This year I decided to start seeing as much ballet as time and money will allow (in addition to my San Francisco Ballet subscription which I’ve had for a few years now), and boy, it is hard work! Ha, not really, but my already glacial blogging pace hasn’t kept up so far. My performance reviews end up being tweets at intermission:
Intermission 1 at @balletsj. Paquita was lovely, soloists especially strong. (Tho I think the danseur could smile more! So serieux!) 🙂
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) March 4, 2012
Intermission 2 at @balletsj. Interplay: I do love ballets that show off the guys. Tour en l’air faceoff!
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) March 4, 2012
(Apparently I love exclamation points as well.)
Final @balletsj piece, Graduation Ball: ha, so much fun. Bravo!
— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) March 5, 2012
So given the fact that I’m seeing another performance tomorrow night and next Friday night (San Francisco Ballet’s Programs 6 and 5, respectively), let me catch up with a quick listing of what I’ve seen recently and call it a day.
- January 19: San Francisco Ballet opening night gala (blog post)
- January 27: SFB Program 1, Onegin
- February 17: SFB Program 2 (blog post)
- February 19: Company C Contemporary Ballet, Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco
- February 21: SFB Program 3
- March 2: Diablo Ballet, Shadelands Art Center, Walnut Creek
- March 4: Ballet San Jose Program 1
Whew. I used to keep a spreadsheet of the ballets I’d seen–nerd!–with the pieces and choreographers noted; I need to get back to that! It’s nice to look back and jog your memory if and when you’ve seen a certain piece before.
Aside from San Francisco Ballet, the other companies above are ones I saw for the first time: Company C, Diablo Ballet, and Ballet San Jose. It was great to check these folks out, and I look forward to seeing more of them in the future.
By the way, to help dispel the myth of ballet as a wholly expensive pursuit (or an image of me as made of money), let me say that there are a bunch of ways to save money on tickets. Keep your eyes peeled for discount tickets on Goldstar or on deal sites like Groupon. Or check if the company you want to see offers standing room or rush tickets or other discounts. I try to post ones in the Bay Area to my Twitter feed when I come across them. (Full disclosure: Thanks to Diablo Ballet for inviting me as press to their performance in Walnut Creek.)
All right, enjoy the rest of the week, and I’ll leave you with this video by Company C, which was shown as a prologue at their recent performances: