(Pictured: Yuan Yuan Tan and Damien Smith in the San Francisco Ballet world premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s Ghosts. Photo by Alistair McCauley)
San Francisco Ballet Soloists Dana Genshaft and Garen Scribner will be joining us for Dance United on June 9th at the Keller Auditorium and we are delighted to learn that they will be bringing a work that Christopher Wheeldon premiered at San Francisco Ballet, titled Ghosts. Audiences really enjoyed Christopher Wheeldon’s Liturgy during our recent performance of Chromatic Quartet and we are delighted to have another Wheeldon piece to share with Portland so soon. That is not Dana and Garen pictured above, however. This is Garen:
And this:
And here’s a recent performance photo of Dana:
So what is Christopher Wheeldon’s Ghosts like? Here’s what the New York Times had to say:
“Ghosts,” his new creation for San Francisco Ballet, abounds in the felicities that for nine years have placed this still young choreographer in high national and international demand. Audiences at War Memorial Opera House here respond happily to them. This is Mr. Wheeldon’s fifth premiere for this company, and both the first performance on Tuesday and the second on Wednesday were heartily cheered.
The upper and lower bodies of his dancers frequently move in urgent opposition. The torso stays lively, bending forward and backward or twisting right and left, then the entire physique is involved. As women march in a group on point (in triplet rhythms), with profiles to the audience and arms raised above heads, their shoulders advance as powerfully as their feet (left shoulder, right foot, and vice versa). You feel this kinesthetically in your own body as it happens; it creates a little murmur of response in the theater, a stir of appreciation. Read the rest of the review.
Also on the Dance United program will be a pas de deux from the Kurt Weill inspired Wheeldon piece called There Where She Loved, performed by Artur Sultanov and Alison Roper, a reprise of their commanding performance of the piece in our 2004 Masters and Moderns program.
