Jim French News

San Francisco Ballet fairly leaps for joy in the opening program of its 2022 season live onstage at the War Memorial Opera House. Program 1 includes George Balanchine's eternally effervescent 'Symphony in C' and the world premiere of 'Mrs. Robinson' by Cathy Marston, based on the seminal novel 'The Graduate.' Performances continue thru 2/12/22.

Oakland-based innovator of vertical dance BANDALOOP, activator of international public spaces with awe-inspiring, perspective-changing mid-air performances, will celebrate its 30th anniversary by unveiling a new large-scale outdoor work titled LOOM:FIELD.

ODC has announced that DANCE DOWNTOWN, March 31 - April 10 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, will kick off its 50+ anniversary celebrations.

During the interim, after our long COVID restrictions in Los Angeles began to lessen, The Music Center, and with the generosity of Glorya Kaufman and her continual support for Dance, created a fabulous summer program for Los Angeles, entitled 'Dance After Dusk' in the outdoor area in between the three theatres, the Ahmanson, the Mark Taper Forum and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The tentative plans are to open up the theatres for live performances in the near future. 'The Jerry Moss Plaza' was created to present outstanding dance performances this summer, in a beautiful setting, culture, abounding all around, and the intense longing to see live and electrifying performances of hope, beauty and talented visionaries. There is a beautiful stage erected in the middle of the Plaza facing west, so as the sun was setting behind the stage, the performance began. No disappointments whatsoever with this third and final offering with Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Company. Indeed, the talent, the expertise and the intent of this stellar dance company is incomparable! The technique of every member of the company, with every movement they make, will fill you with awe. Stunning flexibility, extension, ballon, reach, strength, endurance, passion and fluidity is masterfully executed.

San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) announces details for two world premieres of its groundbreaking 2021 Digital Season: a new ballet by Myles Thatcher and Wooden Dimes by Danielle Rowe, opening February 11 and March 4, respectively, during Programs 02 and 03.

Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson today announced plans to present a streamed, all-digital 2021 Season. With the continuing health pandemic placing restrictions on large public in-person gatherings, Tomasson curated a reimagined season.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Artistic Director of Ballet Vlaanderen (Flanders) since September 2015, has steered the company in a diverse and versatile direction, uniting forty dancers from over fifteen countries. Cherkaoui bridges the gap between ballet and contemporary dance by bringing in some of today's respected contemporary choreographers. On the program currently showing at the Joyce Theater are three contemporary ballets by Akram Khan, Chrystal Pite, and one of his own pieces. This is an exciting program to bring to NYC. I, too, was excited to attend the opening night performance on March 3rd.

How lucky we are to be living in the age of Mark Morris! My first thought watching San Francisco Ballet's opening night performance of their a?oeClassical (Re)Visiona?? program was a?oeGod, they're good!a?? SF Ballet presents a sparking and varied program of contemporary ballet that will leave you skipping down the steps of the Opera House on your way home.

San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) presents the world premiere of Trey McIntyre's The Big Hunger, his third ballet for the Company, on February 13, 2020 at the War Memorial Opera House. Inspired by the a?oebig hungera?? and a?oelittle hungera?? philosophies of the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and set to Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, McIntyre's new piece returns his a?oehighly imaginative, engaging individualitya?? (Dance Europe) to the Company, following the triumphant debut of his ballet Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem at the 2018 Unbound festival, which gave repeat performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and, most recently, at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. McIntyre's The Big Hunger premieres on SF Ballet's Program 03: Dance Innovations, which also includes Edwaard Liang's The Infinite Ocean and Harald Landers' Etudes. Performances will run through February 23, 2020.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the direction of Glenn Edgerton, is one of the most accomplished dance companies in the United States today. After an international career with the Joffrey Ballet and later at the Nederlands Dance Theater 1, both as dancer and artistic director, Edgerton brings unique skills to his position. It shows in his company's performances--serious, accomplished and professional--a real mark that the company is a cut above the rest.

Program 05, Lyric Voices, opens on March 27 at San Francisco Ballet with works that navigate the fine line between self-interest and self-obsession, and illuminate society's obsession with gadgets and devices. SF Ballet's Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov's  “. . . two united in a single soul . . .” premieres during the triple-bill program, which runs through April 7 at SF War Memorial Opera House, and Christopher Wheeldon's Bound To and Trey McIntyre's Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem both return after their critical successes during 2018 Unbound: A Festival of New Works.

San Francisco Ballet opens Program 02, Kaleidoscope, on February 12, with performances through February 23 at SF War Memorial Opera House. Kaleidoscope features the SF Ballet premiere of Benjamin Millepied's Appassionata, and the returns of Justin Peck's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, created for Unbound: A Festival of New Works in 2018, and George Balanchine's Divertimento No. 15.

Hubbard Street, a well-established Contemporary Dance Company presents an interesting collage of dance pieces that are demanding technique-wise yet so fluid and rhythmic they make it look effortless and fresh. I say collage because the evening painted a bigger picture through each piece, making it complete by the finish. The sixteen dancers are amazing physical interpreters of a feeling, a mood, an emotion, a vibe. They are strong, versatile and vibrant. The pieces by themselves are each complex, deep, bold, unique; with maximum controlled energy, extreme focus and inner and outer strength required, or rather, mandatory to perform them. That verbiage might seem a bit jumbled, but it's what I felt after seeing these dancers perform... (That's my stream-of-consciousness statement)

RIOULT Dance NY, the American modern dance company with a European sensibility dedicated to the creation and presentation of the work of choreographer Pascal Rioult, announces its 2018 New York season May 30th – June 3rd at The Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, NYC).

RIOULT Dance NY, the American modern dance company with a European sensibility dedicated to the creation and presentation of the work of choreographer Pascal Rioult, announces its 2018 New York season May 30th – June 3rd at The Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, NYC). Hailed by the New York Times as having “met the challenge of comparison with George Balanchine,” Rioult will celebrate the historic connection between choreographers and composers in a program titled Written for Dance. Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased online at www.joyce.org or by phone at 212.242.0800.

Back in December of 2017, I wrote a glowing review for BWW DanceWorld of Julliard's New Dances Celebrating the Legacy of Lawrence Rhodes in honor of his retirement after 15 years as artistic director. I am delighted to report that since then, Taryn Kaschock Russell as acting director of Juilliard Dance has kept the program's excellence alive and even judged it a notch upward in terms of superb dancing and choreography. This was evidenced on the afternoon of Saturday, March 24th 2018 during an almost completely satisfying performance of 'Spring Dances' at Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Seattle Playwrights Salon kicks off a year of parity (plays by women!) by presenting Unhinged, by Seattle-based playwright, Pamela Hobart Carter at the Conservatory, 5813 South, Seattle, 98108. Admission is free! Beer, wine, cider, and food available for purchase before and after the show, and during intermission.

After their sold-out world premiere at ODC Theater last summer, RAWdance returns next month in an encore presentation of DOUBLE EXPOSURE, the company's critically acclaimed program of duets representing more than a dozen West Coast choreographers. Double Exposure runs October 26 - 28, Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 - $35, and may be purchased online at odc.dance/tickets or by phone at 415-863-9834.

We Will Not Be Silent - The true story of Sophie Scholl, a German college student who led the only act of public resistance to the Nazis during World War II, David Meyers' play examines the moral strength and clarity that led a group of students to risk their lives for a righteous, but hopeless, cause. The Fountain offers a free staged reading as an adjunct to its currently running production of Building the Wall.

ODC Theater is proud to present RAWdance in the world premiere of Double Exposure, a series of 12 duets each choreographed by a different West Coast choreographer or choreographic team. Artistic Directors Ryan T. Smith andWendy Rein are the evening's sole performers in an event they're calling 'the ultimate duet.' Double Exposure runs July 28 - 31, Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 - $45, and may be purchased online at odcdance.org/tickets or by phone at 415.863.9834.