Last summer, I got to see New York City Ballet at Saratoga Performing Arts Center numerous times. We even had the chance to go to Jacob’s Pillow a few times and saw some more extraordinary performances. Sadly, now that summer is over, we won’t be seeing those world famous companies in our backyard for another ten months.
But there is a way to see full length ballets, performed by great companies without going to Boston, Montreal or New York. The last few years, I’ve seen movie trailers for ballet movies showing at a number of local theatres. The only problem for me is, most of these showings have conflicted with dates and times that I was teaching at the studio. (As always, my students come first!) Well this month, I finally got a chance to attend one of these movies. Finally, a showing with no conflicts!
For me, there is nothing better than a live dance performance. And when you do attend a live event, you are the director, choosing what part of the stage to watch and which dancers to follow. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the performance as seen through the film director’s eyes. Also, dance is three dimensional and film is two dimensional. How would the flattening and loss of depth effect my enjoyment of the dance?
Well, I’m happy to report back that I loved it! My husband and I (and only a handful of other audience members) were treated to a breath-taking production of Romeo & Juliet, performed by the San Francisco Ballet. It was like sitting in a front row seat, center, at stage level. Sometimes it was difficult to focus on the large crowd scenes, but I really enjoyed the solos and pas de deux. In addition to seeing the excellent ballet technique, you could see the facial expressions and emotions. The chemistry between Davit Karapetyan, Romeo, and Maria Kochetkova, Juliet, was incredible.
In between the acts we got to go “behind the scenes”. There were interviews with Helgi Tomasson, San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer, the conductor, and the dancers. They also showed the wardrobe department making repairs to the lavish vintage costumes, used in the 1994 staging of this production.
It’s a shame that there weren’t more people in the audience or that there isn’t another showing of this amazing performance. There are different dance movies coming in the next few months, and I’m hoping to catch more of them. Here’s a list of the local showings that I’ve found, so that you can mark your calendars. Hope to see you at the movies!
10/22 – Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Chroma, Grace, Takademe, Revelations
11/12 – Ballet Hispanico: CARMEN.maquia and Club Havana
12/5 and 12/10 – New York City Ballet: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™
10/11 – Giselle
11/15- Jewels
12/6 – Lady of the Camellias
11/15 – Giselle
11/16 – Giselle
12/13 – Nutcracker Encore
12/14 – Nutcracker Encore