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Article Excerpt
THE ASTONISHMENT starts on a blustery afternoon in the biggest fourth-floor studio at San Francisco Ballet. Bart Cook is rehearsing George Balanchine's Square Dance in the amended version of the work with the serene variation added for Cook at New York City Ballet in 1976. Before making the final casting decisions, a repetiteur, like Cook, frequently tries out a couple of dancers for the potential assignment to see how they will look in context. Today there are not merely two or three aspirants assaying this exquisite adagio, but no less than five learning the role. Not all will dance the part this season, but the fact that the company boasts five men who could even be considered for this casting plum seems nothing less than extraordinary. And when Balanchine's Apollo returns to the repertoire in March after an almost fifty-year hiatus, they, and their colleagues, will be the reasons why.
Welcome to San Francisco Ballet, vintage 2004, where the male principle rules. The company's women, to be sure, comprise a splendidly diverse and accomplished team, but it's the men who inspire much of the intermission chatter these days. In his nineteenth season at the helm, Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson has assembled an enormously gifted and attractive male roster that elicits admiration, even wonder, here and on tour.
SOME GENERALIZATIONS: This new generation of San Francisco Ballet men, for the most part, carries foreign passports. Many arrived with already flourishing careers, and they fit no rigid stylistic profile. They came to San Francisco for the headily diverse repertoire. They don't all want to be princes. The choreographer whose work many of them want to dance more of is Jiri Kylian. The San Francisco experience many of them prize beyond all others is performing in Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering. And most declare that they are not on the way up and out to another company.
This, for the foreseeable future, is home for Gonzalo...
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