Amy Seiwert
Michael Smuin
By WOODY WEINGARTEN
“French Kiss,” choreographed by artistic director Amy Seiwert in 2023, was the definitive hit of the San Francisco Opening Night concert of Smuin Contemporary Ballet, if Friday’s level of applause is used as a measuring device.
The light-hearted, liquid, and lovely dance — note-perfect to the music of Pink Martini — was smooth as satin yet filled with flavors: romantic, dramatic, traditional, modern, and hilarious.
It encompassed smile-inducing lifts and circles as well as sexy flashes and rather unusual butts-extended moments.
Best received was a comic sequence in which two manikins atop small platforms on wheels were pushed around by a pair of dancers.
Pink Martini is an eclectic American band that embraces jazz, classical, Latin, and pop — in 15 languages.
Seiwert, in the program, writes that the ballet pays homage to the “signature style” of company founder Michael Smuin, who died two decades ago, by being “rich in characterization” and celebrating “the individuality of Smuin’s dancers.”
In Friday’s introduction, Seiwert flippantly claimed her “French Kiss” crammed in “all I learned from Michael in 25 minutes.”
The presentation, in addition to loud applause, drew a hailstorm of encouraging and appreciative “woo” cries from the audience.
Another truly awesome revival, “Stabat Mater,” was a Michael Smuin creation that dated to 2002 and was choreographed to the music of Antonin Dvořák. It hadn’t been staged in the Bay Area in 10 years.
That stupendous ballet was Smuin’s dramatic response to the “death and pain” of 9/11 and featured lots of female bodies trustingly falling into the arms of male dancers. It met its intention of exploring “loss, the resilience of community, and, ultimately, hope.”
The third part of the concert was new — an experimental dance-salad choreographed by My’Kal Stromile, a triple threat who also was responsible for the costumes and stage design. It was, however, as odd as its title, “I-Scrit-Ah-Scree-Tah-Skratt,” which is an invented phonetic phrase, and almost as opaque as the choreographer’s official explanation in obfuscation-speak.
Its music was by Wilhem Friedemann Bach, the oldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, replete with choral that’s a knock-out.
Still, most of the dance segments felt as if they were unfinished fragments, perhaps intentionally. Some concertgoers, in fact, probably found it difficult to perceive exactly what was being portrayed.
In contrast, the company’s program was enlightening in many ways. It showed, for instance, how many behind-the-scenes people are necessary to keep the dancers in good shape. It listed a wellness team with eight orthopedic and physical therapy doctors, three chiropractors, four acupuncturists, and two massage therapists.
All, of course, were also available to keep the company healthy for previous performances in Mountain View and Walnut Creek.
Obviously, it’s worth any trouble.
French Kiss will run at the 437-seat waterfront Cowell Theater at Fort Mason, 2 Marina Blvd., San Francisco, through Oct. 18. Tickets: $25 to $100. Info: 415-912-1899 or boxoffice@smuinballet.org.
Woody Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.com and https://vitalitypress.com. His books include Rollercoaster: How a caregiver can survive a partner’s breast cancer or any other lethal disease; MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of his newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that he co-authored with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.
