There were not many stars in the night sky above the Frost Amphitheater, possibly because those that shined most brightly were onstage or in the orchestra.
This heavenly constellation came together under the hand of Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, who has been taking educated risks, as opposed to calculated ones, in curating programs throughout her nearly three-season tenure. The Starry Nights program proved an exemplar in exposing company strengths, and those of its collaborators.
The evening’s high point was British-born choreographer Ben Stevenson’s “Three Preludes,” staged to rigorous perfection by Dawn Scannell of Houston Ballet. The unusually-themed work builds a love story around two dancers whose hothouse mutual attraction results from taking daily company class together.
“Three” in the title corresponds to the number of segments in a ballet class: Barre, (Center) Adagio, and Grand Allegro. Principal dancers Jasmine Jimison and Harrison James embrace them to reveal the subtlety of mutual attraction inspired by studio practice and protocol. Against raw physicality, they find the hallowed mood dancers take solace in during their morning warm-up. (My Vaganova teacher, the late Svetlana Afanasieva, referred to this ritualistic moment as “breakfast”). For Jimison and Harrison, the barre, home to the gradual but growing-in-complexity engagement, becomes a secure balustrade from which to fire muscles of the heart that stretch into each other’s space. From there, they reach the trip-wire sensuality that a single touchpoint paired with a piano’s chord-enriched awakening deepens. Leavening the dancers’ interpretations is the dulcet impressionism novice artists bring to the studio for as long as they remain unsullied by multiple challenges dancers confront each hour of each day, season after season of a short professional life.
Helgi Tomasson’s “Swan Lake Act II,” opens the program. Company veterans Sasha De Sola and Aaron Robison dance Odette and Siegfried. Their pas de deux is steeped in a lovely elixir of mutual respect and admiration that compels gorgeous partnering. The corps de ballet and Cygnets frame the story with a similar quotient of affection and diligence. Arrayed in their lines, even the écarté angle of the knees is consistent from one to the next! Undulating or acute, their port de bras is impeccable: each transition looks mitre-box precise. Ming Luke conducts with his entire body! Violinist Ani Bukujian delivers heart-rending solos. De Sola’s to Bukujian’s accompaniment is a performance à deux. It’s as if the violinist is stretching her notes to rise from below to partner De Sola. In the pas de deux with Robison, he gently lifts De Sola into the music, her cambré back gossamer-tendered with his deft support.
The program closes with a series of works by Dutch choreographer Hans Van Manen, to accordion-luxuriant compositions by the celebrated Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla. As a Milonga craze sweeps the United States, the van Manen selections (which harken back to the 1970s) have lost none of their currency. “5 Tangos,” captained by returnee Dores André and Esteban Hernández, bring the sizzle. Even if the closing piece runs a little long, it serves as a marvelous vehicle for extruding the balletic sensibility inhabiting the Tango and Milonga genres.
In “Variations for Two Couples,” Joseph Walsh and Frances Chung dash through hi-jinx partnering. They are joined by Aaron Robison and Sasha Mukhamedov, who gambol with svelte, cosmopolitan purchase. The misleadingly-titled, “Solo,” is the most arresting of the variations. It features the indefatigable Cavan Conley leading a trio of himself, Victor Prigent, and Alexis Francisco Valdes in a thrilling rapid-fire display of virtuosic tricks and joyous dance mania.
Outdoor venues can pose a challenge. There’s fickle weather to consider, audience comfort amidst the elements, elderly and disabled among them, and for the stage crew, special operations to secure adequate sound production and lighting. The Frost Amphitheater is one of the best outdoor venues in the Bay Area. There is unobstructed-view seating throughout; evening performances mean that lighting is not washed with daylight glare; and acoustics are reasonably friendly. Best of all, the orchestra is fully visible, as it shares a plateau with VIP seating. The Starry Nights program is well-established and popular with Peninsula audiences. What a sanguine domestic partnership for San Francisco Ballet and Stanford’s Frost.
