Rita Felciano

"The Fifth Season," "Snowbird," "Etudes"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco
February 14, 2019

The third season program again showed the SFB in fine mettle with Helgi Tomasson’s darkly hued “The Fifth Season,” the heart-breaking “Snowbird” by Cathy Marston, and one of the oddest works in Ballet repertoire, Harald Lander’s “Etudes”, first performed by SFB in 1998. For that one the dancers ought to have been given a bonus for the sheer stamina and focus

"Divertimento No 15" "Appassionata" "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
February 12, 2019

Superb, intriguing, inviting is a good as tag I can come up with for San Francisco Ballet’s second 2019 Season program. Attending with a friend who grew up on New York City Ballet in its seventies, it was amusing to see at how stunned he was with the quality of the SFB dancers. The program, indeed, was very

"Impact"
Kristin Damrow & Company
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Forum
San Francisco, CA
January 31, 2019

Every once in a while a piece of information pops up in my computer that intrigues more than others. Such was the case when the Kristin Damrow & Company announced the premiere of “Impact,” at Yerba Buena Center’s Forum, a large non-proscenium space that has challenged many a choreographer. Brutalist architecture, apparently, influenced this piece by an artist unknown to me.

"Don Quixote"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 25, 2019

Everyone should see “Don Quixote” at least once. After all, comic ballets are more than rare. Especially if it’s as fine a production as the San Francisco Ballet’s 2003 version (mostly) by Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokov. Much of the dancing is spectacular, much of the Minkus score definitely less so. “Don Quixote” is also fine ensemble work, offering welcome opportunities for Kitri’

SFB Gala: This is Passion
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 23, 2019

Sometimes I think it would be desirable if American ballet companies would receive secure support from our national government, including pensions for everyone involved, the way they do in many other countries, France and Finland, for instance. But then, we might not have had San Francisco Ballet’s recent Gala, at the opening of its 86th season. And that would have been

Fresh 2019
"Hot Mess(Sage)", "Rock e Malta: Orientamento (a collage /study)". "1880-2015", "Queent"
Joe Goode Annex, San Francisco
January 11, 2019

For the last decade the “Fresh Festival” has become a month-long January event of “experimental” dance, music, performance and workshops. It started out modestly as a project by La Alternativa, the artistic team of dancer/choreographer Kathleen Hermesdorf and musician/composer Albert Mathias. This month it includes participants from Germany and Mexico. Coincidentally, the Festival’s ten-year anniversary

"The Nutcracker"
Oakland Ballet Company
Paramount Theater, Oakland
December 22, 2018

Even if you are not a dance aficionado, you can’t miss “Nutcracker” floating through the holidays in a way the “Messiah” and “A Christmas Carol” never will. Bay Area audiences’ choices of this Tchaikovsky masterpiece are almost unlimited. San Francisco Ballet’s is super elegant, Smuin Ballet’s both sentimental and saucy, while Mark Foehringer Dance Projects’ finely articulate one-hour version boasts of a small live orchestra. Each

Catherine Galasso
"Of Iron and Diamonds V3: Alone Together"
ODC Theater
San Francisco, CA
December 7, 2018

In 2011 Catherine Galasso finished a residency in San Francisco with the ODC Theater’s commissioned “Bring on the Lumiere”, an intricately structured evocation of the Lumiere brothers and their innovative working with light. It’s a piece that engaged with wit, imagination and some Gallic charm rarely seen on our stages. Then Galasso left for greener pastures. Now she has returned with