Alyssa Mitchel - "ENDURE"

Alyssa Mitchel
ENDURE

Alyssa Mitchel's ENDURE
Photo Sean Anomie

Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco
October 4th, 2025

I am not a marathon runner. But over the last ten years I’ve lived in a marathoner’s orbit, so I know some things. The distance – 26.2 miles. If a race is longer than that, it is labelled an ultra-marathon. Up until just recently, there were six world major races – New York, Chicago, Boston, Berlin, London and Tokyo. Sidney is now the seventh. And there are so many training programs one can follow – a plan exists for every type of runner.

Alyssa Mitchel’s newest dance work, ENDURE, mines this beautiful, intense, crazy world. Running this past weekend at Dance Mission Theater, the piece joins six dancers, six marathoners and various multi-media devices to share the marathoning journey. ENDURE showed all the stops along the training path through movement and choreography, alongside poignant oral histories from the runners. 

ENDURE began with a set of videos introducing the six marathon runners to the audience, following which the cast entered the space to perform the first of many vignettes, a structure and form that would continue for the duration of the work. This first cast statement, a quartet titled “Track Tuesday,” explored warming up. Clad in athletic gear, sneakers and wearable wrist trackers, the four cycled through high knees, kick jumps, stretches and light jogging around the stage’s perimeter. They sank into deep lunges, like at the start of a race, and sprinted from one spot to another. Motifs repeated and Mitchel injected slow motion high attitudes to mimic the carriage of the legs when running. Mutual vocabulary and unison phrases reflected the sense of community, a narrative that would serve as a throughline in the composition. Shared physicality, shared goals, shared spaces, shared interest, shared passion. 

Chapters 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 14 (of 17 in total) each centered on an audio recording of one runner’s personal story while video of Zach Litoff’s drawings and visual art were projected on the backdrop. Simultaneously a soloist (occasionally joined by other cast members) would interpret the words through matching, literal choreography. Hands clasping indicating kinship; freedom by outstretched arms. I found a recovery sequence to be especially tender, with precise and measured movement noting the importance of rest in the sojourn toward a marathon. On the flip side, overtraining was represented as one dancer tried desperately to move supporting the entire weight of another. I also could have sworn I saw lots of tap dance steps – single backwalks, 5- and 6-beat riff rhythms and paddle rolls. After thinking about that on the way home, it made a ton of sense and was quite poetic. Investigating how the toe and heel of the foot must work in concert to create tap sounds shares a deep connection to how the different parts of the foot must function independently and interdependently when running.

I enjoyed ENDURE. It had solid choreography, talented dancers and integrated multi-media aspects. And perhaps most important, it was on track the whole time. Well done. But it was lengthy. Curtain was held for ten minutes (which unfortunately has become typical with San Francisco dance shows these days), and there were some brief opening remarks. But once the house lights did finally go down, it was another seventy-five minutes. For my taste, that’s too long for a stand-alone piece.

Paris Opera Ballet - "Red Carpet"

Paris Opera Ballet in Shechter's Red Carpet
Photo Chris Hardy

Cal Performances presents
Paris Opera Ballet
Red Carpet
Zellerbach Hall
October 2nd, 2025

It may not be cool to admit that you like awards shows or awards season, but cool or not, I’m a fan. I love watching the glamorous arrivals, hearing performers chat about past and present projects, and I love the fashion. And while those ‘red-carpet’ events are certainly full of glitz and elegance, moments of unpredictability, surprise and even a little intrigue are often part of the picture.

Surprise, intrigue and the unexpected – there is no better way to describe Paris Opera Ballet in Hofesh Shechter’s Red Carpet, a North American premiere currently onstage at Cal Performances as part of their 2025-2026 dance offerings.

From the moment the curtain opened, the Zellerbach Hall audience knew they were in for a wild ride. Part concert, part rave, part community ritual, the hour-plus ballet exploded on the stage as if it had been shot out of cannon. Sequins and grandeur imbued the costuming by CHANEL. An enormous gothic chandelier hung center stage. Rhythmic house music, performed live by an onstage quartet, pulsated through the space. And Shechter’s physical vocabulary set the tonal energy and dynamic range. Arms unabashedly swung while legs sunk into wide, deep second positions. Old-school modern triplet footwork gave way to extreme spinal lay-outs. Palm splayed in ‘ta-da’ pizzaz. There was posing. Posturing. Trippy undulations. Through the combination of scenic elements, music and choreography, the space had transformed into the most untamed after party imaginable. 

After the initial full cast statement (thirteen dancers in total), the mood and tone shifted drastically. The tempo slowed, the stage emptied and it suddenly felt like Red Carpet was challenging the viewer to consider their lens of observation. The level of discomfort was real and so were urgent and timely questions surrounding the notions watching and scrutiny. 

A later group sequence ushered in another new atmosphere – meditative and synergistic. Seated with legs crossed, the cast reached outward with their hands and arms and then returned them to prayer center. Upper limbs gently waved like wheat in the wind, the unison movements conjuring calm, egalitarianism and a community sealing of a larger practice. As Red Carpet reached its conclusion, everyone’s outer costuming had disappeared, revealing beige-toned leotards and bicycle shorts. The glamor had been peeled away but what remained was an intensity of movement, a commitment to the task at hand and a deeply pure intention. 

Red Carpet was more Dance Theater than I was expecting, and it was solid Dance Theater. Motions and phrases repeated over and over again, which in that style and genre, purposefully allows emphasis and an anesthetizing effect to exist concurrently. 

It’s safe to say that the reception to Thursday’s opening was mixed. Many patrons leapt to their feet at the final blackout, clapping with enthusiasm and fervor, while others had opted to leave the auditorium far before the piece was over. I think my reaction was also mixed but maybe not to those two extremes. Generally, I really enjoyed the piece’s choreography and the company’s exemplary performance. Though there were some elements that didn’t quite add up for me. Most of the time (not always), I found the stage to be fairly dark, which I get was part of the mood. Dim lighting in a smoky bar or club, very Cabaret, the musical. But that made it challenging to actually see the CHANEL costume design, which had been billed as a major part of the production. In the final third, there was a lengthy musical interlude, which again, great score, wonderful musical performances. Clearly it served performative and functional roles, giving the dancers an opportunity to change costumes. Nonetheless, it felt out of place. Last, at over an hour, Red Carpet is lengthy. Even the ending sequence, where it was obvious that things were wrapping up, took a very long time to reach its stopping point. 

Smuin Contemporary Ballet - "Extremely Close"

Smuin Contemporary Ballet
“Extremely Close”
Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA, San Francisco
September 27th, 2025 (matinee)

Smuin Ballet’s 32nd season opener, currently in the last leg of its Bay Area tour at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, might be one of the most contemporary programs I’ve seen from the company in a long time. And it was terrific. The Smuin institution has long been committed to investigating the range that is contemporary ballet. After all, the word ‘contemporary’ is in their company name. But past mixed repertory offerings have also tended to include something a little more traditional, familiar, or even classical in the mix. Saturday’s matinee of “Extremely Close” was all contemporary, all the time. Also, it was a celebration of newness – a West Coast premiere of a sneaker ballet, a second West Coast premiere from Artistic Director Amy Seiwert and a Bay Area premiere of a contemporary tonal masterpiece. A dazzling start to what is sure to be a standout season!

Ahead of curtain, Seiwert noted that Justin Peck’s Partita (2022) was going to have some elements of instruction. As the octet began, eight a cappella voices did indeed instruct the dancers which way to move. Costumed by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung in athletic gear, tube socks and sneakers, the dancers stepped out to the side and back responding and engaging with the vocal score. As with many sneaker ballets, there was an overwhelming sense of the present-day, of youth, vitality and community. The stage was so alive with ebullience and yearning.

João Sampaio and Cameron Confrancesco in 
Peck's Partita
Photo Chris Hardy

Phrases were skillfully woven together – footwork patterns blended with speedy arm sequences, picturesque imagery with clean, elegant diagonals. Palms pierced the air as legs subtly moved from extension to flexion, knees bending ever so slightly. Yoga vocabulary was everywhere: deep lunges, half splits, warrior two, extended side angle, mountain pose. And like in yoga practice, there were distinct moments where movements connected with breath, particularly in a duet for Cameron Cofrancesco and João Sampaio. Each step linked directly to an inhalation/exhalation in the score – very similar to how movement is tied to musical rhythm and structure in neo-classical ballet. A late group section felt like a children’s game; super playful and fun-loving. Peck also isn’t afraid to stop the choreography and let the audience sit with absence. There were even a number of seconds where the stage glowed blue but remained completely empty. Partita is deliciously unpredictable and I cannot wait to see it again. 

Only recently did I read the entirety of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. What a wild comedic ride: intertwined narratives, relationship status changes, spells, potions, animals, fairies, mistaken identity and so many different characters. Distilling or abridging that broader source material into more manageable pieces seems a helpful and valuable exercise!

Enter Seiwert’s 2023 A Long Night, a one-act ballet that centers around Puck, Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius and as the program states is “inspired by a Midsummer love affair.” A Long Night takes a humorous, current look at these five characters from the play. We see Puck as the mischievous orchestrator of events and circumstances. We see the use of magic. We see the complicated, entangled existence of the story’s two main couples. Infatuation. Unrequited emotion. Youthful desire. While pointe shoes were part of this picture, the viewer also sees Seiwert’s forward-thinking, contemporary approach to the possibilities within ballet vocabulary. Flexion in the limbs and joints. Use of the demi-pointe elevation while in those pointe shoes. Uneven groupings, like the fascinating pas de cinq. Benjamin Burton’s costumes were spot on and Seiwert cleverly set the piece to popular songs featuring the word ‘dream.’ Though I did long for some kind of forest-y scenic design or backdrop.

Yuri Rogers and Maggie Carey in 
Cerrudo's Extremely Close
Photo Chris Hardy

Closing the bill was Alejandro Cerrudo’s Extremely Close, a 2007 octet which also titled the entire afternoon’s program. The stage was strewn with feathers, while still more descended from the rafters (a great warm-up for the Smuin audience members who are eagerly anticipating the snow scene in The Christmas Ballet). Three flats rolled and traversed the stage space. The mood was somber and serious and there was a keen sense of urgency, especially in the magnetic, emotionally potent pas de deux between Maggie Carey and Yuri Rogers. The ending of which can only be described as unexpectedly foreboding.

But I think the genius of Extremely Close is its study of textural contrast. The billowy flowers opposed with the stark square stage flats. The lightness of the design elements experienced with the darkness of Janice Pytel’s costumes. Unison phrases and canon. Presence versus absence. Some dancers were visible onstage while others were hidden behind the flats. Suspension then grounding in Cerrudo’s choreography. Slow tempos amidst frenetic paces. Silence and sound. Equal moments of passion and suspicion.