{"id":106572,"date":"2023-05-09T09:52:51","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T16:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106572"},"modified":"2023-05-25T09:52:55","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T16:52:55","slug":"smuin-ballets-swipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/smuin-ballets-swipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Smuin ballet’s revival of ‘Swipe’ is offbeat, inspired, stimulating"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Terez Dean Orr is lifted by Smuin dancers in choreographer Amy Seiwert\u2019s ‘French Kiss.’ (Courtesy Chris Hardy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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An online dictionary lists as synonyms for innovative: original, inventive, ingenious,\u00a0newfangled.<\/p>\n

None of those adequately describe how exquisitely offbeat, inspired and stimulating \u201cSwipe\u201d \u2014 one number in the 16-member\u00a0Smuin\u00a0Contemporary Ballet\u2019s \u201cDance Series 2\u201d \u2014 is.<\/p>\n

Val Caniparoli\u2019s outstanding revived choreography for four men and three women even overshadows the world premiere of \u201cFrench Kiss,\u201d choreographed by Amy Seiwert, who was just named the company\u2019s associate artistic director.<\/p>\n

Caniparoli merges bare-chested male dancers and ultra-dexterous females, bobbing heads and wildly waving flat-handed arms, with selections from \u201cString Quartet
\nNo. 2 with Remixes,\u201d a slightly weird, often drum-thumpingly loud electronic piece by Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of the great Russian composer.<\/p>\n

The whole thing isn\u2019t perfect, only 98.3 percent so. The trouble is, it\u2019s virtually impossible to locate the other 1.7 percent.<\/p>\n

Smuin dancers are so adept and so smooth, it\u2019s as if the choreographer whispered to the performers separately, \u201cGo out there and see precisely how\u00a0you\u00a0can excel while using this framework.\u201d\u00a0And each of them has.<\/p>\n

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Smuin dancers (left to right) Tessa Barbour, Cassidy Isaacson, and Terez Dean Orr are excellent in the revival of Val Caniparoli\u2019s ‘Swipe.’ \u00a0(Courtesy Chris Hardy)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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That includes steps that display \u2014 in addition many decidedly more familiar \u2014 worm-like shimmying on the floor, backwards dancing, and a few moments that resemble the Charleston done sideways.<\/p>\n

The word hybrid today often refers to a meeting that\u2019s half in-person, half on Zoom, but the word also applies to the 11-year-old \u201cSwipe,\u201d especially if one considers its wide diversity of dance segments by Caniparoli, who recently\u00a0retired from San Francisco Ballet after five decades, but will continue freelance work.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrench Kiss,\u201d meanwhile, combines classical movements with subtle\u00a0and rainbow-colored costuming to showcase tunes by Pink Martini, an Oregon-based band (or, as group members call it \u201ca little orchestra\u201d)\u00a0that\u2019s spent a lot of time abroad.<\/p>\n

The group not only crosses multiple genres with ease \u2014 from classical and Latin to pop and jazz, with a light nod to rock \u2014 but features more than a dozen musicians, playing songs with roots in 25 languages. For \u201cFrench Kiss,\u201d it figures, the tunes are soft, sexy, and, well, in Gallic.<\/p>\n

Incorporated are segments using a musical backdrop of cabaret torch singer Meow Meow\u2019s \u201cMon homme\u00a0mari\u00e9,\u201d and the most imaginative piece, \u201cMa solitude,\u201d which spotlights amusing dual footwork by\u00a0Cassidy Isaacson and Jo\u00e3o Sampaio (accompanied by two rolling mannequins).<\/p>\n

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Cassidy Isaacson and Jo\u00e3o Sampaio appear in Amy Seiwert\u2019s world premiere of ‘French Kiss.’ (Courtesy Chris Hardy)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Filling out the bill are\u00a0two more traditional, sweet, uncommonly graceful works: \u201cDream,\u201d with choreography by the company\u2019s late founder, Michael\u00a0Smuin, that illustrates a piano concerto by Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin, and the opening number, \u201cSextettte,\u201d with Kate Skarpetowska\u2019s dance moves set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.<\/p>\n

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L-R, Lauren Pschirrer, Cassidy Isaacson and Brennan Wall dance in Smuin\u2019s company premiere of Kate Skarpetowska\u2019s \u201cSextette. (Courtesy Chris Hardy)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An unfortunate aspect of this four-dance concert is that only half the theater\u2019s seats were filled at a recent weekend performance in San Francisco, clearly a result of residual fears about COVID, its variants and subvariants. Hopefully that\u2019ll change \u2014 if not this season, then the next, which is\u00a0Smuin\u2019s 30th anniversary. Scheduled programming includes a world premiere ballet choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie and an Elvis Presley-themed ballet by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.<\/p>\n

Smuin\u2019s \u201cDance Series 2\u201d continues May 11-14 at\u00a0Blue Shield of California Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,\u00a0700 Howard St., San Francisco; tickets are $25-$84. Call (415) 912-1899. Performances also are May 25-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets are $25-$79. Call (650) 903-6000 or\u00a0visit <\/em><\/strong>www.smuinballet.or<\/strong><\/em>g<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>
\nThis story was first published on<\/i>LocalNewsMatters.org<\/a>, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News\u00a0Foundation<\/i>http:\/\/www.baycitynews.org\/contact\/<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>\u00a0or on his websites,\u00a0https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/vitality press.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Terez Dean Orr is lifted by Smuin dancers in choreographer Amy Seiwert\u2019s ‘French Kiss.’ (Courtesy Chris Hardy)   An online dictionary lists as synonyms for innovative: original, inventive, ingenious,\u00a0newfangled. None…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"