The Bernard Osher Art, Music & Recreation and the Business, Science & Technology Centers of the San Francisco Public Library present:
"Marking the 1906 Earthquake: San Francisco Off Balance--Ballet Mori and More..." an exhibition that runs from March 18-April 27, 2006 on the Main Library's 4th Floor.

It is a floorwide exhibit of books, documents and photos highlighting the earthquake-related resources of the Main Library's 4th Floor.

A special element is material on U.C. Berkeley's professor Ken Goldberg and San Francisco Ballet's Muriel Maffre and Yuri Possokhov, highlighting the April 4th Ballet Mori event at the War Memorial Opera House, presented as part of the San Francisco Ballet's program that evening. Minute ground movement will be measured at U.S. Berkeley's Hayward Fault and conveyed via the Internet to the San Francisco Opera House. On stage, principal dancer, Muriel Maffre will respond in real time to a musical composition modulated by the unpredictable fluctuations of the earth's movement. For more information, please visit: http://www.zakros.com/events/archives/2 ... _mori.html. All programs at the library are free. The San Francisco Public Library is located at 100 Larkin Street (at Grove) in San Francisco, California. For hours, click on www.sfpl.org.

Azlan...get your history correct, for godsake. The earthquake was on April 18, not April 4.

Oh, oops. You're right as usual. For some reason, I was thinking of the April 4, 1905 Kangra earthquake that killed about a third of a million people.

I am so glad I made it back from NY in time to catch this.

"Ballet Mori" was an astounding artistic achievement. By keeping it simple, the choreographer and the designers have demonstrated what can be achieved with brilliant design and artistry. And it doesn't hurt to have a dancer like Muriel Maffre either. It may have been only eight minutes long but the crowd was immediately cheering and on their feet at its conclusion. The several newbies I took with me to the show along with the jaded critical oldbies thought it may have been the best thing on the program.

Also, this turned out to be the night to be at the ballet, with all manner of ballet celebrities and other notables making an appearance at the opera house.

“Ballet Mori, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, CA, April 4, 2006

“Brava! brava!” The audience was standing and making the most of the opportunity to voice their appreciation to Muriel Maffre in response to “Ballet Mori,” an inspired collaboration of artists with scientists that resulted in (dare I say it?) groundbreaking work, where the conductor was the planet Earth.

The work, a one-time-only-performance, inserted in between “Jewels” and “Artifact Suite” on Tuesday evening April 4, brought together Ms. Maffre, Yuri Possakhov, former San Francisco Ballet dancer, Benjamin Pierce, Randall Packer, a musicologist, and seismologist-composer, Ken Goldberg. Possakhov set the movement Ms. Maffre used to respond to seismic sound waves transmitted live via the Internet from the Hayward Fault. Pierce designed the costume and set.

It began with a voiceover announcing that the next thing the audience would hear was the sound of the earth, a direct transmission for eight minutes, not recorded, but via the Internet. As the big whoosh began and everyone became transfixed, Ms. Maffre’s image in silhouette appeared magnified on the backdrop’s screened yellow globe. The silhouette decreased in size until we were looking at a life-sized Maffre in a pose on the floor not unlike her notable “Dying Swan.” She continued to move in response to the ever-changing earth sounds, some more modulated than others, some sounding like water in motion, others like a giant vacuum, or a subway rattling into the station. Unless you have entered a coal mine shaft, you haven’t experienced such an intimate relationship with the earth, our most fundamental home and collective womb. Meeting the earth on these terms has the ancillary effect of forging an instantaneous bond between members of the audience—you (plural) are here together, hearing these powerful, but natural sounds for the first time in your multi-generational lives, and watching the enchanting Maffre become profoundly involved in presenting us with her most intimate sense of the experience. Her deep involvement is informed by an aura of wonder—ours and hers--that forms the integument of this shared phenomenon.

What a profound privilege to witness this! How fortunate San Francisco Ballet is to have the talents of these visionary artists and scientists at its disposal, even for one night! The earth is a (relatively) big venue, and there is no doubt that “Ballet Mori” should tour it as fully as possible for the sake and inspiration of its inhabitants. If it comes to your town, be sure to see it and “go deeper.”

Note: The San Francisco Public Library Art & Music Center and Business Science and Technology Center have collaborated to mount an exhibition on the library’s fourth floor called, “Marking the 1906 Earthquake: San Francisco Off Balance—Ballet Mori and More,” which runs through April 27.

A review from the SF Chronicle.



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I agree with Rachel's assesment: cool, but not really cutting edge. For cutting edge I go see modern dance anyway. I wonder what STREB would do with the same music and subject?