Program 2 at San Francisco Ballet is an eye-filling and shapely package of three separate ballets. Beginning with Chroma, choreographed by Wayne McGregor, the production scrambles the senses with its minimalist scenic design by John Pawson and shrewd lighting concepts by Lucy Carter. In this deceptively simple ambience where color or what seems to be the absence of color is but a tone away, the air is richly tinged with the music of Joby Talbot and Jack White III. Conductor Martin West magnifies the score's arc of tension between muscled-aggression and delicate vulnerability. Costume designer Mauritz Junge's sort-of high end underwear reveals the dancers' every burning muscle and stretched-out bone throughout McGregor's super-charged workout choreography. In all its simplicity, Chroma is a dazzling display of uncompromising strength and resilient grace. Featured in the Opening Night cast were Maria Kochetkova, Jaime Garcia Castilla, Frances Chung, Pascal Molat, Yuan Yuan Tan, Taras Domitro, Dana Genshaft, Anthony Spaulding, Isaac Hernandez, and Garen Scribner.
About Choreographer Wayne McGregor
In 2006, Wayne McGregor was appointed the Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, the first modern dance maker to be given that post in the company’s history. Outside the pure fields of dance McGregor has directed opera for La Scala, Milan and choreographed movement for movies, plays, musicals, and art galleries including site specific installations at the Hayward Gallery, Canary Wharf and the Pompidou Centre and movement for movies and music videos, from Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire to Radiohead’s recent Lotus Flower video. His creations for other dance companies have included work for Paris Opéra Ballet, La Scala, NDT1, Stuttgart Ballet, English National Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, New York City Ballet and the Australian Ballet, with upcoming 2012-2013 commissions including a new Rite of Spring for the Bolshoi Ballet and a major public dance work in Trafalgar Square for the Olympics.
The world premiere of Mark Morris' Beaux is an impossible dream-come-true – beginning with the choreographer's choice of music, Bohuslav Martinu's Concerto for Harpsichord composed in 1935. Featuring the gentlemen of San Francisco Ballet, there has never been a more colorful and appealing opportunity to gather the Company's male pulchritude together in a show of unity, strength, form, beauty, and an occasional cavorting romp. Harpsichord soloist Bradley Morris was given as rare an opportunity – an 18th Century-style instrument brought to the fore in a 20th Century composition never intended for a 21st Century Classical Ballet featuring an all-male cast clad in form-fitting rainbow camouflage and marking its debut in the City by the Bay. Way to go, beaux!
About Choreographer Mark Morris
Mark Morris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2007, he received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival lifetime achievement award. In 2010, he received the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society. He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. In 1991, he was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation. He has received eleven honorary doctorates to date. In 2006, Morris received the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Mayor’s Award for Arts & Culture and a WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award “for being an American ambassador for classical music at home and abroad.” He is the subject of a biography, Mark Morris, by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and Marlowe & Company published a volume of photographs and critical essays entitled Mark Morris’ L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration.
Christopher Wheeldon's Number Nine is a kaleidoscopic riot of color and energy. Set to Michael Torke's 1989 composition, Ash, the score is likewise ever-changing with its multiple layers of musical influence. Costume designer Holly Hynes employs an intense blue for the Principal Soloists and a pulsating yellow for the two dozen members of the corps de ballet, making Wheeldon's slashing diagonal intersections and whirling spin-outs even more daring and intense. Guest Conductor Charles Barker returns to lead the popular work which premiered last season at San Francisco Ballet.
About Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon
Christopher Wheeldon was the recipient of the Dance Magazine Award and the London Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Ballet for Polyphonia in 2005; a performance of the work by NYCB dancers received the Olivier Award. In 2006, DGV (Danse à Grande Vitesse) was nominated for an Olivier Award. Additional honors include the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center and the American Choreography Award. Among the celebrated ballets Wheeldon has created are: Continuum for San Francisco Ballet (2002); Tryst, DGV (Danse à Grande Vitesse), and Electric Counterpoint for The Royal Ballet (2002, 2006, and 2008, respectively); a full-length Swan Lake for Pennsylvania Ballet (2004); “Dance of the Hours” in Ponchielli's La Gioconda and choreography for Sir Richard Eyer’s new production of Carmen both at The Metropolitan Opera (2006 and 2010); Misericordes for the Bolshoi Ballet (2007); The Wanderers for the Royal Danish Ballet (2008); The Christening Suite for the Norwegian National Ballet for the opening of the Oslo Opera House (2008); as well as ballet sequences for the feature film Center Stage (2000) and a stage version of Broadway’s Sweet Smell of Success (2002).
SFBallet's Program 2 continues through February 25th. Click on the date to order tickets on-line: 2/19 @ 2:00 – 2/23 @ 8:00 – 2/25 @ 2:00 – 2/25 @ 8:00
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