Low-tech humanity dazzles at San Francisco Ballet gala

As San Francisco Ballet prepares to launch its 91st season with a ballet inspired by artificial intelligence and an ad campaign starring ChatGPT, it was heartening, even spiritually encouraging, to see the gala crowd cheer for dancer Wona Park zipping across the War Memorial Opera House stage in George Balanchine’s old showpiece, “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.”

Choreographer Aszure Barton and electronica composer Floating Points’ “Mere Mortals,” about the promises and perils of technology, will premiere soon enough. In the meantime, the lesson from the Ballet’s one-night-only Wednesday, Jan. 24, program was thrilling: A 1960 ballet featuring just a simple pink silk dress and a basic blue backdrop can (at least when danced with Park’s abundance of musicality, speed and sheer joy), rouse more endorphins than anything today’s tech is giving us.

“Tonight is about feeling the joy with you,” artistic director Tamara Rojo announced from the stage, wearing a goddess-like dress of liquid gold that fit cleverly with the evening’s Greek mythology-derived theme of “Pandora: Curiosity Unveiled.” And on that emotion she delivered.

Take the penultimate number, that seemingly age-old Soviet chestnut (OK, it really only dates to 1935), the “Diana and Acteon” pas de deux. There flew Wei Wang from the wings, wearing just a loincloth and a Tarzan-like strap across his bare chest, nearly kicking the back of his head, whirling through a grand pirouette combination that even had him spinning in a tilted arabesque. And there pranced Nikisha Fogo, kicking up those long thoroughbred legs in wildly fast yet beautifully controlled jumps. Was it a perfect performance? Perhaps not; Fogo is a bit tall for Wang’s partnering, and the supported pirouettes seemed a touch precarious. Did it prove that low-tech, flesh-and-blood humanity is still pretty damn wondrous? Absolutely.

With Park and her swashbuckling partner Aaron Robison setting the tone early on, the energy never flagged. This was reassuring on two levels.

First, it showed that Rojo does know how to produce a gala, something not evident a year ago when — whether because she was overwhelmed at having just taken over the company or because she thought she’d spare the dancers extra work — she threw together a trudging evening low on the fireworks. In the U.S., season-opening galas are crucial for galvanizing the black-tie donor base. (This is not necessarily the case in Europe, where Rojo led her career as a dancer with Britain’s Royal Ballet and as dancer and artistic director of the English National Ballet before taking on the San Francisco job last year.)

Second, Wednesday’s program bodes well for the season ahead. A lower-key excerpt from Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Broken Wings,” to be danced in full by the company in April, won the audience over with its ensemble of skeletons and its skill in quickly capturing the complex relationship between famed Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, danced spicily by Isabella DeVivo (she gave guest artist John-Paul Simoens a forceful near-slap for cheating with two female skeletons before kissing him with convincing lust). The live folk music from singer Geo Meneses and lauded Mexican guitar duo Los Macarinos was a lovely touch.

A scene from Frederick Ashton’s “Marguerite and Armand,” to be danced in full next month on the “British Icons” double bill, was even more promising. Brandishing a riding crop (ah, the accoutrements of operatic passion), Joseph Walsh was elegant tempestuousness personified in the role created for superstar Rudolf Nureyev, while Misa Kuranaga, a fine actress, was tender and sweet.

Many in the audience surely had no clue that the ballet is a loose retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ “The Lady of the Camellias,” which opera fans know as “La Traviata.” “So why did he die?” the woman behind me asked when Armand draped himself upon the divan, unaware that his father had just told the sick Marguerite she must cut everything off with his son. Not to worry; the plot will all become clear Feb. 9. In the meantime, what an exquisite rendering of the Liszt sonata from pianist Britton Day.

An evening does not earn the title “gala” without a sense that the cup runneth over. Such was the case with the surprising inclusion of a duet from Justin Peck’s sneaker-clad “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming,” danced even more brilliantly than the original cast by Katherine Barkman and Esteban Hernandez. But peak fullness came just moments before with Yuan Yuan Tan — about to retire from the company next month after a 29-year career — in a pas de deux of black lace set to Bach from former artistic director Helgi Tomasson’s “7 for Eight.” To see her liquid limbs again in the hands of Tiit Helimets — brought out of retirement just to partner her — was to marvel at time suspended, a seeming immortality.

But as the title of Barton’s fast-approaching world premiere reminds us, we are indeed “Mere Mortals.” And thank God for that. In the opening Black Swan pas de deux, Sasha  De Sola, who typically seems inhumanly perfect, flubbed off pointe in her turns four times. (Only ballet die-hards in the audience could notice.) Then, as the final gala excerpt began, a painted cloth tree from Paris designer Christian Lacroix’s set for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” snagged on an overhead truss. Everyone could imagine some stagehand back there in a sweat, working the pulleys (never mind that probably the stagehands were pushing buttons). What wonderfully low-tech suspense!

The tree freed, we applauded, and a sprightly ensemble led by Frances Chung and Angelo Greco kept us rooting. A corps member in the back dropped his partner straight onto her butt, and she popped right back up. It was all so very human, and such a joy to share together.   

Rachel Howard is a freelance writer.