Bay Area dance’s strides, setbacks
Dance in the Bay Area flourished in 2014 with much promise afoot without generating a lot of masterpieces (are there ever too many of those?). Work in smaller spaces gave us moments of distinction, but much of the fare resembled rehashes of master’s dissertations in dance, rather than dances deserving of a public showing. Still, the urge to create is unstoppable.
We had our share of milestones in 2014: Postmodernist choreographer Margaret Jenkins celebrated the 40th anniversary of her troupe’s founding. We had our arrivals: Acclaimed danseur José Manuel Carreño started directing Ballet San Jose and mounted a respectable first season.
We had our departures: Company C Contemporary Ballet went on indefinite hiatus, and two of the San Francisco Ballet’s most versatile men, Damian Smith and Ruben Martin Cintas, retired from their principal-dancer positions.
Social media increasingly became a necessary tool in drawing audiences. The temptation or need to sell tickets and raise money seems to occupy some choreographers more than polishing their craft. Yet those performance spaces that remain are constantly buzzing.
The quantity of dance presentation has fallen from what it was a decade ago in the Bay Area. True, San Francisco Performances and Cal Performances continue to import some of the best (and most controversial) companies from the national and international crop.
But Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which could do great things, looks increasingly insular in its dance presenting program, while the situation at Stanford University’s Stanford Live is almost scandalous.
Stanford was, in an earlier era, one of the Bay Area’s most prominent venues for touring dance. This year, Stanford Live will sponsor only a couple of evenings of imported fare. What is so galling is the fact that the university supports a major department of dance, which could collaborate in significant projects, as it did with Jérôme Bel’s visit last year. Still, as a public cultural event, dance here has become a rarity. Peninsula dance audiences deserve more. Hardest-working retired dancer: Mikhail Baryshnikov, who graced “Man in a Case” at Berkeley Rep and “The Old Woman” at Zellerbach Hall. In both, he delivered performances confirming his reputation as an ageless master of movement theater. Best advertisement for ballet: World Ballet Day, which devoted 20 hours to profiling five major international companies, a feast streamed around the globe on the Internet. Can we make it an annual event? Weirdest costume statement: When, in Act 1 of “Giselle,” San Francisco Ballet’s Mathilde Froustey swung a sword, it unintentionally ripped the skirt of her rival, Bathilde. No harm done, except to the costume, but the sound of ripping fabric set hearts pounding in the audience. Froustey insisted this was not part of her interpretation. Most annoying trend in dance presentation: The increasingly interminable speeches made by presenters and house managers before dance performances. You gabbers know who you are, and I wish you would stop. High point: The resurgence of the duet as the most expressive and urgent of movement forms. Mark Morris’ “Jenn and Spencer” topped the list, but one also enjoyed memorable duets by Liam Scarlett (the second movement of “Hummingbird”), Crystal Pite, Nora Chipaumire, Alonzo King (virtually all of “Shostakovich”) and Kate Weare. Low point: The Australian Ballet’s silly revision of “Swan Lake,” which recast the principal characters to resemble the Charles-Diana-Camilla triangle, muddied the plot, trashed the Tchaikovsky score and proved a waste of one of the world’s foremost ballet companies. mingbird” (San Francisco Ballet) 6. Program of classical Indian dance (San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival) 7. Garrett + Moulton, “The Luminous Edge” 8. Mark Morris Dance Group, “Jenn and Spencer” 9. Sasha Waltz & Guests, “Impromptus” 10. Alonzo King’s “Rasa” (Lines Ballet) (revival)