Tag: Arts & Entertainment Wednesday

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The In-Between Things Blog-versary, Day 3

Today is The In-Between Things day 3 blog-versary extravaganza!  It’s been a year of Arts & Entertainment Wednesday!  I feel like I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing, but I also feel like it has been a very edifying experience and am looking forward to discovering what year two has in store.

A few numbers to make things seem important:

  • 1 person
  • 4 categories
  • 52 weeks
  • 145 posts

In celebration, I decided that this week we would take a look back at the past year by highlighting five favorite posts for each category.

I was sure that it would be simple to skim through and pick my faves.  Not so fast my friend!  Wow, there is a lot there.  I also noticed formatting issues and little typos on pretty much every post (thank you for tolerating my imperfections).  Other than the corrections, there weren’t really any posts that stood out to me.  On the plus side, I guess that means that the writing is at least of a consistent quality (for better or worse). On the minus side, it made it challenging to pick out a few posts in each category to highlight, so I’ve tried to go with just a range of topics.  I’ve re-opened the comments on these posts, please let me know what you think of them.  And if your favorite posts weren’t highlighted, please leave a comment here about which one(s) you feel were overlooked.

Arts & Entertainment Wednesday (33)

My interest in creating a blog at all and in having one day dedicated to Arts & Entertainment specifically came out of driving home from the ballet one night with my mom and sister.  I just really wanted to talk about art more.  This would be my outlet.  The challenge is that I am not big on arts criticism and didn’t want to resort to the sort of reviews that you see in various publications.  To me it seems that critics tend to pile their expectations on the work, often with an agenda intended to make the work less, not more accessible.  I’m still working on finding an effective style when it comes to my reviews. Mixing in posts about other sorts of artistic activities helps keep it fun.

RBG
This was the first post where I touched on the subject of feminism and even though RBG is unquestionably fierce, I was nervous.  It is something that I feel very strongly about, I just hadn’t felt comfortable in expressing myself. Since this post, I’ve gained some confidence in handling the subject, but this was my first, tentative step.
Don Quixote
My first foray into dance criticism.
Merce Cunningham
What a fascinating person!  I admire his virtuosity and his unique creative process immensely.
One Inch of Art for a Week
This was a fun project.  For me, the best thing about it was the scale. I would have felt overwhelmed with trying to create even just a one page-sized piece of art once, much less every day for a week.  I also liked the weirdness of the medium.  I might like to try this project again … I wonder what I would do differently and what I would wind up with.  Want to play along?
The Tour de France
This is something that has fascinated me for years.  Sport as a metaphor may be something worth revisiting.

I was listening to a podcast on my walk the other day and it opened with this quote:

“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself…”

– Carl Jung

It struck me that this is what I was feeling when I decided to start this blog.  I was looking for an outlet to communicate. And even though writing is a solitary endeavor, I do feel more connected by having this outlet to explore different things and share my thoughts. 

Thank you for reading.

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The Real Housewives Triad

Twice a month, my writing group does flash fiction writing exercises.  This is not a strong area for me, and most efforts are nothing that I would try to get you to read.  This one however just makes me giggle.  Here is the photo and below, my story about the Real Housewives Triad.

Photo courtesy of: Starrchez; character: Anann (Sara Maraffino) from short film, Killing Anann; courtesy of C3Stories and Dreamwalker Productions
Photo courtesy of: Starrchez; character: Anann (Sara Maraffino) from short film, Killing Anann; courtesy of C3Stories and Dreamwalker Productions 

The Real Housewives Triad

In behavioral psychology the “dark triad” describes the convergence of psychopathy, narcissism, and machiavellianism.  Researchers have also identified a “light triad.”  But there is another, less understood triad, the “Real Housewives triad.”  This describes the convergence of hunger, drunkenness, and menopause resulting in explosive and irrational behavior.

Jen had had it!  Who did he think he was?  After taking two bites of the extra-large slice of princess cake that he had requested, he stood up, dropped the rest in the trash, set his plate in the sink, and headed for the sofa in the other room.  He wouldn’t even put his plate in the dishwasher.  Two bites!  He had no idea what she would give for two bites of princess cake.  The heavenly combination of raspberry, almond, and cream.  Princess cake was everything to her that he wasn’t and she had had enough.

Calmly, she pushed her chair back from the table.  There was a locked box in the kitchen junk drawer. 

He padded into the kitchen, “hey, do we have any ice cream?” 

The look in her eye told him that he had asked the wrong question.  She raised her right arm, pointing the barrel of the 9-millimeter Luger at his head. 

“Outside, now.” She was not about to get brains all over her new marble backsplash. 

The End

I learned about the light and dark triads from this article by Scott Barry Kaufman.  His website also has a personality test to see where you fall on the light triad scale.  As far as I’m aware, no one has begun conducting research on the Real Housewives triad…yet.

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Monet at the De Young

monet water lilies

Monet: The Late Years

I happened to be in San Francisco for the weekend last May for Mother’s Day.  My dear, sweet brother-in-law had arranged for my mom and my sister to see the Monet exhibit at the De Young Museum for Mother’s Day and since I was in town, I had the good fortune of getting to tag along.

I thought that it was interesting that Monet was such a prolific and esteemed artist that the 50 or so works in the show were all made after he was established and successful.  The subjects of these paintings were almost exclusively locations in his own gardens on his estate in Giverny.

For great biographical information and a more comprehensive description of the paintings in the show, check out this page on the De Young Museum website.

The earliest painting in the exhibit is Morning on the Seine from 1896.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a better photo of it.  At first glance, it seems just very grey, soft, and muted.  But when I really took a moment to look at it, I started to notice a tremendous depth to the foliage.  Monet used many different green and purple tones to build these shapes that appear flat from a distance, but up close have an unexpectedly rich dimensionality.  Once I got sucked into this painting, I started to notice the subtle contrast between the way that he rendered the landscape and its reflection in the water.  This is the kind of painting that you could look at for years and notice something new every day.

Morning on the Seine, Claude Monet

More than 20 of the pieces in the show were water lily paintings.  This is such an iconic Monet subject and one that is so often reproduced on merchandise that it seems like something that you think you have already seen and not necessarily special.  But seeing so many different variations on the same subject all together was fascinating.  Particularly when there were multiple paintings in a series that all portrayed the exact same vista from the exact same spot.  When was the last time that you really looked at something that you see every day?  Try it.  And then go back again a few hours later and take a moment to look again.  Think about how it now appears different from what you saw just a bit earlier.  What a wonderful reminder that everyday things we think we have already seen have something new to offer us if we can be bothered to take a moment to open ourselves up to them.

I took many notes on the differences in paintings of similar subject matter, the variations in color and texture and focus and size of various pieces.  Another subject of Monet’s that gives a very explicit example of this were the paintings of the Japanese Bridge. 

One thing that I found even more unexpected and interesting were the paintings where he really just seemed to have to get the idea on canvas as quickly as possible.  These were paintings where the canvas showed through.  There was a raw-ness and an energy to these works that really spoke to me. 

  • I don’t particularly care for day lilies, but I adore this painting






  • Wisteria (1919-1920)

Toward the end of the exhibit was a series of Weeping Willow (1918-1919 and 1921-1922). I think there were more than the three that I photographed.  The later piece just blows my mind a little bit. This is the same guy painting the same thing that he had already painted over and over and it is so different and unexpected!  Now, this was all during the period when his vision was degenerating, but that alone does not explain the difference.

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to tag along with some of my favorite mothers on their special day.  It was a great opportunity to be reminded of how much there is to see if we just take the time to look.

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Maiden

A few weeks ago, a dear friend and I went to see a documentary called Maiden.  It was the story of the first ever, all-female crew of a boat in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race.  This friend is excellent at always being prepared, and to get us ready for the movie, she found this great interview with the skipper of the boat Maiden, Tracy Edwards, on NPR.

The Whitbread, now called the Volvo Ocean Challenge, is a yacht race that happens every three years.  It began in 1972 when the Whitbread company and the British Royal Naval Sailing Association agreed to sponsor a regatta that circled the globe as a sort of tribute to Brittan’s maritime legacy.  The original course followed routes of 19th century square riggers and began and ended in England until Volvo became the title sponsor in 2001.  A major leg of the race takes place in the Southern Ocean, usually leaving from South America somewhere and winding up in Australia (that is a long stretch of rough and icy water my friends).

Tracy Edwards did not set out to crush the patriarchy.  One of the clips in the film is an interview where she is mortified by the reporter’s asking if she is a feminist. She was a young girl, with a rough childhood, who discovered and fell in love with yachting.  She first participated in the 1985-86 Whitbread as a cook, the only crew position that she could get. After proving herself in that capacity, she was determined to find a sailing position on a crew.  No one would hire her.  Because she was a girl.  So, she did what any girl with a dream of competing in a man’s world would do, she put together her own program.  Now, saying that yacht racing is an elite sport is putting it mildly and this was not a girl of means. But she was scrappy and frankly, I don’t think that it occurred to her that she shouldn’t be able to compete – from either a status or gender perspective.  I’ll tell you what, in 1989 (and probably the entire 1990’s for that matter) it never occurred to me that any of the challenges that I faced were based on my gender, I really had grown up thinking that women had achieved equality (what a precious, naïve little thing I was).  I get the sense that Tracy Edwards and the crew of intrepid women who she put together all shared that perspective at that time as well.

Maiden finished the race second in their class, an outstanding accomplishment considering all of the obstacles the crew had to overcome (like taking on water) but a bittersweet ending for this highly competitive crew who weren’t just hoping to finish, they were in it to win it.  They also won two of the legs of the race outright, including the brutal Southern Ocean crossing (I think in the film they said that they were at sea for five weeks).  Tracy, the skipper, received the “Yachtsman of the Year” trophy (the first woman to do so).

And then the story ends the way that things did in those days – not with a bang, but a whimper.  They competed and they succeeded and what was next?  Um…the crew of Maiden went their separate ways.  These days, there would be a whole media machine waiting at the dock for those gals to make land – interviews, merchandise, speaking engagements, a foundation dedicated to developing sailing programs for girls, a Netflix original series inspired by…you name it.  But it was a different time.  Tracy did write a book, which was published in 1990 and now has a career as a motivational speaker.

I fully expected that I would be boo-hoo sobbing by the end of the film (like I was at the RBG documentary), but I left that theatre feeling pretty pumped up.  Like if I had a big enough vision, all I’d have to do is bring together the right group of women and we could go out there and just freaking crush it.

I’ll let you know if/when I come up with something, but if anyone reading this has a BHAG that I can sign up to crew for, let me know!

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The Book of Mormon, the Musical

Mr. Man and I recently had the opportunity to see The Book of Mormon, the musical, with our dear neighbor friends.  They are big musical aficionados and enjoy sharing their love of musicals with us.

Mr. Man and I have enjoyed South Park for years and years and were looking forward to Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s irreverent take on Mormonism.  Something that I didn’t expect was how sweet the musical was.  Don’t get me wrong, it was CRUDE and it was corny; it was everything you would expect the South Park guys to do to a musical.

After I had a chance to think about it, what I realized is that although the show makes fun of Mormonism (as in it SKEWERS everything about the doctrine), it doesn’t make fun of Mormons. One line that comes up at different points in the show is the Mormons saying that they just want to be nice to everybody.

I was speaking to a friend of mine who had also seen the show at one point, and I was not surprised by her reaction.  She HATED it.  I knew why.  There is a whole, big, show-stopping song-and-dance number in the first act in which practically every other word is an f-bomb.  I mean, my first reaction was to clutch my pearls.  Then I remembered that I had left my pearls at home and just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

There is a lot of graphic language throughout the whole show, things that belong to the category of “polite people don’t say those things.” But this show was created by the South Park guys and they have made their career on throwing those things in your face.  Why would you expect any different?

The things that I loved about the show were:

The campy choreography: particularly, the big, corny, old-fashioned tap number in the first act.  So many jazz hands!  So many shuffle-ball-change!

The twist: when the anti-hero is forced to act heroically and the way he goes about it.

SPOILERS (maybe): the part when the villagers tell the disillusioned heroine that, “it’s a METAPHOR!”  This especially tickled me because I had been working on my post about how I think of the Tour de France as a metaphor for the human condition.  Also, because in general, I am terrible for recognizing symbolism so I could sympathize with the character.

I have to say that no matter how mercilessly the show trolled the Mormon Church, the Church did a great job at winning.  The inside, front cover of the program had a full-color ad that read, “you’ve seen the play…now read the book,” along with four different contact options.  As a communication strategist, I couldn’t imagine a better way to turn negative publicity around.

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The Tour de France

Mr. Man and I started watching the Tour de France back in the Lance Armstrong days.  We would turn the TV on as soon as we woke up and spend the morning rooting for the US Postal Service team.  Those days are long gone, but we still look forward to watching one of our favorite sporting events every July.

The television coverage of the Tour de France is really exceptional. It is 50% compelling race coverage and 50% gorgeous travelogue.  Either of those elements alone make for a great viewing experience.

After a while, I began to see the Tour de France as a metaphor for the human condition.  Today, I’m going to explain just a few of the aspects that I find compelling and encourage you to think about how they apply to more than just cycle racing.

The Power of the Peloton

The term “peloton” literally translates to “little ball” and refers to the main field of cyclists in a race.  There are a lot of physics at play in cycling and the peloton creates advantages for the riders in the group through certain aerodynamic effects. The bottom line is that a group of cyclists, working together in a tight-knit group is eminently more powerful than the same number of riders would be if they were all working independently.

The Danger of the Peloton

While the peloton is eminently more powerful than the sum of its parts, it can also be a very dangerous place to be.  If one rider loses his line going around a curve, he can wipe out a whole mess of others.  Also, when someone in the middle begins to lag, the riders behind him are affected because there is no room for them to maneuver.  There is a trade-off between the advantage of the group and the peril of sacrificing one’s independence.

The Tragedy of the Break-Away

One of the most exciting parts of any stage is a break-away. An individual or small group of riders can often jump out to a substantial lead over the peloton.  I am always rooting for whoever makes the break to be able to hold on until the end of the stage.  Isn’t it natural to want to see someone’s extraordinary effort rewarded?

Here is where the tragedy of the break-away comes in.  No matter how strong or exceptional an individual is, he can rarely hold out long enough to win the stage. And while the entire peloton might not catch up to the break-away, at some point they will send a chase group who will.  It’s like a fox hunt.

The Advantage of the Privileged

One irony of the Tour de France is that although it is theoretically an individual competition, an individual can only succeed through the efforts of his team. In some ways, a cycle racing team is like any other team, with each member assigned a role.  There are sprinters and climbers and domestiques (they carry and distribute supplies to the rest of the team during the course of a stage).  However, the entire team effort is put toward the success of an anointed individual.  It’s as if at the end of the Superbowl, Tom Brady was declared the winner rather than the New England Patriots.

I’m not saying that this is good or bad, I don’t have any opinion about it in those terms.  What I find fascinating about it is how the game is, for lack of a better term, rigged to ensure that only certain individuals have a shot at winning.  As Americans, we are really big on the concept of a level playing field, where anyone who has the facility and determination at least gets to start from the same line.  But, in reality, there are a thousand little advantages sprinkled unevenly throughout the field.

Who knew that sports could be so deep?

I look forward to watching the Tour de France every year.  Not only because it is such a compelling sporting event held in such a spectacular venue, but because of the way that it illuminates the human condition.

The Tour de France runs through July 28 this year.  If you haven’t watched it before, I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think!

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Stories of the Great Ballets

I just finished perusing this book titled, Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets .  I won’t claim to have read it since I *may* have skipped the first 734 pages. Those pages contained an exhaustive catalogue of “great ballets” according to George Balanchine (from skimming the table of contents, it appears that some of those listed are greater than others). 

It is certainly a “great” reference tool and I will plan on keeping it handy for the next time that I’m going to see a pre-1977 ballet (this was the fifth edition).  I just can’t imagine that anyone would need/want to read that whole list.

The remaining 150 pages seemed interesting so I dug in. 

First was a chapter titled “How to Enjoy Ballet” where Mr. Balanchine explains his thoughts on how someone who is new to ballet should approach seeing a ballet performance for the first time.  What was interesting to me is how much importance he ascribed to familiarizing oneself with the music before one attends a performance.  He didn’t feel that it was necessary to have any technical knowledge of dance, just an appreciation for the skill of the dancers.

The other key piece of Mr. Balanchine’s advice for the novice balletgoer really made me smile. It was basically, “if you go to the ballet and you think you don’t like it, just keep going and eventually you will like it!”  I suppose that you could call that the “eat your vegetables” approach to ballet appreciation.  

The next chapter was “A Brief History of the Ballet,” followed by “Chronology of Significant Events in the History of Ballet.”  This was a detailed timeline beginning with Lorenzo de Medici (ballet was imported to France by Catherine de Medici as a part of courtly spectacles). I felt that I had a good grip on the timeline, dissemination, and evolution of ballet, but this had some interesting details in it that raised some questions – I have a few things to look into and will report back!

Next is a brief autobiography by Mr. Balanchine, “How I Became a Dancer and Choreographer.” 

Then, “Ballet for Your Children,” “Careers in Ballet,” and a glossary which contains some very good illustrations of positions and steps.  It was surprising to me how adamant Mr. Balanchine was that children shouldn’t begin studying ballet until they are eight years old.  It just goes to show how long I’ve been away from that world that his talk about dancers’ development was a bit shocking in its frankness.  It certainly isn’t the way that those things are talked about these days.

I love classic books, and this is certainly a great addition to my dance book collection.  If you have questions about a “great ballet,” please let me know and I can tell you what Mr. Balanchine has to say about it!

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Estate Secrets

My writing club had a flash fiction contest so I made my first attempt at writing a 1,000 word short story.  The writing prompt was:

The wacky antiques dealer took pictures near a broken refrigerator about an hour ago to discover the secret.

Here is my story:

Estate Secrets

I never expected this to be my life. 

Sure, getting into the estate sale business seemed like a good idea.  Think about getting paid to go through someone else’s lifetime accumulation of treasures.  Imagine being the one to discover that rare item that would send Leigh and Leslie Keno into a tizzy.  Every day would be an adventure of discovery!

I’ll tell you what, it’s not like that.

What it is like is long, dirty days of sorting through mountains of someone else’s junk, trying to create some semblance of organization in order to encourage today’s hoarders – excuse me, I mean my future clients – to pay me for the privilege of taking as much stuff as possible off of my hands.

Our fiduciary responsibility to the estate means that my team has to go through every item, catalogue it, and research its value.  We can’t just skip the piles of magazines and overflowing linen closets, and we can’t make someone a bro deal to get them to take that 120-piece collection of Waterford crystal.  It is tedious and often smelly work.

I never thought that I would say this, but I should have listened to my father and gone to law school after all.

I’ve been in the estate sale business for long enough that I thought that I had seen it all.  I mean, did I tell you about the crazy cat lady who, in addition to the dozen living cats which were the beneficiaries of her estate, had a collection of nearly 3,000 cat objects?  Sure, plenty were from the Dollar Store, but there were also dozens and dozens of Baccarat and Lalique crystal and Herend porcelain figurines. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of cat tchotchkes.

Then there was the guy who had every issue of Playboy magazine from 1953 through 2003.  Someone bought the entire set.  And yes, we did wear gloves the entire time we were at that house. 

But this house really took the cake.

This tutor-style bungalow has always been something of a landmark in town.  Let’s just say that no one else had a Stonehenge-style garden folly in their front yard, much less one illuminated with gas-powered, flaming torches (at least until the fire marshal had something to say about it).  And, I have to admit that I was looking forward to getting to see what was inside…until I did.

I was expecting to find the suit of armor, the elaborately carved, throne-like chairs next to the fireplace, and the endless yards of heavy, red, velvet curtains.  I was not surprised by the well-stocked library with floor-to-ceiling shelves of leather-bound, first editions.  Frankly, I was not even surprised when we were cataloguing the library and discovered the volume that revealed a secret passage.

What we found when we explored the passage was surprising to say the least.  Horrifying is probably a better word.  But in spite of how disturbing it was, it was not illegal and was no reason for us not to carry out our responsibilities in terms of liquidating the estate. 

A rare book dealer from Archer City, Texas had agreed to take the entire collection site-unseen so we wouldn’t have to worry about having the library accessible to the parade of antiques dealers and lookie-loos who we were expecting for the sale.  We moved on to the kitchen.

#

It was the first day of the sale.  I peeked out at the line of early birds and my heart sank.  Roger, that wacky antiques dealer from Glendora was at the front of the line, pontificating about the home’s provenance and extemporizing about the value of the items that he expected to find.

The doors opened and we admitted the first 15 from the line.  The house was immediately buzzing with the excited energy of the treasure hunters.  It was a welcome relief from the ominous feeling that had come over my entire team after we found the chamber.  Now if only we could get Roger out of here before he discovered the secret.

From the moment he walked in the door, it was clear that he was not here to shop.  Watching him snooping around the fireplace and tugging on the sconces in the hall, I knew that it was just a matter of time before he asked me why we had placed that enormous credenza in front of the locked door to the library.  I did enjoy letting him know that Larry McMurtry had already wired the funds for the contents of the library and that there was nothing in there for him to see.

With a sniff, he proceeded to the kitchen.

“Why isn’t the refrigerator priced?” he asked Monica.

“Oh, it’s broken, and we don’t know that it is reparable, so the family chose not to put it up for sale,” she replied in her fantastically, disdainful manner. 

What did he think she was going to say? “Oh, it’s a second passageway to the most horrible thing that I have ever seen,”  Monica was too smart for Roger’s games.

He sniffed again.  “Well, you won’t mind if I take a few photos so that I can look up the model then. I may still be interested.”

The only thing interesting about that refrigerator was its secret.

#

About an hour later, I came through the kitchen to check on Monica.

“I didn’t see Roger leave; do you know where he went?”

She shrugged and glanced toward the broken refrigerator, “You know those wacky antiques dealers,” she deadpanned, “sometimes they just disappear right out from under your nose.”

The End

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Shostakovich Trilogy

This past Saturday marked the end of our 2019 Ballet Season. Happily, the program was excellent and left us excited for 2020 (yes, we have already renewed our seats).

This program was comprised of three works choreography by Alexei Ratmansky, all to music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich Trilogy was co-commissioned by San Francisco Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. The SF Ballet premiere was in 2014.

Alexi Ratmansky is a Russian choreographer who is currently artist in residence at American Ballet Theatre. Previously, he held the position of artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet where he is known for remounting some of the Soviet-era ballets. You can see the influence of his experience with artistic productions of that era in the deft way that he layered the pieces in Shostakovich Trilogy with nuance evocative of the time and place in which the music was created.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was an early-twentieth century, Russian composer. Unlike Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) and Stravinsky (1882-1971), Shostakovich spent his entire career in Stalinist Russia where he experienced constraints on his work. Despite these constraints, his music is powerful and timeless. One has to wonder what he could have accomplished if he had the artistic freedom of some of his contemporaries.

Symphony #9 has a movement vocabulary that combines classical ballet steps with traditional Russian folk-dance movements in a very elegant way. The music, composed in 1945, was commissioned by the government as a celebration of the victory of the Soviet people over the Nazis and the conclusion of WWII. This piece sort of switches back and forth from a feeling of self-conscious restraint to rah-rah proletarian propaganda, highlighting the dichotomy of Soviet society at that time.

Chamber Symphony was the most narrative piece in the program. The backdrop for this work was a series of oversized, cubist-style heads suspended in front of the back scrim. The heads shifted and different effects were created with lighting throughout the course of the piece. It created a sort-of “big brother is watching you” feeling. At one point, the music become quite bombastic and the most center-stage heads became quite prominent and menacing.

The main character in this piece represents Shostakovich. Watching it without reading the program notes first made for an interesting exercise in deciphering a story. I was left with the firm conclusion that the central character was a depressive cad.

The corps de ballet in this piece is composed of eight couples who seem to be exerting influence on the behavior of the main character. He alternates between going along with the group, acting out, and utter dejection.   There are also three female soloists who represent different women in the composer’s life. These roles were danced divinely by Sasha de Sola, Yuan Yuan Tan, and Mathilde Froustey.

Piano Concerto #1 was my favorite piece of the three. That being said, I can’t describe the dancing to you at all. I was completely mesmerized by the costumes, which were these extremely simple and effective two-tone unitards. Yes, that’s it. The front was blue, and the back red and it was visually spectacular. I guess that I could say that the dancing was interesting and dynamic because it didn’t detract from the excellent effect of the costumes.

There was an energy to the dancing on this night. We all got the impression that the dancers really enjoyed performing these works (maybe they were just happy that it was the end of the season). It was nice to see such a consistent program of interesting, contemporary work, I think this had to do with the strength of the music.

At any rate, it was a satisfying end to the season.

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The Little Mermaid

San Francisco Ballet 2019 Program 7, The Little Mermaid

This weekend’s ballet adventure was a performance of The Little Mermaid.  This is not your Disney Little Mermaid.  This version, choreographed by John Neumeier, more closely resembles the original Hans Christian Andersen fable.  The ballet was created in 2005 for the Royal Danish Ballet to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Andersen’s birth, and it was first staged by the San Francisco Ballet in 2010.

The Little Mermaid is considered one of Andersen’s most autobiographical stories due to his well-documented history of unrequited love of both men and women.  Neumeier inserts an Andersen-like character in the ballet, in the form of “The Poet.” This is a very successful element of the libretto in as much as it clarifies the way in which the little mermaid and the sea witch represent different aspects of the poet’s inner emotional landscape.

The story begins with the poet aboard a ship, remembering when the object of his love, Edvard married Henriette.  A single tear falls into the ocean, serving as the catalyst to ignite the story of the little mermaid in his imagination. The poet spends most of the production on stage, sometimes mirroring, other times seeming to direct the actions of the little mermaid.

Ok, now let’s talk about the production and the dancing.

In addition to the choreography, Neumeier also created the sets and costumes both of which are innovative and interesting.  The way that irregular lines of light (think stage-width florescent light tubes flown in from above) are used to delineate the surface of the water is highly effective.  The combination of the light tubes with stage lighting changes were used to great effect to indicate location changes from onboard the ship to under the sea to on land.

The mermaid costumes are very clever.  They wear these extra-long, wide-legged, silky pants. The ends of the pants can be manipulated by other performers to create the effect of swimming, but the dancers can move around the stage and dance (carefully).  One (three) of my favorite characters were the magic shadows (or as I like to call them, the Dread Pirates Robertses).  These three guys partnered the little mermaid when she was enjoying her happy life under the sea.  One would lift her and the other two would each manipulate one of the long legs of her flowy pants, it was a fantastic effect.  Later, they became the sea witch’s henchmen.  They wore black, billowy pants, long-sleeved black shirts, eye masks and black head scarves the whole time, so no matter what their function was, they were the Dread Pirates Robertses to me.

The dancing was very good.  Again, this is a ballet with characters (even the background dancers were characters) which suits San Francisco Ballet’s strengths.  A couple of crowd scenes on the ship made me think of Sweet Charity.  There was an eclectic assortment of characters and everyone had their own little schtick/movement vocabulary.  I’m a huge fan of Fosse’s work, so those moments were delightful to me.

Yuan Yuan Tan, our favorite, favorite ballerina was the little mermaid.  This role calls for tremendous emotional expression more than virtuosic dancing and she was very effective.  She was not just acting with her facial expressions, her hyper-flexible back and lithe figure helped to convey the difference between her happy, carefree life under the sea and her painful (physically and emotionally) life on land.

This was a psychologically deep ballet.  All of the elements of the production worked together to tell a complex and nuanced story and I really enjoyed the performance.