Pushing the boundaries of contemporary with theatrical flair, Smuin Contemporary Ballet is a treasure of the Bay Area cultural scene. Classically trained dancers perform works that expand the form by melding dance styles, and never forgetting that shows are meant to be entertaining. In this initial repertory program of Smuin’s 31st season, new Artistic Director Amy Seiwert celebrates the company’s continuity while introducing new choreographic voices. The casting and partnering are renewed with fresh faces in the ensemble alongside the more seasoned company members. These performances may also be the last for Terez Dean Orr, the charismatic center of the company since 2008, who is happily pregnant and stepping away from the stage with these final performances.
Dance Series 1 2024-25 opened six weeks ago in Walnut Creek, followed several weeks later by performances in Mountain View. I am here, at Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater, in the middle of their two-week San Francisco run. Touring the Bay, bringing the show to the community, rather than insisting all come to San Francisco, is one of the myriad ways that Smuin prioritizes its audiences. Pre-show and during the two intermissions, a larger-than-life slideshow introduces us to the company. Enticing rehearsal and performance shots are interspersed with the dancers’ headshots, names, and Smuin debut years.
Smuin artist Cassidy Isaacson in the world premiere of Jennifer Archibald's "ByCHANCE," unveiled in Smuin's "Dance Series 1" Photo: Chris Hardy
Seiwert, a former Smuin dancer and Choreographer-In-Residence (2008-2018), has deep and sustaining roots with the organization, while also bringing with her years of administrative and artistic experience leading Amy Seiwert’s Imagery and Sacramento Ballet. In an affable pre-curtain speech, she introduces the bill’s trio of dances, helping us find entry points into the work. Her warm invitation to join the Smuin subscriber rolls lets us know our presence matters. These efforts, which pre-pandemic might have seemed folksy, feel welcoming, personal, and urgent.
The program begins brilliantly with a world-premiere by internationally-renowned dancemaker Jennifer Archibald. ByCHANCE, an athletic contemporary ballet, explores chance encounters. Demanding, driving, propulsive phrases find the dancers twirling and leaping in complex individual trajectories. Dancers come together in well-structured tangles which then unwind, sometimes as quickly as they formed, leaving in their wake a couple caught in each other’s forcefield. He lifts her, her long limbs reaching outward; their partnership may sustain itself only briefly or be allowed to develop for several minutes before the magnetism releases them back into the fray.
Individuals find and lose each other seemingly at random on the metaphorical busy streets, crowded lobbies, or isolated corners of this every-changing balletic world. An over the shoulder glance, and a hand drawn to a place of brief physical contact, may be all that remains of two person’s transitory crossing. Vulnerability and strength meet their opposites in intriguing and unusual partnering. A repeating phrase finds the women running suspended between their partner’s spread legs. Their fruitless forward lunging strides are arrested by the way they are held under their arm pits.
Performing to a wide range of musical selections from contemporary classical to electronic, the dancers meet the challenges of Archibald’s gear-changing choreography which requires speedy footwork one moment and a controlled sustained sweep of a lifted leg into an off-kilter balance the next, with the occasional handstand interceding.
Next is the West-coast premiere of The Last Glass (2010), by Philadelphia Ballet’s Matthew Neenan, who Seiwert notes is known for his use of pop music, here the buoyant street parade sound of indie-rock band Beirut.
This character-driven piece opens with Maggie Carey, in fringed peach pantaloons, plodding along, an exaggerated expression of concern folding her brow. Soon she is joined by a ragtag bunch, in casually pedestrian shorts and t-shirts or flouncy sundresses (costumes Martha Chamberlain). The characters’ ambiguity could find a home in a number of stories, but to me they resemble the members of a late-20th century circus troupe on a day off in a European beach town. With this loosely applied lens, the varied attitudes and compelling partnerships of the eight-member cast play out in interesting ways.
Carey is the anxious one, some might say Single Cat Lady, searching for a lost connection, possibly a former beau or a promising prospect. A pair of single gals, Julia Gundzik and Tess Lane, doll themselves up in pointe shoes and bateau tops as they wield their balletic prowess and youthful sexiness in successful attempts to attract mates.
Smuin artist Gabrielle Collins, lifted by Ricardo Dyer, soars above the company in Matthew Neenan's "The Last Glass," Photo: Chris Hardy
Meanwhile two duos embody the drama of their long-term relationships. The tempestuous and petite female couple, played with great aplomb by Gabrielle Collins and Cassidy Isaacson, merge and separate as they struggle to get on the same page. Terez Dean Orr and Ricardo Dyer make a fiery pairing, as they can’t keep their hands off each other, whether in passion, tenderness, or the frequent moments of angry annoyance.
Izzie-nominated Renaissance (2019) inspired by the Women’s Wall protest in India in 2019, makes a fitting finale. Seiwert’s choreography grows out of the a capella tonal singing of Eastern European traditional music of Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble. There is a harmonic beauty to the way danced solos unfurl atop a lone vocalist’s song while the larger choral works rise under moments of collective performance.
Designer Kaori Higashiyama’s fine-weave cotton costumes evoke the style and warm climate of India. The men are bare-chested under open unstructured vests, the women unified in tunics with high side slits which allow their graceful movement. The ivory-toned fabric absorbs the warm glazes of Brian Jones’s sidelights, so the dancers becoming glowing orbs against vibrantly saturated skies.
Smuin artist Tess Lane (top) with the men of the company in Amy Seiwert's "Renaissance," Photo: Chris Hardy
The fight for women’s rights begins with the familiar form of a circle dance. As the energy expands beyond the initial quintet of ladies, we feel the power of a cast of thirteen men and women in revolt. Collectives form; stooping, they surround and then lift a female leader above their heads.
Exquisite pairings abound in this work; one between Dominic Barrett and Gabrielle Collins, stands out in the way he cherishes her blossoming. This measured but brief duet concludes with Collins, limbs spread like a starfish, seated across her kneeling partner’s strong neck.
Throughout the evening, the ensemble’s performances sparkle with depth and personality. Smuin dancers are versatile touring artists, committed to making the repertoire look fresh each evening, and, if this end of run program is any example, to using the repetition of their multi-week presentations to build ever stronger partnerships and deeper portrayals. I am excited to see what special talents the newest company members will bring to the perennial Smuin’s The Christmas Ballet, which returns to Bay Area stages November 23 – December 24.
Review by Jen Norris, published October 20, 2024.
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Production Credits for THURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024
Smuin Contemporary Ballet
Amy Seiwert Artistic Director
24/25 Dance Series 1
Cowell Theater at Fort Mason
ByCHANCE
World Premiere: September 13, 2024
Choreogrphay: Jennifer Archibald
Music: Ezio Bosso, Maria Awadis, Roger Goula, Peteris Vasks
Costume Design: Susan Roemer
Lighting Design: Michael Oesch
10/17 Cast:
Dominic Barrett, Jacopo Calvo, Gabrielle Collins, Ricardo Dyer, Cassiday Isaacson, Marc LaPierre, Terez Dean Orr, and Shania Rasmussen
The Last Glass
Choreography: Matthew Neenan
Music: Beirut
Costume Design: Martha Chamberlain
Lighting Design: Brando Stirling Baker
Lighting Adaptation: Michael Oesh
Costume Adaptation: Vincent Avery
10/17 Cast:
Dominic Barrett, Maggie Carey, Gabrielle Collins, Ricardo Dyer, Julia Gundzik, Cassidy Issacson, Tess Lane, Marc LaPierre, Terez Dean Orr, and Yuri Rogers
Renaissance
Choreography: Amy Seiwert
Music: Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble
Costume Design: Kaori Higashiyama
Lighting & Scenic Design: Brian Jones
Lighting Adaptation: Michael Oesh
10/17 Cast
Gabrielle Collins, Tess Lane, Cassidy Isaacson
With
Al Abraham, Dominic Barrett, Jacopo Calvo, Maggie Carey, Ricardo Dyer, Julia Gundzik, Marc lLePierre, Shania Rasmussen, Yuri Rogers and Brennan Wall
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