San Francisco Ballet Presents A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Review — Delectable!

Divertissement indeed!

We’re way beyond the hour mark in San Francisco Ballet’s screening of A Midsummer Night’s Dream when ballerina Frances Chung with her partner Ulrik Birkkjaer jolt us into awareness of just how quickly we have come to take grace for granted.  You too may feel that their pas de deux’s beauty makes you ache.  It’s not only that she seems to float, or that Chung’s execution is flawless, in this writer’s view.  It’s the particular way she so artfully changes the angle in her outstretched arms with a subtle glide.  It’s a fluid gesture that enchants, leaving some of us to wonder how much is her signature or that of famed choreographer George Balanchine in this, his historic first story ballet.  Or, more likely, that Balanchine beams from above at seeing dancers so able to get it and show it.

When it gets to choreographing Puck’s adventures (danced by Cavan Conley), Balanchine gives us something like knee-high goose stepping mixed with lots of very light whipped cream and a dash of brandy.  We want to smile every time he gets to move — long before he gives Titania (Queen of the Fairies, danced by Sasha de Sola) that so famous Oh No! What kind of ass was I in love with?? moment that seems to have high value cultural currency from Shakespeare’s time to now.

Stop the Story—Dance, Dance,Dance!

In one sense Balanchine’s choreography follows the formula of most story ballets—finding ample time to just let it be about the dance alone.  That is Act II, where the premise of a wedding allows one after another chance to marvel at the dancers’ prowess and elegance, with little encumbrance of telling a tale.  By this writer’s lights, Balanchine has put Shakespeare’s story on a speed dial pace.  If you don’t already know what’s happening because you know the Bard well, you might get lost on the who-what-when-where.

Then again, it’s difficult to imagine one would care.  Sit back--- enjoy Felix Mendelssohn’s score (including that oh so famous Wedding March) performed by the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra under the baton of Martin West, and take in the delectable visual feast.