The Problem With Smuin Ballet

by Marla Watkins

I caught the recent 10th Anniversary Retrospective recently at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and while impressed with a stand out dancer or two, came away with an uncomfortable feeling. It partly had to do with the nature of these events: self congratulatory, pitched for the big donors to pony up more funds, and at times embarrassingly immodest. Choreographer Michael Smuin used some creaky old devices for the opening remarks, placing his Board President at a bar with some fog as the curtain opened, a hammy letter reading by Peter Donat about Smuin’s achievements (obviously written by Smuin’s staff), and a video compilation of the ‘great’ moments of the past ten years.

At times it felt like the opening and closing scene in “All About Eve” where Eve is getting the Sarah Siddons award and everyone else is either rolling their eyes or bored. The evening could have done without all three devices and been much less awkward. Unfortunately the need to edit also characterized the dancing. The evening was too long, repetitive, and full of odd selections for a 10 year retrospective. One expects this from such an event, however.

The underlying problem with Smuin Ballet became apparent as the first dances floated by. The program quotes list the word “sexy” first about Smuin Ballet (“witty and ultimately moving” round out the tag line). “Sexy” is a word Mr. Smuin seems to have taken too fully to heart, as almost all of the dances in Act 1 had to do with erotically-charged phrases and movement. It is not that the choreographic eroticism is bad; it is that as displayed here it is just not very good.

During Fever with the famous music by Peggy Lee, and after several stylized couplings already in the evening, I found myself wondering what distinguished this dance from a pole dance or a stripper routine. To be honest, not much. Would I rather see a striptease in a stripper joint or Yerba Buena? Definitely the former. Would I rather see a torrid tango at the Metronome Ballroom with a knowledgeable and raucous Latin crowd or with monotone suburbanites? Again the former. There are problems of authenticity embedded in the Smuin pieces. There is also the disconcerting feeling that the audience is being purposefully fed titillation in order to fill seats.

Smuin has obvious talent. There are moments that are genuine and powerfully emotional, such as the father-son duet in The Last Song (sung by Elton John). His group work, when he is experimenting with patterns, entries and exits, and partnering—such as the tango duo of David Strobe and John DeSerio in Una Lagrimita— is sometimes inspired by a creativity that is refreshing and bold. Unfortunately these moments were weighed down by too many humdrum moments, and too much pandering to please.

One spectacular dancer on the day I attended cannot be overlooked. Roberto Cisneros is a youth of perhaps 15 who tore up the stage in a solo not once but twice. He was introduced in a video segment that charted his growth from cute little kid to teenager. When he took to the stage to dance to the music of Paul Simon’s Homeless, he displayed such range, flexibility, line, acrobatics, and power that the audience was left breathless. He did the same with It Ain’t Necessarily So, sung by Cher of all people. He seems to be a dancer with his own sense of creativity and style, while also being able to dance the classic male ballet roles. This is a dancer with a great future if he continues to train and develop his artistry.