Toba Singer, author of “Fernando Alonso, the Father of Cuban Ballet” (University Press of Florida 2013), and “First Position: a Century of Ballet Artists” (Praeger 2007), writes for international dance journals and websites, and has served as an advisor to the San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design. She was the University Press of Florida author representative at the 2013 Miami International Book Fair. “Fernando Alonso, the Father of Cuban Ballet” was nominated for the Latin American Student Association Bryce Award, the de la Torre Research and Dance Scholars Award, and the Commonwealth Club California Book Award.
DanceSan Francisco,
The simplicity of the three-theme Prokofiev score can beguile us into believing that Helgi Tomasson’s “Romeo and Juliet,” running at warp speed to conclude before the accomplished musicians go on overtime, loses complexity, much in the way Cinderella ...
DanceSan Francisco,
San Francisco Ballet danced Liam Scarlett’s “Hummingbird,” this season for the second year running, the piece having been set on the company last season. The following is an interview with Scarlett, conducted via email in April, 2015.
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DanceSan Francisco,
Heaps of froth rose to the top of San Francisco Ballet’s Mar. 22, 2015 matinee offering of “Don Quixote.” The cast stole its audience’s hearts right from the start, and huge dollops of credit are due some of ...
TheaterSan Francisco,
Even when I was a freshman French Major in college, they taught Moliere’s “Tartuffe” as a farce about religious hypocrisy—and indeed, that is how Berkeley Rep bills it today in its modern adaptation by David Ball. Yet, “hypocrisy” ...
Books & CDs
“Skylight,” by José Saramago, one of his first works, written in 1953 (and rejected) when the author was in his early thirties, was published posthumously last year, and has consequently become something of a curio. One can rush ...
DanceCA,
There are ballets that put all of a company’s bona fides to the test—stamina, virtuosity, ensemble quality, and of course, its ranking dancers’ stage personalities and technical skills. Among them are Harold Lander’s “Etudes,” Jerome Robbins’ “Fancy Free,” Twyla Tharp’s ...
DanceCA,
How many boutique, suburban-based companies can celebrate a 22nd season with a smartly staged program featuring works by such choreographers as George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Sean Kelly, Sonya Delwaide, and Robert Dekkers? You can count them on the fingers of ...
DanceSan Francisco,
Without Hilarion there is no “Giselle.” He is the crude gamekeeper whose manners may be wanting, but who never confuses right with wrong. He is the conscience and compass of this story ballet. Without him, it is the banal tale ...
DanceSan Francisco,
If you want every body part on a dancer to self-deploy and sizzle, hire Lorena Feijóo as that dancer, and commission Val Caniparoli to make a piece along the lines of “Lambarena,” which might ...
TheaterCA,
When my father saw that I had inherited not only the family dance gene, but also its journalistic one, he urged me to write an exposé on the evils of football. Did ...
