Allan Ulrich
March 25, 2013
If Saturday's matinee at the Center for the Performing Arts is any indication, something significant may be happening at Ballet San Jose. Less than two years under new direction, the company looks ready to take chances.
It went for a big one in the first mixed bill of the new year, one that will be marked by live musical accompaniment at every program. But it was a smashing repertory addition that made the afternoon so rewarding. Whoever suspected that we might be seeing Frederick Ashton's charming "Les Rendezvous" in the Bay Area again? Ashton is the artist many of us place second only to George Balanchine as greatest dance neo-classicist ever, and this 1933 confection had a brief run at the Mikhail Baryshnikov American Ballet Theater, where Wes Chapman - Ballet San Jose's current artistic adviser - danced in the piece with distinction.
I cannot recall any earlier San Jose performances of Ashton's dances, much to the community's loss. But "Les Rendezvous" (set to a recycled composition by Daniel Auber and staged here by Hilary Cartwright) is a fine way to begin a relationship. This is nothing more than a series of amorous comings and goings in a gated park (William Chappell's original set is reproduced) for 15 dancers, and it overflows with youthful invention. But cuteness yields to complex technical feats that need to be dispatched with casual mastery, from courtships on bended knee to combinations that include buoyant entrechats to descents into fifth position.

Up to the challenge

Ballet San Jose made an impressive first go at the piece, the corps relishing Ashton's flying entries. Saturday's principal male Alex Kramer doesn't look like he's old enough to vote, but he possesses a natural elegance and a speed that carried him through brilliantly; the partnering remains a bit shaky. His lady, Mirai Noda, fluttered effortlessly in strings of bourrees.
The other Ashton premiere, the "Méditation from Thaïs" (set by the San Francisco Ballet's Bruce Sansom), did not work its familiar magic. This erotic dream of a piece needs considerably more sensuality and poise than Jing Zhang and Rudy Candia brought to it Saturday. George Daugherty expertly conducted members of Symphony Silicon Valley in Jules Massenet's swooning music.
Also in the pit for this piece and all but "Les Rendezvous," acclaimed violinist Rachel Lee performed the important solos. I applaud the company for hiring her, but the amplification was simply horrid.

Lasting romance

Lee did the honors in the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, accompanying the eponymous 1987 Clark Tippett ballet that Chapman brought from ABT. An unambiguously romantic work, it deploys eight corps couples and four principal duos in contrasting colored costumes. In this committed performance, the blue couple of Alexsandra Meijer (wonderful torso and articulation) and Jeremy Kovitch (careful partnering) and the pink pairing of veteran Karen Gabay (much of the old spirit) and Akira Takahasi left the lasting impression.
On a lesser level, the revival of Stanton Welch's energetic but tiresome 2001 "Clear" left a hole in the middle of the program. The male corps probably enjoys all those unisons and canons, set to Bach concerto movements, but this one should have receded into history long ago. The single brief duet uniting Kovitch with Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun, formerly of the San Francisco Ballet, afforded a few moments of pleasure.
Allan Ulrich is The San Francisco Chronicle's dance correspondent.