I’m going to write more, but just wanted to tell people in New York, if you haven’t already, you should really try to see San Francisco Ballet before they leave town tomorrow. They’re at City Center, with three performances left: tonight (Friday), and tomorrow (Saturday) matinee and evening. Go here for tix, and here to find out more about the company.
I went last night and really fell in love with the company my first time seeing them — which very rarely happens with me (I have to get used to a company, “get to know” their dancers through several viewings).
In particular my favorites were Taras Domitro (above, from Cuba — methinks Cuba is producing the world’s greatest dancers these days 😀
and Russian Ivan Popov, who had beautiful watery fluidity in the last piece of the night, Balanchine’s classic The Four Temperaments, which I hadn’t seen before. This is the only major Balanchine work I hadn’t yet seen — for some reason New York City Ballet hasn’t performed it for a while — and I’m very thankful for SFBallet for giving me this chance.
Everyone really had splendid form, the whole company worked together so well, with such ease, they are such a world-class company, just like my beloved ABT (who takes City Center next, beginning next week) — you can tell a company’s level of prestige by the names on its roster; how many of these are foreign? If Mr. Nobel guy calls us insular because we don’t import a lot of foreign literature, the same certainly can’t be said of our dance arts, right — either in terms of dancers or choreographers...
Anyway, SFBallet is the oldest American ballet company, and are celebrating their 75th anniversary this year, which means, if you can’t see them here, they have more tour to go (next, Orange County, CA, then Washington DC). Try not to miss them!