![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berkshireedge-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/PHOTO-2-Joshua-Jack-Price-and-Katherine-Barkman-in-Marius-Petipas-Le-Corsaire-at-Jacobs-Pillow.-Hannah-Murphy-photo_-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Joshua Jack Price and Katherine Barkman in Marius Petipa\u2019s \u201cLe Corsaire\u201d at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. Photo by Hannah Murphy.<\/p>\nThe Leir outdoor stage provided an interesting setting for the dancers during the open-air performance that started the evening. For most of the pieces, the outdoor setting was certainly unusual and, for sure, demanding. The hugeness of space, and even a slight breeze, can be disorienting for dancers who are used to performing on a proscenium stage, or in a very defined, structured environment. Certain steps, such as turns, can be very difficult to control. All the dancers did an exceptional job of handling the outdoor conditions, particularly Katherine Barkman and Joshua Jack Price, who stayed entirely within themselves in the ever-so-slightly modified, but still quite technically challenging pas de deux from \u201cLe Corsaire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wona Park was also wonderful in the pas de deux from \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land,\u201d choreographed by Liam Scarlett to music by Liszt. She hurled herself into the movement with wild abandon, particularly in the partnering and lifts. Later in the evening, on the indoor Ted Shawn stage, she danced with the same abandon in the pas de deux from \u201cRaymonda,\u201d though admittedly the partnering in the \u201cRaymonda\u201d was more classically sedate. In both pieces, however, she trusted completely in her partner. And, in both pieces, her partners, Harrison James in \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land\u201d and Fernando Carratal\u00e1 Coloma, were resolutely up to the task. And Park and Coloma exhibited exceptional musicality in the \u201cRaymonda.\u201d<\/p>\n Mention must be made of Sir Frederick Ashton\u2019s \u201cFive Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan,\u201d performed on the outdoor stage. Duncan<\/a> was the turn-of-the-20th-century groundbreaking pioneer of modern dance. The story goes that Ashton, as a young man, saw Duncan dance, and that event was life-changing for him. Thus, many, many years later, he choreographs the Brahms Waltzes as a remembrance of her. The outdoor stage was a perfect setting for the piece (Duncan was famous for performing outside, in nature). Against a stunning backdrop, the setting wonderfully enhanced the way Jasmine Jimison\u2019s gauze dress was affected by the air and the way the rose petals Jimison released from her hands fluttered to the earth (Duncan had similarly used rose petals). Jimison expertly used the surroundings to perfect dramatic advantage.<\/p>\n One bonus of having an illustrious company such as the San Francisco Ballet at Jacob\u2019s Pillow is that heaven and earth can and will be moved to make sure everything is just the way it should be for the performances. Thus, for a number of the pieces outdoors, the dancers were accompanied by live, open-air piano music, notwithstanding that just before the performance began, a raindrop or two\u2014but thankfully no more\u2014fell. Likewise, when the performance moved inside the Shawn Theatre, much of the evening\u2019s work was accompanied by 22 members of the Albany Symphony Orchestra. While live music is regularly heard at Jacob\u2019s Pillow, rarely, if ever, does the music come from a 22-piece orchestra. Dancing is always enriched, and there is always an exciting edge, when it is accompanied by live music, and the collaboration between the Albany Symphony and the San Francisco Ballet was no exception.<\/p>\n The Shawn Theatre program featured the eclectic repertory that the company is known for: from classical pas de deux from \u201cDon Quixote\u201d and the \u201cRaymonda\u201d mentioned earlier; to Balanchine\u2019s neo-classical pas de deux from the \u201cDiamonds\u201d section of his ballet \u201cJewels\u201d; to Hans van Manen\u2019s interesting ensemble work \u201cGrosse Fuge,\u201d with music by Beethoven; then moving forward to Akram Khan\u2019s pas de deux from his piece \u201cDust\u201d; and then moving very fast all the way forward to work by William Forsythe, including \u201cPrologue\u201d and \u201cThe Barre Project.\u201d All of the work was danced with uniform expertise; however, for this viewer, the marvels of the evening were the Khan duet and \u201cThe Barre Project.\u201d<\/p>\n It is an absolute clich\u00e9 to say that dancers, especially dancers in modern and post-modern duets, are connected and communicating and creating their own world while dancing. Of course, clich\u00e9s are clich\u00e9s because they are true. And so it was with Dores Andr\u00e9 and Victor Prigent in the Khan duet. With the exception of one or two quite frankly inexplicable moments when the dancers were choreographically required to surface to peripherally acknowledge the dancing and almost break the fourth wall, the two wonderful dancers were entirely in their own private and essentially secret world, which the rest of us had the privilege to just get a glimpse of onstage. The powerful effect, realized through the fully committed dancing of the two performers, was greatly enhanced by the beautiful and very effective lighting.<\/p>\n The program ended with \u201cPrologue\u201d and \u201cThe Barre Project\u201d by Forsythe, with, quite famously, music by James Blake. A more perfect piece for these accomplished dancers from the San Francisco Ballet could not be imagined, in my opinion. Just about everything in the Forsythe choreography is directly in the wheelhouse of these dancers; the sharp, precise lines; the dynamic attack; the speed; the direction changes; the drama; the flair; the attitude; the musicality. Most remarkable was how quiet the dancers were on their feet, even in the face of the incredibly complex and challenging choreography. It was a joy to watch these beautiful dancers just revel and luxuriate in the movement.<\/p>\n The San Francisco Ballet will be at Jacob\u2019s Pillow through this Sunday, August 9. It is a company very much worth seeing. Information on performances, and all events and performances at the Pillow, can be found on the Pillow website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, the oldest continuously operating professional ballet company in the United States, the San Francisco Ballet, is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-426039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Harrison James and Wona Park in Liam Scarlett\u2019s \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land\u201d at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. Photo by Hannah Murphy.<\/p>\n<\/a>Jasmine Jimison in Sir Frederick Ashton\u2019s \u201cFive Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan\u201d at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. Photo by Hannah Murphy.<\/p>\n<\/a>San Francisco Ballet in Hans van Manen\u2019s \u201cGrosse Fuge\u201d at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. Photo by Becca Oviatt.<\/p>\n<\/a>San Francisco Ballet in Hans van Manen\u2019s \u201cGrosse Fuge\u201d at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. Photo by Becca Oviatt.<\/p>\n<\/a>San Francisco Ballet in William Forsythe\u2019s \u201cPrologue\u201d at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. Photo by Becca Oviatt.<\/p>\n<\/a>San Francisco Ballet in William Forsythe\u2019s \u201cThe Barre Project\u201d at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. Photo by Becca Oviatt.<\/p>\n