Rita Felciano

"Schubert Scherzo," "The Eternal Idol," "Sinfonietta" "Echo," "Merely Players" "Blue Until June"
Smuin Contemporary Ballet
Palace of Fine Arts
San Francisco, CA
September 30, 2018

Smuin Contemporary Ballet, as it is known today, is that rare story of a company surviving without missing a beat even after the unexpected death of its founder. Michael Smuin in this case. Less than a decade after his acrimonious departure from San Francisco Ballet, with which he had been associated off and on since

"death"
Fact/SF
CounterPulse Theater
San Francisco, CA
Sept, 27, 2018

Sometimes a show leaves you slightly dissatisfied because it didn’t quite hit its target. Yet with choreographer/Artistic Director Charles Slender-White’s “death” chronological and imaginative time, the examination of the audience/performers’ relationship, the ingenious use of Counter Pulse’s physical space, and the slippery topic of this inquiry, you couldn’t help admire the endeavor's complexity. FACT/SF’s three male (Slender-White, Keanu

"Stabat Mater" "Mad Brass"
Garrett + Moulton Productions
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
September 6, 2018

Using less experienced dancers as a backdrop to soloists can boast of a long tradition in Ballet. But when Janice Garrett and Charles Moulton, each after long independent careers in contemporary dance, decided to bring a "movement choir" of not-yet professional dancers to their co-choreographies, they stepped into unknown territory. Former tapper, theater director and Merce Cunningham dancer Moulton

"Head in the Sand" "Something About A Nightingale" "Giant"
ODC Dance
B Way Theater
San Francisco, CA
July 20, 2018

No question ODC Dance has survived for 47 years with the same three women’s leadership because of their artistic talents and clear vision of the way they see themselves within the ecosystem of local and national dance. One of the smartest events they started over a decade ago is Summer Sampler, two weekends with two different hour-long programs

San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
July 14, 2018

Celebrating its 40^th anniversary, the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival performed at the City’s prestigious War Memorial Opera House for the second time. It was a wildly acclaimed occasion with excellent performances from a dozen companies from Mexico to Bolivia, Spain to India and Cuba to the Philippines. The program’s last page announced that next year’s Festival would again take

"Lacunae" "Shutter" "Unlocking/Elpis"
Amy Seiwert's Imagery
ODC Theater
San Francisco, CA
June 28, 2018

Amy Seiwert, until recently Choreo- grapher in Residence with Smuin Contemporary Ballet and founder of her own Imagery company, started a summer program she called Sketches eight years ago. She has explained the project as a way to allow her the kind the risk taking for which commissions are not always the best vehicle. More than anything, she feared falling into established, even successful,

"Ritmo" "Ambiguous Dance" "Laughing Frame" "We are all Dragons in Drag" “Tableaux 2017” “Divine Conversations”
San Francisco International Arts Festival
Fort Mason Center
San Francisco, CA
May 31-June 3, 2018

This year’s San Francisco International Arts Festival offered a line-up similar to the one it has since 2013. That means Circus, Comedy, Music, Performance, Theater and Video, the vast majority from the Bay Area. Given the “international” in the name, the Festival disappoints almost every year. For

"Snap" "Homing" "The Old Child" "Jardi Tancat"
SF Danceworks
Cowell Theater
San Francisco, CA
June 8, 2018

Good choreography, well performed. What else could you want? If this formula includes new and contemporary choreography by a group of independent dancers whose sense of ensemble is excellent, you get an intelligent, challenging evening of dance that makes you look forward to what else is coming down the line. Such again was the impact of the now three-year old SF Danceworks

"Itchy Bot Bot (A Family Portrait) "Kimono Wednesday" "Giggling Flame and Roaring Waves" "La Lorona" "The Sound of Snow" "Heartbreak Hotel"
Oakland Ballet Company
Laney College Theater
Oakland, CA
June 2, 2018

Oakland Ballet has a noble past, a rocky interim and a promising future. Artistic Director Graham Lustig, the company’s experienced choreographer and administrator since 2010, offered his possibly most encouraging spring season yet. He also has audiences in mind who never tire of the classics, think “Nutcracker”