Comment on Dance review: Smuin Ballet kicks off holiday performance season

Dance review: Smuin Ballet kicks off holiday performance season

If it’s Smuin Ballet’s “Christmas Ballet,” then you know that Thanksgiving must be just around the corner. Routine does not figure in these 16 dancers’ meticulously classical, carefully rehearsed performances. From dancer Nicole Haskins came an enchanting sextet, “Fantasia,” set to a James Galway recording of traditional Irish music, danced with rhythmic verve by Jonathan Powell, Weston Krukow, newcomer Robert Moore and, in heels, Terez Dean, Jo-Ann Sundermeier and Erica Chipp. Choreographer in Residence Amy Seiwert contributed the chastely classical “Caroling, Caroling/Bright, Bright,” inspired by a recording by the a capella Chanticleer. Krukow’s new “Mean and Green,” which delivers a Grinch with verdant extremities (Moore) in a shaggy vaudeville, may not outlast the season. Less appealing was Ben Needham-Wood’s “Frosty the Snowman,” a creepy number set to a creepy recording of the standard song. Despite the fact that Bach, Handel and Mozart did not draw profound choreographic responses from Smuin, Friday’s first half proved the more satisfying segment because the caliber of dancing, especially in ensemble, is so polished. Seiwert’s “I Pray on Christmas” (Harry Connick, Jr.) captures the spirit by injecting the classical vocabulary with a dose of funk.

 

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