Sacramento Ballet
Performance Date: June 16, 2018 Genius of Balanchine Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts, Sacramento
Above: Christopher Nachtrab
We’d been to the company’s performance of “Carmina Burana” a few months ago and after not seeing them perform for quite some time, I fell in love all over again. With this collection of Balanchine works, they didn’t disappoint.
One small caveat: Our seats were in the front row, not recommended for a dance show. While I could see all of their foot work, I could also see any flaws in costumes, or a lost hair clip, and even a snot in one dancer’s nose. For several moments throughout the performance, I was distracted by dancer butts too!
That said, the performance was marvelous. There wasn’t a dud in the bunch.
Donizetti Variations – Music by Donizetti Rubies (Pas de Deux) – Music by Stravinsky La Sonnambula (Sleepwalker & Poet duet) – Music by Bellini Agon (excerpts) – Music by Stravinsky Tarantella – Music by Gottschalk Theme and Variations (Pas de Deux & Finale) – Music by Tschaikovsky
After the performance, they announced a short Q&A with the dancers. I’m not a fan of these things, but sitting in the front row we were trapped and couldn’t leave. It would have been just too obvious and appeared rude. So we stayed. Nothing to write home about. Christopher Nachtrab, a lead dancer, acted as moderator. But I got a quick picture of my favorite dancer, Stefan Calka (below)!