to make this Odette’s story, but if you ask me it’s still all about Siegfried. We may see Odette first, witnessing her capture by Von Rothbart and transformation into an animal, but Siegfried is still the character who has, as the narratologists might say, “agency.” He’s the one who makes the wrong choice and must pay penance; his is the narrative arc.
