Do Not Stop, Do Not Miss A Beat! --- Day 14/117

Walk: SF Ballet

Distance: 5 miles

So, today the superb SF Ballet ended its season with its best and most exhilerating and exacting program yet!  And, not improbably, its most challenging one for the dancers who were called upon to perform eight dances by the Dutch Grandmaster Hans Van Manen.  

Van Manen's choreography is nonstop movement to every note of the music (including Beethoven of all the composers Ciwt can't image dancing to).  His stages are bare of scenery, his dance structure is refined and his costumes nearly non-existent. (At one point the men were called upon to removed the wide black pantaloons you see above and dance the rest of the piece in the skimpiest of black bathing suits). All of his fast paced, intricate ballets demand perfect precision, athleticism and are so complex nobody, even the world's most skilled dancers, can do them in the initial rehearsals.  One person described his work "Solo" as a "mad little marathon."

For the audience this is refreshing, exhilerating breathtaking at times. For the dancers, Ciwt images it must be both thrilling to be dancing their art at such a demanding level but also nonstop frightening because the slightest misstep will be glaring and impair the beauty of the piece. This assumption was confirmed after eight of SF Ballet's pricipal dancers completed Beethoven's Grosse Fuge.  Not only had they danced super fast to the complex music, they had worked together as ensemble - a particular challenge for principals who are called on to express their own talents and no longer used to working in groups.  A few minutes after the curtain closed, there was a loud cheer from backstage.  It was the end of the season and they had done the near impossible - together!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzIjy8lrN1o