War Memorial Opera House — San Francisco, January 30, 2015
When I go out to watch ballet, my first question of course is… which bow tie to wear? As Serenade was on the program, the clear answer is:
Which bow tie to wear to @sfballet Program 1? Blue for #Serenade. #balanchine #dapper
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) January 31, 2015
Tweetup at the San Francisco Ballet with @jefftabaco and @dancingfoodie 🙂 pic.twitter.com/43TG2kwF3K
— Lorry Trujillo Perez (@Bead_109) January 31, 2015
Ethan (@dancingfoodie) and I met up, and we then just found out that Lorry (@Bead_109) had come up from Southern California for an SFB weekend, so after some lobby-searching we had a NoCal-SoCal tweetup! (I had not seen Lorry since 2011, on a ballet trip down to Orange County/L.A.) Ah, how wonderful the ballet twitterverse is. [See her blog post, “Ballet…the San Francisco Treat.”]
Here are my ballet bites from the varied program (Serenade by George Balanchine, RAkU by Yuri Possokhov, Lambarena by Val Caniparoli), followed by the evening’s principal casting:
Engaging pre-perf interview getting to know @sfballet principal @josephwalsh89 (also dancing later tonight in #Lambarena). #sfballet
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) January 31, 2015
For more on Joseph Walsh, see his bio; Meet the Artist interviews are archived on the SF Ballet website (though I’m not sure how soon after the original date).
#Serenade was transcendent! Impeccable corps work especially. Such clarity. @sfballet
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) January 31, 2015
.@yuanyuanTan9 exquisite as ever in #RAkU. My second time seeing it and last scene still devastating. @sfballet
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) January 31, 2015
#Lambarena had ups and downs for me, but there were strong individual performances throughout, esp among the lead guys. @sfballet
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) January 31, 2015
See also: reviews from San Francisco Chronicle, DanceTabs, danceviewtimes, Bachtrack.
PROGRAM 1 — Friday, January 30, 2015 — 8pm
*Indicates premiere in ballet
Serenade
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Composer: Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky
Waltz Couple: Lorena Feijoo, Davit Karapetyan*
Russian Girl: Vanessa Zahorian
Angel: Dores André
Dark Angel: Tiit Helimets
Intermission
RAkU
Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Composer: Shinji Eshima
Yuan Yuan Tan, Carlos Quenedit
Pascal Molat
Intermission
Lambarena
Choreographer: Val Caniparoli
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach and traditional African rhythms and music (as arranged by Pierre Akendengue and Hughes de Courson)
Lorena Feijoo
Kimberly Braylock, Ellen Rose Hummel
Joseph Walsh, Daniel Deivison-Oliveira, Wei Wang