San Francisco Ballet.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET WAR MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA FEBRUARY 1 -MAY 8, 2005

It's been a quiet season at San Francisco Ballet. With two world premieres (by Stanton Welch and Yuri Possokhov, who already have pieces in the repertoire), two SFB premieres (from Lar Lubovitch and Jerome Robbins), and reprises of two full-length ballets (Helgi Tomasson's Giselle and Romeo and Juliet), the predictability factor was higher than one might have wanted. However, relatively sale and fiscally conservative programs offer their own rewards. Among them are discovering fresh facets of still-evolving choreographers and watching new dancers put their own stamp on familiar repertoire.

This year's most anticipated SFB premiere was Jerome Robbins' 1974 Dybukk. Tomasson had created the lead role, but the work quickly disappeared from the repertoire because Robbins remained dissatisfied, despite repeated tinkering. Today his reservations seem at least partially justified. Veering between narrative and abstraction, Dybukk lacks a comprehensible through line. (One wonders whether New York City Ballet's tradition of nonnarrative ballets put a straightjacket on Robbins' self-confidence.) Choreographically it is uneven. The bland women's movement contrasted sharply with the powerful one for the men. Robbins' fascination with Central European folk dancing was unmistakable, yet he also seemed to have been touched by the incantatory quality of Nijinska's Les Noces. Gonzalo Garcia brought a feverish intensity to Chanon, the young man who loses his bride-to-be to another suitor and becomes possessed in order to reclaim her; Yuan Yuan Tan danced the unhappy bride with the delicacy of a falling blossom.

Welch and Possokhov presented their fourth SFB world premieres each. With Falling, Welch, whose dance-making sometimes seems selfconsciously theatrical, has created a witty, elegant ballet for five couples. An older woman/young turk feeling flavored intricately detailed duets with autunmal pungency. Maybe that's what Kristin Long contemplated in her introspective solo, performed in silence. Possokhov's unfocused Reflections is his most ambitious work yet, with 34 dancers, Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1, and Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers as inspiration. The young choreographer was clearly trying out his muscles--unfortunately, all of them at the same time. Although the work needs rethinking, one could sense Possokhov asking himself essential choreographic questions (unlike Lubovitch, whose misplaced homage to Richard Rogers, "... smile with my heart," received its SFB premiere this season).

With no new work of his own, artistic director Tomasson programmed his Prism (2000), Concerto Grosso (2003), 7 for Eight (2004), and Meistens Mozart (1991). With its fresh-faced cast of mostly soloists and corps members, Meistens revealed how far Tomasson has come since the early '90s, and how taste and a delicate touch can turn quasi-sentimental music into something with charm and wit.

The season also offered notable debuts. Garcia danced his first Albrecht; though passionate and technically impressive, he has yet to make a convincing case for the character's complexities. Guennadi Nedviguine's elegant reserve sometimes keeps him from projecting his interpretations forcefully enough. His Albrecht's courtoisie, coupled with impeccable lines and picture-perfect landings, made him a soft but shining foil to Giselle veteran Kristin Long's richly shaded peasant-girl-turned-Wili. Joan Boada's first Romeo looked pale and underdeveloped. Plagued with injuries during his first few years at SFB, he has yet to develop into a nuanced dancer.

Among premiere roles for the women, Lorena Feijoo took on the virtuosic demands of Theme and Variations. Not ideally cast, she quickly softened her attacks without losing crispness and even seemed to relax into Balanchine's fiendish demands. Vanessa Zahorian's pre-pubescent Juliet was lovely but remained one-dimensional. Young soloist Sarah Van Patten also danced her first SFB Juliet (unfortunately not seen by this reviewer).

This season's scene-stealing debut belonged to Pascal Molat. Putting his quicksilver speed and airborne dancing to its best use yet, he created a life-savoring, death-defying Mercutio that brought the house down. Other young dancers had a particularly good season. Hansuke Yamamoto is learning to channel his formidable spinning into the service of particular roles; Jaime Garcia Castilla, slight of build but with strong legs and handsome arras, more than held his own against more experienced dancers in Ashton's Symphonic Variations and sturdier ones in Concerto Grosso. Rachel Viselli, lovely as Rosaline and the young woman of Robbins' In the Night, showed unexpected fierceness in Possokhov's Study in Motion and Van Manen's Grosse Fuge.

Young dancers added fizz to performances, but the glow of Tina Le Blanc's burnished artistry ennobled anything she touched, whether dancing alone or with her frequent partner, the young Garcia. Theirs may yet become one of ballet's great partnerships.

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