San Francisco Ballet always kicks off the season with a gala opening night, a socko evening of one-off star turns that (mostly) won't be seen again. The gala puts some closure to the sentimentality of The Nutcracker, and smashes a bottle of champagne against the big ship of contemporary ballet, dancing for adults.
The occasion is a fundraiser, an occasion for civic pride, a promenade for San Francisco high society, and a parade of the company's big guns, all at once. This year's opener, last Wednesday night, was stunning in its flashes of sheer dance power. Considering that the company has little time to put this show together, given the opening of the season less than a week later, the level of polish they manage to achieve is particularly impressive.
"Gala" pretty much means an evening of show-stoppers, but as put together by Helgi Tomasson, company director for over two decades now, this one was not just a fireworks display, it was a showcase for his dancers' versatility and range. We saw everything from princess to rough trade, from brio to deep intimacy, mostly in solos and duets. All 17 principal dancers appeared, most of the soloists. The gala made the case: We have arrived, and this is a fabulous company.
The variety was dazzling. I haven't recovered from Davit Karapetyan's explosive, bare-chested solo "Last Breath," to music from Matrix Revolutions. Three minutes of high-test testosterone; if I were John Karr, I might know how to describe the guy's punch. There are no finer pecs to be seen on Big Muscle, and Karapetyan's ballet technique is impeccable.
This was balanced by the larger-than-life, lush femininity of "Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan," danced with convincingly colossal style by the sumptuous new ballerina Molly Smolen, who comes here from the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Smolen made you feel that you were seeing the diva herself. The ballet was choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton, founder-choreographer of the Royal Ballet, who adored Isadora, and famously would imitate her at parties. As for Smolen, the lady is melting, the thighs press forth against her silken tunic, she plunges her hands up to the wrist into an urn, lifts them clenched to the heavens, turns, lifts her breastbone, and in the pose of the Nike of Samothrace, runs towards us, scattering rose petals in her wake. She can pull it off. (The waltzes were ably played by Roy Bogas.)
Pulling it off is the name of the game in galas. By the end of the evening, when most of the company appeared in the finale of George Balanchine's "Symphony in C," we'd gone through most every style to be seen in contemporary ballet, including a dazzling Tina LeBlanc dancing Gerald Arpino's "L'Air d'Esprit," partnered beautifully by Gennadi Nedvigin. LeBlanc is unmatched for her speed and accuracy. The detail she shows makes her incomparable, and she is never more revealing than when she allows a moment of tenderness to appear amidst a whirling chain of turns.
The evening's greatest applause came for Muriel Maffre, who's retiring this year after a great career, in Yuri Possokhov's "Bitter Tears." She appeared like a ghost from the 18th century, emerging from gauzy scrims to move mysteriously around the countertenor Mark Crayton, singing a haunting aria by Handel.
The tenderest dancing came in Christopher Wheeldon's "After the Rain," set to shining music by Arvo Part (featuring concertmaster Roy Malan). Yuan Yuan Tan and Damien Smith gave us an image of contemporary love, each supporting the other in deeply intimate ways.
The gorgeously soft Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun danced "7 for Eight" (Helgi Tomasson) with Pierre-Franois Vilanoba. Michael McGraw was the pianist.
In Jacque Garnier's "Aunis," three lonely Frenchmen in black trousers and white shirts, maybe waiters, maybe sailors, moved in a dance that may be a dream. Vilanoba danced in this piece, to French accordion neo-folk music — a polka, a waltz, a sailor's jig — along with Nicolas Blanc and Pascal Molat. All three dancers are, in fact, French.
Also on the program, Vanessa Zahorian and Gonzalo Garcia danced the grand pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty, Kristin Long and Joan Boada glowed with a steady radiance in Tomasson's inventive "SoirŽes Musicales," and Lorena Feij—o danced the great second-act pas de deux from Giselle with marvelous phrasing, partnered by Tiit Helimets as the Prince. Paul Ehrlich played the viola.
Many artists have to work together to make an evening like this happen. The ballet orchestra, a first-rate band, gave noble support under the baton of Martin West.