Ouch is right. Well, at least he didn't blame it's weaknesses on Diablo Ballet. <P>Cy

So I went Tuesday night.<P>My lasting impression was that this is not a good ballet. the movement vocabularly is limited and melodramatic and at times downright awkward. Lacarra's technical weaknesses were at the forefront of her dancing. Pierre was one-dimensional as stated earlier, though he was trying his best with the material given to him. Othello doesn't do a lot of dancing. Just a lot of emoting. Cassio does more dancing and Stephen Legate was well cast as the Golden Boy Gone Wrong. The highlights were Damian Smith as Iago and Sherri LeBlanc as Emilia. Both characters are the most three-dimensional to begin with and that may have made there tasks a bit easier, but they were the only characters I actually CARED about by the end of the preformance. I was almost relieved when Othello killed Desdemona (Thank you for putting her out of her misery!). I will say that the plot was well presented without a lot of superfluous pantomime. On the whole I was disappointed.<P>I will try to get into a Richardson performance this week for comparison, but my days are quickly filling up with other things.

I really think Richardson, Maynard and Tan are the "A" list and Pierre etal. did a mediocre job. I thought Richardson, Tan, Feijoo, Waldo and especially Maynard were excellent. I just saw the Wed. performance where they did the taping. Especially the second act was supercharged. I don't think the score was anything great, but I did like much of the choreography ... when it's performed right. Pierre was a shadow of Richardson. I thought Maynard was especially outstanding as Iago. Go see this cast before you make your final judgement about the piece. I thought it was the best full evening work I've seen SFB do. It was heads over any of Helgi's middle-brow classics. And good riddance to Ulrich. I won't miss him.<P>------------------<BR>cheers,<BR>ralph<p>[This message has been edited by ralphsf (edited February 28, 2002).]

RalphSF said<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>And good riddance to Ulrich. I won't miss him.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>HUH?? Did I miss something? <P>Cy<P><p>[This message has been edited by Cyman (edited February 28, 2002).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>And good riddance to Ulrich.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Once again, CriticalDance breaks the news...<P>I don't know if this is public info yet but since it's been mentioned, I'll say that the Chronicle has offered its staff buy-out deals.<P>Also, in defence of Ulrich, I will say that he does know his stuff. I don't always agree with the man, especially when his vitriolics get the better of him, but I rarely disregard his comments.<p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited February 28, 2002).]

I agree with RalphSF for the most part. Desmond Richardson was a much more multi-dimensional Othello than Cyril Pierre. Both his emotional and physical expressions were more clear and full-bodied. Lorena Feijoo's Bianca was also well-defined. While Kristin Long was sexy in that role on opening night, Lorena Feijoo was sultry. The star of the evening however was Yuan Yuan Tan. Her Desdemona was emotive from beginning to end: passion, fragility, sadness, angst; all of it was present in this still very young dancer.<P>While Parrish Maynard and Katita Waldo were convincing as Iago and Emilia, I still very much prefer Damian Smith and Sheri LeBlanc.<P>And, oh, there still wasn't much of a buzz.<p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited February 28, 2002).]

Rachel Howard gets to the point:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Dancers on film<P>Rachel Howard, SF Examiner<P> So everyone is making a fuss about casting in San Francisco Ballet's "Othello."<P> PBS is filming the ballet, co-produced with American Ballet Theater in 1997, later this week, and a modern dancer, Desmond Richardson, has been imported to play the Moor; not because he is a modern dancer and "Othello's" choreographer Lar Lubovitch is a modern choreographer, it seems, but because Richardson is black.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.examiner.com/ex_files/default.jsp?story=X0228SFB3w target=_blank>More</a>

Ah, Ms Howard may have come up with the real reason why Richardson was chosen for the filming:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Maybe some enterprising apologist could seize upon the unseemly brown streak across Lacarra's emaciated thigh (though her legs look positively beefy compared to her concentration camp skinny arms) in Act 3: "You see we couldn't have stage makeup all over the costumes for filming, now could we?"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited March 01, 2002).]

But, oh, let me add that I did find Richardson's mime-acting a little cartoonish in Act I.

Thanks Rubies from the information, I didn't know that Julia Adam was pregnant. i discovered her in Paris and I really loved her. <BR>Did you see Katita Waldo in Desdemona's part ?

I'll be quiet now about the Desmond an his review(finally);but what did anyone think of Ms Howard's review of Lacarra's Desdemona???<BR>(this is why I dont think I could ever become a real critic).<p>[This message has been edited by angela (edited March 01, 2002).]

Ugh, Angela. It left a bad taste in my mouth. There are so many ways to criticize someone's dancing without attacking their body type. And if you find it absolutely necessary to comment on someone's body (to the point where it affected your viewing of the performance), there are much more polite ways to do it. Couldn't you say someone looked "painfully" or "alarmingly" thin, without describing them as "concentration camp skinny"? To me, language like that reads as a personal attack on Ms. Lacarra, but given that she's a somewhat controversial dancer and is leaving SFB, maybe that's what it was intended to be.

You took the words RIGHT out of my mouth Katydid.The review of Ms Lacarra went WAAAY beyond a critique to me.

I think the reviewer's comment on "concentration camp skinny" arms were meant to convey the discomfort level one felt watching Lacarra in that costume. I certainly felt very umcomfortable seeing those ultra, ultra skinny arms, to the point that it distracted my enjoyment of the ballet.<p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited March 01, 2002).]

I guess it's a matter of semantics, but to me "concentration camp skinny" is very strong language. Colorful, yes, and it gets her point across, but it could also be very hurtful to the dancer.<P>But I guess a critic's job is not to cushion a dancer's feelings-- it just seems to me that this particular comment could have been made in a more tasteful fashion.