Ballet 101—Nutcracker

“Little girls dream of the party scene,

Older ones a chance to dance with the corps

Behind the Dew Drop Fairy,

Or perhaps be featured as an exotic candy

In the Land of Sweets.”

—Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe

I wish I had made The Nutcracker my first Ballet 101 post. After all, I did see it last year and it is the ballet to end all ballets: the one most aspiring ballerinas have been in and the one most people have seen. But for some reason, I didn’t have time to blog about it immediately afterwards and so, after a couple of days had passed, I decided not to. Now, after such a crazy fall, when I seemed barely able to post about anything but opera, a few days seem like nothing. Plus, in San Francisco, The Nutcracker marks the transition from opera season to ballet season at the War Memorial Opera House so it seems only right to mark that passage here.

I don’t necessarily see The Nutcracker every Christmas, but I do usually try to see at least one Christmas-related performance during the month of December and it often shows up in the rotation if I’m not into Messiah that year. La Belle Chantal loves it, so it’s always a great excuse for us to hit the town.

Plus, I have a thing for nutcrackers since a tree-trimming party years ago when my boyfriend at the time gave me two beautiful wooden nutcracker ornaments. Which eventually led to this madness:

Yes, there are 40+ nutcrackers on that tree.

Drosselmeyer nutcracker

The one that started it all

And, yes, I bought two more ornaments at the performance itself. I ask you, how could I not get the pink “Kingdom of the Sweets” one?

And that’s what I love about this ballet. Dolls, toys, and candy come alive? Being taken away to a magical snowy wonderland full of tasty treats where people perform just for you? Sign me up.

The San Francisco Ballet sets this particular production in San Francisco during the 1915 World’s Fair so there is a bit of local color as well. I don’t love everything about the production (notably that Clara is played by a young child and is transformed into another dancer for the pas de deux), but they set up the story well and there are a number of standout pieces, especially the “Waltz of the Snowflakes” (it is truly a spectacular feat that they are able to dance in the near-blizzard conditions on stage) and the coffee, tea, and trepak divertissement dances.

In this year’s production, two dancers stood out for me, Koto Ishihara, who played the mechanical doll in the party scene, and Frances Chung, who danced the “Grand Pas de Deux.” Of course, the casting changes from night to night, so going on a different night may mean a very different cast. However, I can’t imagine not enjoying this on any night, if only for all the little girls you will see in the audience, playing dress up and watching their dreams unfold before their very eyes.

Merry Christmas everyone and may all your dreams come true!

So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 Mixtape

"Koop Island Blues" by Koop featuring Ane Brun

In reflecting on my recent posts about So You Think You Can Dance, it struck me how much my reactions to the dances on this show are influenced by the music. Mandy Moore and her love of 80s music aside, this show has actually introduced me to a number of songs and artists I wouldn’t know otherwise, whether through Wade Robson’s love of Róisín Murphy or Mia Michaels’ incredible choices, including introducing me to Adele back in Season 4 with “Hometown Glory” and her choreography set to “Koop Island Blues” in Season 5.

"Hometown Glory" by Adele

This season, it seemed that choices were a little more mainstream, or at least by artists more familiar to me. There were many older tunes, some refreshing (“Another One Bites the Dust,” “Precious Things”) and others quite tired (“Total Eclipse of the Heart”), but overall there wasn’t much to get me excited. While it confirmed my love of Florence + the Machine (“Heavy in Your Arms”) and The Civil Wars (“Poison & Wine”), I didn’t find myself downloading much new stuff, just “Pop Drop & Roll” by Chonique Sneed, “Skin & Bones” by David J. Roch, and “In This Shirt” by The Irrepressibles, which blew me away so much when I first heard it that I was sad it wasn’t immediately available for purchase. I would love to get Damien Rice’s “Prague,” but it is only part of a much longer bonus track on iTunes. If anyone knows where I could get a legal copy of something close to single length, let me know.

"Prague" by Damien Rice

How about you, are there any songs from this season that made you sit up and take notice?

So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 Awards

Thank you for standing by during last night’s technical difficulties.

And now the awards!

Best in Ballroom: Iveta & Pasha in “Ven A Bailar On The Floor” (Jason Gilkison)

Best in Contemporary: Sasha & Alexander in “Stupid” (Travis Wall)

Best in Hip Hop: Sasha & Twitch in “Misty Blue” (Christopher Scott)

Best in Jazz: Sasha & Melanie in “Game On” (Sonya Tayeh)

Sasha & Melanie in “Game On” by Sonya Tayeh

Best in Housewives: Melanie & Sasha, “Heart Asks Pleasure First” (Stacey Tookey)

Best in Statues: Melanie & Marko in “Turn to Stone” (Travis Wall)

Best Contemporary Concept: The Nightmare in “Precious Things” (Tyce Diorio)

Allison & Ricky in “Precious Things” by Tyce Diorio

Best Use of 80s Music: “Another One Bites the Dust” (Mandy Moore)

Best Use of 80s Music (runner-up): “Fashion” (Charles Klapow)

Best Performance (Comedy): Marko in “Whatever Lola Wants”

Best Performance (Drama): Melanie in “Skin & Bones”

Melanie & Marko in “Skin & Bones” by Dee Caspery

Best Performance (Mohawks): Sasha & Mark in “Raise Your Weapon”

Best Bird: Jordan as a vulture in “Brotsjor”

Best Bird (runner-up): Miranda as a woodpecker in “Break Ya Neck”

Best Flying Leap: Melanie in “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

Jordan & Tadd in “Brotsjor” by Travis Wall

Best Solo: Melanie, “Cracks”

Best All-Star: Allison

Most Welcome All-Star: Ivan

Most Improved All-Star: Lauren

Least Charismatic All-Star: Robert

Male Contestant Who Got the Shaft: Nick

Female Contestant Who Got the Shaft: Miranda

Most Annoying Judge Favorite: Ryan

Most Tiresome Judge Refrain: Sasha’s “hard life” and its effect on her dancing

Best in Choreography: Travis Wall for “Stupid,” “Turn to Stone,” and “Brotsjor”

Melanie & Marko in “Turn to Stone” by Travis Wall

Best Judge Comment: Jesse Tyler Ferguson: “Travis took the classic ‘vulture stalks boy, boy almost succumbs to vulture, boy kills vulture’ story that we all know so well… we’ve seen it over and over… and he took it and he made it this brilliant, beautiful thing…”

So You Think You Can Dance… Contemporary

Last fall I wrote about how I was supremely bored with competitive reality television and wondered why, as the talent pool has improved over the seasons, these shows have become so boring. This is particularly true of the last couple of seasons of So You Think You Can Dance, which recently closed its eighth season with Melanie and Sasha, two incredible dancers, as the final two.

Melanie & Sasha in “Heart Asks Pleasure First”

While the seventh season was plagued with injuries (mostly due to the fact that there has been a marked uptick in the number of dances these contestants are expected to perform on a weekly basis), which impeded any real enjoyment the season’s progression, the eighth season was relatively injury free. And, yet? Sort of boring.

I think I’ve identified the problem. Despite the fact that this show has become extremely demanding in one sense, in another sense these dancers were extremely coddled. While this was somewhat discussed regarding Melanie, it actually applies to almost all the dancers, who were far less challenged outside their style than dancers in earlier seasons. Gone are the days when one drew a different style and partner out of a hat every week. (And, producers, no one actually believes these dancers are drawing their style out of a hat, so why don’t you give up that farce right now.)

If you compare the dance styles assigned in the first five episodes (those with the most dancers) of Seasons 2-4 with those of this season, the reduction in ballroom is stark. Seasons 2-4 are pretty consistent, with an average of 43% ballroom dances, 33% contemporary (including jazz and broadway), 23% hip hop, and 1% disco. But, by Season 8, the majority of dances (51%) are contemporary, with only 26% ballroom, 19% hip hop, and a couple of stray styles like African jazz and Bollywood.

Allison & Ivan in Season 2's “La Cumparsita”

As an example, by just the fifth episode in Season 3, we had seen all ten formal ballroom styles* as well as other ballroom dances such as Argentine tango, mambo, salsa, and West Coast swing, sometimes more than once. On the other hand, Season 8 saw far fewer ballroom styles, with many of those quite watered down technique-wise. When the only great ballroom number is in the “Meet the Top 20” show (with “Ten Dance” world champion Iveta, before they kicked her off for younger, contemporary blood), you know there’s a problem.

This is a shame, given some of the superb numbers we’ve seen in the past, for example, Heidi & Benji’s mambo, Allison & Ivan’s Argentine tango(s), Lacey & Danny’s samba, Melissa & Ade’s rumba, Karla & Vitolio’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” quickstep, Caitlin & Jason’s “Minnie the Moocher” foxtrot, Janette & Brandon’s Argentine tango, Jeanine & Brandon’s “Matrix” paso doble, Ashleigh & Jakob’s cha-cha, and Mollee & Jakob’s “Ordinary Day” waltz.

Jeanine & Brandon in Season 5’s “Tetsujin”

One can only hope that this imbalance will be corrected next time around because I think having so many contemporary pieces became fairly repetitive, or at least seemed that way. Even if some of the dances were quite beautiful, I’m not sure they will stick in my mind as well as Travis & Heidi’s “The Bench,” Jaime & Hok’s “Hummingbird and Flower,” Courtney & Mark’s “The Garden,” Randi & Evan’s “Koop Island Blues,” Kayla & Kūpono’s “Eyes on Fire” and “Gravity,” Jeanine & Jason’s “If It Kills Me,” Melissa & Ade’s “This Woman’s Work,” Ellenore & Jakob’s “Tore My Heart,” or Ellenore & Legacy’s “Machine Gun,” to name just a few.

Still, tune in tomorrow for the awards!

*The ten dances include the five Standard dances of foxtrot, quickstep, tango, Viennese waltz, and waltz, as well as the five Latin dances of cha-cha, jive, paso doble, rumba, and samba.

Ballet 101—Coppélia

What do you see

You people gazing at me

You see a doll on a music box

That’s wound by a key

How can you tell

I'm under a spell

I'm waiting for love's first kiss

You cannot see

How much I long to be free

Turning around on this music box

That’s wound by a key...

From the automatons of Daedalus in Greek mythology to Collodi’s Le avventure di Pinocchio to April in the “I Was Made to Love You” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, authors and artists have been fascinated with the idea of animating the inanimate. The story of Coppélia is one of the most popular incarnations of this idea. Based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Der Sandmann (1816) with music by Léo Delibes, Coppélia is the story of a mysterious inventor, Coppélius, the life-like doll he creates, a young buck, Frantz, and the girl he loves, Swanilda. [Side note: What is with these ballet names? French being arguably one of the most beautiful languages in the world, second only to Italian and maybe Russian, you would think that classical ballet could come up with better names for its heroines than Swanilda, Giselle, and Odette, no?]

If you are a close follower of this blog, you may be thinking, didn’t she say she couldn’t attend this ballet when she was raving about Giselle? And you would be right. I was extremely disappointed that visiting my family in Paris would mean missing one of the few story ballets that the San Francisco Ballet produces each year. But then the gods decided to smile on me and it turned out that Le Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris was putting on the very same ballet at the same time.

Or, sort of.

While Coppélia is generally considered one of the most comic ballets, Patrice Bart’s take on the story is much darker than usual. He abandons much of the original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon and changes the story radically, choosing instead to emphasize the role of Coppélius as seducer of Swanilda and rival of Frantz, which leads to some unique and interesting choreography for the inventor (danced splendidly by étoile Benjamin Pech) but leaves Swanilda (here played by première danseuse Mélanie Hurel) pretty much out in the cold. It seemed so deliberate (with all her best moves coming between obvious applause points) that I actually wondered what was going on at the École de Danse in 1996.

More importantly, Bart pretty much abandons the idea of the doll, Coppélia, that Frantz falls in love with (much to the dismay of Swanilda). So, while danced extremely well, and the orchestra was in fine form, I left a bit disappointed because I thought the doll was sort of the point of the whole thing.

Or maybe I just have too-fond memories of endless viewings of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the “Doll in the Music Box” number...

Coming soon to a bookstore near you...

Unless that bookstore was Borders. Then I guess you're out of luck. But you can, and should, find it online come October. Think of it as a birthday present for both of us.

From my favorite writer on the side, the person who got me through all-nighters at college with her crazy ballet stories, and who shamelessly got me into blogging:

Congratulations, Stasia!

Ballet 101—Giselle

This weekend, I took a break from the endless process of setting up my new computer and watching Oscar hopefuls to attend the opening night of Giselle at the San Francisco Ballet. Although I have long appreciated the music, I had never seen the actual ballet live.

After being relatively disappointed with my last outing to the Nutcracker, I was glad to see the San Francisco Ballet kick it up a notch and deliver a stellar performance all around, particularly Yuan Yuan Tan in the title role. Apparently, the company is using multiple pairings throughout the run, so I’m glad we went to opening night and were able to see her. Giselle is such a demanding role, both technically (requiring exquisite balance and difficult footwork) and expressively (with the lead moving from naïve peasant girl, to someone driven mad by love, to a mature adult in the netherworld of the Wilis) that it is essential to have an experienced dancer.

One of the reasons I first sought out the ballet is that it was co-written by one of my favorite nineteenth-century authors, Théophile Gautier. Virtually unknown here in the States, Gautier is a jack-of-all-cultural-trades: painter, critic, poet, novelist, and dramatist. His most famous legacy is probably his espousal of the phrase “l’art pour l’art,” that is, art for art’s sake, or, as adapted for MGM’s Leo the Lion logo, Ars gratia artis. I love him for his supernatural short stories involving vampires, mummies, and all manner of ghostly appearances, which is probably why he was so attracted to the legend of the vengeful ghost-like Wilis.

The music helps enormously in telling the story, with a heavy use of leitmotif to heighten the drama. While not as overtly dramatic as something like Swan Lake, for me, Giselle is one of the strongest ballets in conveying the story through music. This may be because its composer, Adolphe Adam, was primarily a composer of operas. However, he did compose another ballet in the repertoire, Le Corsaire (ballet with pirates!), which I was lucky enough to see at Lincoln Center some years ago. Perhaps more familiar to readers, he was also the composer of the ultimate French Christmas carol, “Minuit, chrétiens” (“O Holy Night”). Léo Delibes, who composed Coppélia, the next story ballet in the San Francisco Ballet’s 2011 season, was his pupil. And, after this amazing performance, I’m very sad I won’t be able to see it.

It'll Turn into an Oscar Blitz

There’s little I love more than the Oscars. It’s the one dinner party I can be counted on to throw every year, complete with betting pool. Even while living in Paris, I continued the tradition through a variety of strategies—one year having my cousin hook up a cable descrambler and staying up all night to watch live, and another year hosting a party the following night while holding a news embargo throughout the day. One of the great fringe benefits about now living on the West Coast is being able to have people over without being up until all hours of the night.

I generally try to see all the nominations in the major categories, but, as time goes on and I go out to fewer and fewer movies, my annual Oscar blitz becomes more and more difficult, especially now that the ceremony is a month earlier than it used to be. This year, I saw more foreign films in the theaters than usual, but not much else, although I did manage to catch both Leonardo DiCaprio movies (I swear that was not intentional). While Shutter Island is unlikely to get any nominations, at the very least, Inception should garner nods in art direction and music.

So that means netflixing The Social Network, The Kids Are All Right, and Winter’s Bone, and getting out to see The Fighter, The King’s Speech, True Grit, Blue Valentine, and eventually maybe Rabbit Hole. I’m boycotting 127 Hours on principle since I generally can’t watch any bodily incisions whatsoever, let alone one performed at the bottom of a canyon (which is why you’ll never hear me talk about any television shows set in hospitals, or those involving the initials C, S, or I).

This weekend I saw The Town and Black Swan. I enjoyed one a lot more than I thought I would and the other a lot less. The Town was a fun, if unexceptional, little film. I continue to be impressed by Jeremy Renner as well as Ben Affleck’s turn to directing—it will be interesting to see where he goes with it. Black Swan was a bit of a mess. The performances were great, but the story had more holes than the bodies in The Town. Of course, from the moment we were hit over the head with the “story” of the ballet, and that story was wrong, I knew it was going to be a difficult ride. And that was before all the self-mutilation. Not even Tchaikovsky can make up for that.

While I love Swan Lake as much as anyone, if you really want to watch a movie based around one of Tchaikovsky’s most technically demanding works to perform, I’d suggest instead the feel-good French film of the year (how often do I get to say that?), The Concert, based around the sublime Violin Concerto in D major and starring the equally sublime Mélanie Laurent, last seen on this side of the pond in Quentin Tarentino’s Inglourious Basterds.

In the meantime, any Oscar contenders you recommend? What are you going to see between now and February 27th?

West Coast Story

This week (as a sort of belated birthday present), I attended the new touring revival of West Side Story at the Orpheum. The conceit of this version is that it’s grittier and more authentic than the original, primarily through the extended use of Spanish by the Puerto Rican characters.

I thought the concept worked well as a whole, but that may have been because I was so familiar with the story and songs. Given that there were no translations made available, nor any supertitles, and that a few key plot points were in Spanish, I have to wonder if someone new to the show would be able to fully appreciate the story. However, after a day when the bilingual nature (in fact, trilingual, when you throw Chinese into the mix) of our city was on full display, with the highlighting of the Spanish-speaking announcers and players in the parade and celebration of Los Gigantes, the updated musical seemed a fitting close to the day. Of course, as someone who daily works in multiple languages, I’m always eager to see new displays of mixed language use.

I got another pleasant surprise when it turned out that one of the Jets was none other than Neil Haskell, of So You Think You Can Dance fame. It was a good thing, as I hadn’t realized just how much dancing there actually was in this musical (having only known it through the movie version). And dancing was certainly the highlight here; although, as often seems to happen in San Francisco, the rustle-tussle of the gang fighting took on new meaning. Unavoidably, given the small orchestra, Bernstein’s lovely music got short shrift, which was a disappointment. But, all in all, it was an enjoyable, if a bit overly dramatic, show.