Mark Morris Dance Group - "MOON"

Cal Performances presents
Mark Morris Dance Group
MOON
Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley

January 25th, 2026

Outside Zellerbach Hall on Sunday afternoon the atmosphere was bright and clear, if not a little chilly. Inside the auditorium, however, the quality was much darker. Not ominous nor foreboding, but with a lens cast skyward - towards space, towards the moon. Mark Morris Dance Group had landed in Berkeley for their annual Cal Performances engagement, this time bringing the West Coast premiere of Mark Morris’ MOON. 

An ensemble work for nine performers, MOON was divided into short chapters or vignettes, each exploring aspects of the celestial, with many theatrical devices employed throughout. Choreography certainly, but also live and recorded music, props, moving projections, set pieces and text in an array of languages. Minus the genre’s typical angsty narrative, MOON seemed a work of Dance Theater, and kind of a departure for MMDG. A captivating one that mined the enormity of space. 

The opening piano tremolo (performed by music director Colin Fowler) bellowed from the pit, like a vessel being launched into the stratosphere. Stars arced along the cyclorama and the stage was marked with small astronaut figurines. The company joined the scene with stylistic marching, playing imaginary trombones and flutes. We were off to a destination far, far away from earth. 

Costumed in dual-sided jumpsuits (by Isaac Mizrahi), MOON’s choreography featured a fair amount of spinning and circles, just like an orbit. Chaîné turns with bent knees and hands on hips. Bodies twirled like figure skaters atop gliding stools. An energetic, community-filled square dance moment featured circular dance architecture. And a late chapter saw each individual cast member rolling on the ground while together crafting a round circuit.

Lilty low arabesques were also part of the physical picture, as were delicate weight shifts from side to side. Second position plié grew into a signature Morris side-tilt. One group sequence found the dancers scurrying through the space with stick straight postures and lightning fast parallel boureés. They looked just like space creatures from another galaxy. Wistful faces explored the stage’s surface. And several quiet, yet powerful, gestures appeared to be saying, “look what we have found.”

Mark Morris Dance Group in MOON
Photo Xmbphotography

An entire team (Wendall K. Harrington, Paul Vershbow and Kristen Ferguson) worked together to make MOON’s projections quite dazzling. There were starry scrims along with planets and orbits invading the backdrop. Living, moving images of the surface of the moon. A spinning record. An escalator to the heavens. A rising full moon. Rocket ships lined up, preparing for ascent. Every projection felt integral to the work. The imagery was not just there to frame the action; it was an active participant.

MOON’s score frequently abided in a delicious in-between state, oscillating between minor and major modes. Popular during the impressionistic era of the late 1890s early 1990s, this changeable tonality leads to a plethora of emotion. Uncertainty. Fascination. Depth. Surprise. And as MOON continued, one of the most famous impressionistic compositions sang through the air: Debussy’s Clair de lune, composed in 1905. The accompanying group dance scene was floaty, ethereal and unexpected, speaking to the qualities in both the music and to MOON’s concept. At this chapter’s conclusion, one dancer was left on stage, staring intently at a setting projection image. It was so beautiful and seemed a clear and fitting end to the piece. There was more to come, which felt a little odd after that perfect cadential moment.

 

Liss Fain Dance - "End Point | Open Time"

Livanna Maislen in End Point | Open Time
Photo RJ Muna

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents
Liss Fain Dance
End Point | Open Time
The Forum at YBCA, San Francisco

January 23rd, 2026

The Forum at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is one of my favorite spaces in the city to check out contemporary dance. It’s vast and airy; inviting and cavernous – a blank canvas, an empty container filled with possibility and promise. Sometimes a production set in this special place has a more conventional format with the audience facing a stage or designated performance zone. Sometimes viewers are seated in a square perimeter or in the round. One deeply special performance found each audience member with their own personal headset, controlling how the score interacted with the movement. Then there are the mobile, immersive dances where the audience is encouraged to traverse the room and choose their own adventure, engaging with the work in front of them at their own pace and in their own time. Liss Fain and her company of collaborators have long presented work of this last type, and on Friday evening brought their newest must-see world premiere, End Point | Open Time, to the Forum space. 

A two-part quartet unfolding over fifty-five minutes, Liss Fain Dance’s 2026 debut began with an introduction/prelude of sorts, End Point. Around the edge of a stunning installation by Matthew Antaky, each dancer appeared in one corner. Like a living board game, they explored the outside square. Slow, controlled, meditative motions gave way to stylized running and wing-like arms. They surveyed the horizon, while step ball changes revealed shifts in weight and intention. It was a strong opening sequence, providing a perfect opportunity for everyone to settle into the space and take in what was yet to come. 

Over the next forty-five minutes, a simultaneous collection of duets, solos, (occasionally trios and quartets) unfolded within the central installation structure. As noted in the program, Open Time harkens to an excursion Fain made to the Arctic, and Antaky and costume designer Mary Domenico certainly captured that essence. Four open rooms were separated by doorways and paths. Fabric slats, studded with wave-like designs in light grey, hung from ceiling to floor. The costumes flowed with dripping silver. It felt like a house made of snow and ice.

Because we were encouraged to move through the space, every member in the crowd had a unique and personal experience with the piece. You may have seen some sections fully, some partly and others, you may have been missed entirely. Sometimes you found yourself in front of an empty room, not knowing if and when a dancer may arrive. Fain created such beauty in this dualism – intense agency coupled with acceptance of emptiness and void. Over the course of Open Time, I opted to cycle through four different external vantage points. The audience was also invited to watch from inside the structure, but to be honest, at this particular performance, there were too many people present to make that a successful option. 

Like the evening’s overture, Open Time paired moments of quiet with high-octane movement phrases. There was stillness, repose and reflection: heads cradled gently, bow and arrow arms moving slowly as if through molasses, deep static side lunges. In contrast, we saw giant rond versés, where the leg circles to the back against a snaking spine. There were delicate, yet powerful jumps. Limbs cartwheeled through the space. Bent-kneed chaîné turns whirled like a centrifuge. It was equal parts containment and freedom. Whether staccato and angular or smooth and controlled, an undeniable sense of vastness and expanse was present in all of Fain’s choreography. 

Livanna Maislen, Elena Martins, Katherine Neumann and Isabel Rosenstock were onstage for almost an entire hour without a break and delivered the most captivating performances with such impeccable technique. Bravo to the cast!

The one disconnect for me was mood and vibe. End Point | Open Time’s physicality was deliciously varied. Similarly, Louise Glück’s framing text oscillated from desperation to happiness, fear to contentment. Such breadth of material. But the dancers’ demeanor stayed in one dynamic; never budging from an overwhelming held angst (at least not in the sections that I saw). A little joy or lightness would have been a welcome addition.  

 

Smuin Contemporary Ballet - "The Christmas Ballet"

Smuin Contemporary Ballet
The Christmas Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
December 20th, 2025 (matinee)

Smuin Contemporary Ballet is a class act, in so many ways. Definitely for what happens onstage, but also in how the company values engagement and relationship with its audience and with each other. Saturday’s matinee of The Christmas Ballet drove that message home, starting with Artistic Director Amy Seiwert’s opening welcome. With such grace and authenticity, Seiwert remarked about the joy and complexity of the holiday season, the importance of all kinds of family and the power of art to simultaneously heal and celebrate. It was quite touching as well as a calming, centering moment ahead of the afternoon’s gorgeous performance.

Up first we had ‘Classical Christmas,’ a collection of fifteen more traditional vignettes, seven of which were choreographed by company founder Michael Smuin. Tess Lane was equal parts delicate and dreamy, ethereal and expansive in Zither Carol while the understated elegance of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel continued to astound. The sky-high split lifts in For Unto Us a Child is Born are always impressive, though this year, they were even more buoyant than usual. And the combination of upper body stillness and detailed footwork in The Gloucestershire Wassail has endeared it as a much beloved Christmas Ballet offering. 

Smuin Contemporary Ballet in Seiwert's Dona Nobis Pacem
Photo Maximillian Tortoriello

Former company artist Nicole Haskins always injects the wonderfully unexpected into her choreography, like the Italian changement in Fantasia and the low arabesque in Peaceful Prayer. And Seiwert’s Dona Nobis Pacem is a marvel of dance architecture with its twists, turns, level changes and weaving. It feels like you are watching snowflake fractals glisten before your very eyes. 

Each year, The Christmas Ballet adds a few new chapters to its large canon of work; the first coming right at the end of Act I – Seiwert’s Ma Navu. A sinuous pas de deux danced by Shania Rasmussen and Dominic Barrett, the duet unfolded like a gorgeous stream of consciousness; a fluidity that defied stops or breaks. Similar to how Baroque music has very few internal cadence points, Ma Navu was one continuous statement of spinal articulation, with a particularly sumptuous final pose.

Onto Act II’s ‘Cool Christmas,’ where thirteen different episodes bring together a vast range of movement styles and genres. In the cozy, romantic Silver Bells (choreographed by another former Smuin dancer Rex Wheeler), wonder, magic and whirling turns abounded. Val Caniparoli’s humorous Jingle Bells Mambo paired robotic, angular staccato movements with flirtatious, suave legato phrases. And percussive dance joined the party with the flat-foot waltz clog in Droopy Little Christmas Tree and Tessa Barbour in the epic tap solo, Bells of Dublin. Act II is undeniably fun and entertaining, though a few of its dances (even some longtime fan favorites), may be ready for retirement. 

Two more world premieres made their debut in the second half, Myles Thatcher’s My Gift, Your Presence and Julia Adam’s The Sweater. Filled with sweeping choreography, Thatcher’s contribution made a narrative impression, touching on the complexity of relationships and the inherent human desire to be fully known and fully seen. Then, Adam’s work took us to the ice. Danced Saturday afternoon by Marc LaPierre, the solo opens in the land of figure skating and then quickly and comedically pivots to the world of hockey. Sporting a double-sided jersey (also known as a hockey sweater) featuring two of the original six NHL teams, LaPierre cycled through penalty box shenanigans, even a ‘gloves off’ moment framed by strobe lights. The Sweater was a highlight of 2025’s Christmas Ballet, and I imagine there were many patrons in the audience who hope it returns next year!