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SFB's second programme opend with Helgi Tomasson's "Quartette" a gala type piece showcasing 4 ballerinas. Tuesday night's cast Katita Waldo, Lorena Feijoo, Kristin Long and Tina LeBlanc, dressed in beautifully simple costumes in orange, red, violet and blue danced beautifully in their contrasting variations but I have to say that despite the sweet and charming choreograpy "Quartette" is not strong enough to work as an opener. It probaly would be coming across better in a gala setting with more contrasting works before and after.<BR>Last night it was nevertheless politely received.<P>The evening continued with Christopher Wheeldon's "Sea Pictures". Set to Elgar's song cycle it tells of the lure of the sea and the heartbreak of the 'Mourner' that follows the loss of her lover at sea.<BR>The set background uses various different projections of a sea side and of a calm and storming sea which place the action in context. Wheeldon's expressive, elegant choreography clearly betray the fact that he has been brought up with lots of MacMillan and Ashton. Elgar's songs are full of big emotion and were sung with beautiful restraint by Diana Moore but unfortunately the dancing although stretching and coming close never quite reached the same intensity.<BR>It is probably an unfair comparison but as MacMillan's "Song of the Earth" proves it can be done. The work was a pleasure to watch it just seemed to me that the spark that would have made it brilliant was missing. Joanna Bergman's performance as the female lead was spell binding and the entire cast impressed with the emotional expressiveness of their dancing.<P>Balanchine's "Bugaku" was next. This work, seemingly showing a Japanese ritual in which the lead couple is prepared for a private ceremony by 5 male and 5 female companions, seems rather dated. The set, costumes and choreography are very cliched in what they try to pass of as Japanese and although it might not have been taken that way in 1963 when the work was premiered in my opinion it is disrespectful of Japanese culture.<BR>The ballet's saving grace is the sexy central Pas de Deux for the lead couple.<BR>Yuan Yuan Tan with her amazingly flexible body and Cyril Pierre took the audience by storm and the audience showed a lot of appreciation for them.<P>The programme ended with Jerome Robbins's "Glass Pieces" which in my opinion was the highlight of the evening. Choreographed to various pieces by composer Philip Glass it captures the energetic pulse of life in a big city.<BR>The first section has a 'rush hour' feel about it with a large ensemble of dancers rushing past each other without ever paying attention to anyone else.<BR>In contrast the second section is calm with the corps entering one by one from the right and moving in a slow repetetive pattern to the left where they finally disappear. The effect is very soothing and hypnotic and an unitrusive background for the slow, elegant Pas de deux placed in front of it which was skillfully dance by Muriel Maffre and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba.<BR>The final section is buzzing with life once again and starts with strong and dynamic patterns for a group of male dancers before building up to the full corps again and coming full circle to the rush hour feel the ballet started out with. Even the sudden stopping of all movement that ends the work leaves you with the thought: yes this is how it was meant to be.<BR>"Glass Pieces" really showed off the entire company and it is my favourite work in this season so far.<P><BR> <BR><p>[This message has been edited by OdileGB (edited August 17, 2001).]
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