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Alexandra Tomalonis
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Ballet's Terrific Turning Point
San Francisco Soars in Jerome Robbins Classic

By Alexandra Tomalonis
Special to The Washington Post
November 27, 2002

Jerome Robbins’ “Dances at a Gathering” changed the course of American dance. Not only is it one of the most imitated of all ballets, but these 18 dances set to Chopin piano pieces that Robbins’ made, in part, to counter what he described as the “faddism” in dance at the time, refreshed classical ballet and booted it out of its late 1960s doldrums.

“Dances” showed a way that classical dancing could be contemporary, and the San Francisco Ballet, one of the few companies to tackle this masterpiece since its creation for New York City Ballet in 1969, made it look as fresh as if were 33 days, rather than 33 years, old. The company chose it as the centerpiece of its opening program Tuesday night, one of the strongest, most confident openers at the Kennedy Center Opera House in several seasons.

There’s no plot to “Dances at a Gathering,” although there are fragments of at least a dozen short stories. The dancers, five women and five men, caught the atmosphere perfectly, responding to the music and each other without forcing emotion.

The ballet is technically difficult--each role demands a strong technique--but what made this performance unusually pleasurable was the level of sophistication of the dancing. The men, especially, are very polished, paying attention to arm positions and clean landings as much as bravura steps. Yuri Possokhov, one of the finest men dancing anywhere today, brought out the rich darkness in his solos as well as the folk flavor underlying the Mazurkas as the man in Purple. Gonzalo Garcia as the man in Brown, who opens and closes the ballet with gestures of reverence and wonder, tossed off phenomenal leaps and turns without ever making them look like tricks.

The dancing throughout was so beautifully smooth that at times one missed the daring that can make this ballet so exciting. There’s one section with very difficult partnering, the women flying fearlessly into their partners arms, that was done so carefully it looked as though OSHA had supervised the rehearsals. That quibble aside, a fine performance.

“Dances at a Gathering” is a hard act to follow, and Mark Morris’s “Sandpaper Ballet” unfortunately fell rather flat as the closer. This is one of Morris’s goofy ballets, to jingles and schmaltzy muzak by Leroy Anderson. The dancers, 25 of them, wear color block costumes that make them look as though their bodies have been dipped in green paint from the chest down, arms and hands included. The ballet is deliberately light, and there are some funny bits (like a glamour girl contest, and dancers continually trying to upstage each other) but in this context, it seemed a bit glib.

The program opened with Balanchine’s sunny “Ballo della Regina,” a romp for a ballerina, her consort, four soloists and a small corps to music from Verdi’s opera “Don Carlo.” The ballerina role is one of the most difficult in ballet, made for Merrill Ashley (who staged the work for SFB), a speed demon with crisp, efficient footwork. Feijoo’s dancing had more perfume and less strength, but a delicacy and queenly graciousness. Her partner, Zachary Hench, a tall, young soloist with a huge jump and strong, clean beats, stole the show.

The company is in fine form, and dances (Thanksgiving night excluded) through Sunday evening.