Sometimes when I watch performances I write down notes in the program during intermissions, but more often than not… I tweet. (Hat tip to Carla Escoda of Ballet to the People and her bite-size reviews!)
March 30: San Francisco Ballet, Program 5 (Tomasson: The Fifth Season, Liaang: Symphonic Dances, Robbins: Glass Pieces).
Intermission 1 at @sfballet. Fifth Season: clean, forceful; Frances and Davit were esp lovely.
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) March 31, 2012
Intermission 2 at @sfballet. Symphonic Dances: dramatic score, some gorgeous PDDs.
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) March 31, 2012
Final @sfballet work, Robbins’s Glass Pieces: refreshing chaser to the neoclassicism earlier in the evening.
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) March 31, 2012
April 12: San Francisco Ballet, Program 7 (Balanchine: Divertimento No. 15, Scotch Symphony, The Four Temperaments).
Intermission 1 @sfballet. Divertimento No 15: Not my cup of tea but still sweet and lovely. Esp impressed by Gennadi’s impeccable jumps.
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 13, 2012
Scotch Symphony at @sfballet: loved it. Obvs we need more Scottish-themed ballets (La Sylphide notwithstanding). #meninkilts
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 13, 2012
Final @sfballet piece, Four Temperaments. So great to finally see this live. Bold, modern, striking.
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 13, 2012
April 14: Ballet San Jose, Program 2 (Balanchine: Allegro Brillante, Lang: Splendid Isolation III, Welch: Clear, Tippet: Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1).
Allegro Brillante was dazzling. Junna and Maykel, lovely; slow shoulder lift was esp effortless. #balletsj
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 15, 2012
Though I felt like one guy needs to work on relaxing his hand positions. (Yes, I’m starting to play armchair danseur.) #balletsj
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 15, 2012
Splendid Isolation, wow. So stark and beautiful. (Neat counterpoint following Allegro.) Maria and Ramon worked it. #balletsj
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 15, 2012
Thank you, @balletsj, for presenting Clear. I do appreciate a male corps 🙂 but srsly it’s inspirational to guy dancers (like me!).
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 15, 2012
And the Bruch Violin Concerto, lovely. Alexsandra, such a jewel. #balletsj
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 15, 2012
April 27: San Francisco Ballet, Program 8 (Tomasson and Posskhov: Don Quixote).
Don Q @sfballet instagr.am/p/J8vyX9Q_UJ/
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 28, 2012
Don Quixote is quite the ballet marathon leading up to that wedding pas de deux. Bravo to Vanessa and Joan! @sfballet
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) April 28, 2012
And on April 30, I went to Dances from the Heart, a Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation benefit dance concert featuring dancers from Ballet San Jose, White Tree Fine Art, Company C Contemporary Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Na Lei Hulu, Christy Coté Argentine Tango, Post:Ballet, ODC Dance, and Amy Seiwert’s Imagery. Ha, it was just too much to tweet! It was a really great night of dance from several Bay Area dance companies, all for a good cause. This was the first dance benefit of this kind for Richmond/Ermet, and I hope they continue to produce them. It’s wonderful to watch so many local groups on one stage, and it makes me proud to live in a place with such a vibrant dance community.
By the way, back to tweeting at–more like during–the ballet, I must commend Diablo Ballet for their Twitter nights and how well they manage them. It is certainly not a tweeting free-for-all. You apply to be one of the tweeters, and then they seat you in the back row where you can report on the performance using your phone. I was at a performance there earlier this year (not as a tweeter), and it wasn’t intrusive at all. Good for Diablo Ballet for experimenting with ways to grow and engage its audience.
OK, don’t worry, my long(ish)-form reviews will come back soon, but if you’re into the bite-size bits of dance (and a lot of other stuff), do follow me at @jefftabaco.
Coming up: I’m off to Ballet San Jose’s Cinderella tonight, and Smuin Ballet tomorrow.
I love this! Never really thought about tweeting mini-reviews before….cool idea!
Thanks! To be honest I when I started the blog post as a full-on review, I went back to my tweets to jog my memory, and I thought, hey, why not post the tweets? I’m definitely getting the hang of intermission tweeting, ha.
I love this! I wish I read this post before DUSA so I could see all these great examples of live tweeting. Sometimes when I would tweet I would go, “What the heck did I just write?!”
High praise indeed, thank you! Wish I’d gone to DUSA to meet all you dance bloggers and everyone else, but it’s great to at least connect online. Thanks again.