Cool Britannia, Three Provocative British Voices in Dance by SF Ballet
The freshly hang stage curtain created by the San Francisco based visual artist Ranu Mukherjee for the 2024-2025 season debuted at the opening night of Cool Britannia, a triple bill representing the cutting-edge choreography by three British choreographers (Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour and Akram Khan’s Dust) with music inspired by the turn of the century British music scene ushered in by the Beatlemania. Beautiful warm colored botanic creatures fly across the curtain in a shimmery blue starry night sky. The dancing Belladonna plants and star-shaped blooming Stapelias pairings resonate with the themes of the three ballet pieces featured in the performance.
The curtain drew up for Chromas, first played 14 years ago at SF Ballet which sent shockwaves for the envelope-pushing aesthetics and choreography, to reveal the minimalist stage design by John Pawson of tall white wall background with a black rectangular box positioned at the bottom where dancer walking out, alternating bright and dim neon lights throughout the performance. The stage design best illustrating Pawson’s concept of “Minimum” and subtraction to elevate the essential space by making the invisible visible. Dancers in filmy translucent nude-colored tunics best showcasing the bodies and movements that become “architectural… At the same time, in creating volume(s) of tone for the choreography to inhabit, the body can behave as a frequency of color-in freedom from white: Chroma”, per Sir Wayne McGregor. Several pas de deux showcased fluid alternation between connection and autonomy that made the seemingly abrupt ending a visual closure causing a pounding heartbeat when one partner leaves unattached.
Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour was created 17 years ago for SF Ballet’s 2008 New Works Festival. I very much looked forward to the costume design by Gap Inc’s Creative Director Zac Posen for the ballet’s return to this season’s lineup. Posen does not disappoint with his creation that is modern, poetic and elegant. The ombre colors of pink, orange and yellow inspired by the sky of San Francisco at the “golden hour”, the period where the soft, warm and diffused sunlight is omnipresent right after sunrise or before sunset, presents a narrative of its own. Wheeldon cited inspiration from music by Italian composers Ezio Bosso and Antonio Vivaldi to allow dance to make music visual and noted the ballet’s seven movements are “like a series of small paintings or sketches that are inspired by the music.”
Akram Khan’s Dust is a deep and emotional debut at SF Ballet’s stage, his first-ever creation for any ballet company, with harrowing narratives of the World War 1’s courageous soldiers trudging through trenches and supportive women working in factories. With a background in contemporary dance, Khan cited Kathak, a traditional form of Indian classical dance, as an intrinsic layer of his artistic identity.
Dynamic, bold and stunning, an all-stars ensemble cast delivered a powerful second program of SF Ballet’s third season lead by Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. Cool Britannia runs from February 14 to February 19.