“Dancing About Architecture” Finds its Place

Frances Chung dancing Myles Thatcher’s “COLORFORMS” at SFMOMA (photograph by Ezra Hurwitz, © San Francisco Ballet)

Last night San Francisco Ballet began the second program in its 2021 Digital Season, the first of its “mixed repertory” offerings. The program was organized around the first world premiere of the season, “COLORFORMS,” choreographed by Myles Thatcher. Presumably the ballet was named for the creative toy, which consisted of sheets of vinyl pre-cut in such a way that one could lift off basic geometric shapes in different colors and sizes and lay them out on plastic-laminated paperboard to create whatever abstract images mind might imagine.

Thatcher’s “COLORFORMS” was more than just another abstract ballet. Most importantly, it was conceived to be realized as a film, rather than simply activity on a stage that one could view in a theater audience. Thus, “COLORFORMS” is very much a collaboration resulting from Thatcher working with cinematographer Ezra Hurwitz. Freed of the confines of the theater stage, Thatcher spent very little time in the War Memorial Opera House, working instead in and around the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Heroes Grove at Golden Gate Park.

For music Thatcher chose to work with Steve Reich’s “Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings.” Like many of Reich’s works, this is a rhythm-driven composition organized into three movements in a fast-slow-fast framework. The first two of the movements were, for the most part, based in SFMOMA, first the interior, followed by moving out to the sculpture garden. (There are also shots from Yerba Buena Gardens, showing the SFMOMA building in the background.) Golden Gate Park provided the setting for the final movement.

The opening movement established the ballet’s title, presenting dancers in single-color outfits observing art works created with basic colors, often in galleries in which the lighting was also colored. However, as the ballet progressed, the activity of the dancers extended from such elemental imagery to the diverse structural elements of the museum itself. Given what I spend most of my time doing these days, it was hard for me to avoid thinking about that quip originally attributed to comedian Martin Mull: “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Thatcher’s choreography was as much a reflection on SFMOMA’s architecture as it was on the play of color in that space, shared among the dancers, the lighting, and what was hanging on the walls.

As the choreography extended its spatial framework, both the sculpture garden and Golden Gate Park provided more “concrete” elements; but the spirit of abstraction remained in the colors of the outfits and Thatcher’s choreography. Most interesting was the continuous sense of flow realized as that choreography peregrinated through the different physical setting established by Hurwitz’ camera work. The result was a thoroughly engaging experience, which never allowed eyes or mind to wander, since something new was always emerging on the horizon of the overall choreographic concept.

If “COLORFORMS” was the colossus of the program, it was flanked on either side by works of far lesser stature. The program began with Dwight Roden’s “LET’S BEGIN AT THE END,” captured on video at the War Memorial Opera House on May 5, 2018. The final selection was Mark Morris’ “Sandpaper Ballet,” captured at the same venue on February 16, 2020. Named after a composition by Leroy Anderson, Morris’ ballet was a suite based on a collection of short works that were favorites during the composer’s lifetime and have now become distant memories. Morris clearly captured the wit behind each of the selections. Sadly, however, his capacity for diversity was far less than Anderson’s. His approach to “Fiddle-Faddle” made for a satisfying grand finale; but it turned out to be only the half-way mark in Morris’ overall plan. When the final curtain descended, the attentive viewer was left wondering if there had been any plan at all.

Nevertheless, Morris always managed to come up with at least a few memorable moments. “LET’S BEGIN AT THE END” was a far drearier affair. For the most part Roden drew upon film music by Michael Nyman, taken from both The End of the Affair and A Zed and Two Noughts. He then injected one of Philip Glass’ piano études (the second), as well as Glass’ third symphony, scored only for strings. There was also a “guest appearance” of the opening Allemande movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004 solo violin partita in D minor. This wide diversity of music provided the setting for an almost mind-numbing sameness in the choreography with absolutely no sense of the ballet involving any sort of journey from beginning to end. To the extent that the music “came to the rescue,” Mariya Borozina provided a satisfying account of Bach’s Allemande; but, sadly, Natal’ya Feygina overdid the expressiveness in her approach to Glass’ étude, missing the whole point that the composer had in mind.