Words on Dance: Tina Le Blanc

Few dancers of this generation so clearly embody the all-American ballerina as Tina LeBlanc, who steps onto stage for Words on Dance on April 30-- not to dance, but to talk about a career which began in 1984 at the world-renowned Joffrey Ballet.

LeBlanc, who will be interviewed by fellow Joffrey alum Leslie Carothers at the Cowell Theater, danced under Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino for eight years before joining San Francisco Ballet as a principal in 1992. Described as one of the finest ballerinas of her generation, she has danced roles from the classical to the contemporary, and has been widely acclaimed for her technical wizardy and the elegance of her lines. LeBlanc is, nonetheless, down-to-earth and unassuming about her accomplishments, which include juggling a career as one of SFB’s leading ballerinas with her role as mom to two young sons, 4 and 9 years old. But hearing about this sort of balancing act, along with the inspirations that drive artists like LeBlanc to new heights, is just a part of what makes the Words on Dance events so appealing to the balletomanes in the audience.

Founded in 1994, Words on Dance is unusual in the arena of dance lecture-interviews in that the format centers on dancers being interviewed by other dancers. It establishes what Words on Dance founder and producer Deborah DuBowy thinks of as more of an oral history than a lecture, where you’re likely to hear less of the dry facts and more of the kind of fascinating details that bring the dance world to life. The combination of interview, along with rare, archival film clips-- many of which come from the private collections of the artists themselves and often have never been seen before in public-- lends a uniquely personal voice to the recollections of these artists, who often speak frankly about their struggles and personal challenges on the way to success.

Among the luminaries who have conversed onstage for Words on Dance are both internationally and locally renowned guests such as Violette Verdy, Edward Villella, Mark Morris, Peter Martins, Maria Tallchief, Frederic Franklin, Martine van Hamel, Cynthia Gregory, Helgi Tomasson, Michael Smuin, Joe Goode, Alonzo King, as well as San Francisco Ballet principals like Evelyn Cisneros, Joanna Berman, Yuri Possokhov, Lorena Feijoo and Muriel Maffre. In 2006, Words on Dance celebrated the Balanchine Centennial with a an ambitious program that brought together a cross-generational group of Balanchine dancers, including Merrill Ashley, Allegra Kent and Tomasson interviewed by Boston Ballet’s artistic director--and an early Words on Dance participant--Mikko Nissinen. In 2008 she plans a similar tribute, this time with a focus on one of the 20th century’s great choreographers, Jerome Robbins, under the auspices of a grant from the Jerome Robbins Trust.

Given all the history that is recounted onstage, archiving has become perhaps the most important component what DuBowy considers a larger documentation project. This year, DuBowy has announced that the main portion of the Words on Dance archives will go to San Francisco Ballet’s Center for Dance Education, who will also benefit from part of the proceeds of the April 30 event.

LeBlanc’s acquaintance with DuBowy stretches back to 1995, when LeBlanc attended one of the earliest Words on Dance events, Violette Verdy in conversation with Mikko Nissinen who was at the time, a principal with San Francisco Ballet. Over the years, she says, she and DuBowy talked often about offering a WOD event centered on her career, particularly because it would give audiences the chance to hear more about the enduring legacy of the Joffrey Ballet.

From its first tour across America, with the dancers packed into a station wagon and a U-Haul toting their theater cases behind, the Joffrey Ballet has been thought of as the quintessentially American company. With a dizzyingly diverse repertoire and a coterie of highly individual dancers, she laughingly describes it as a company of misfits, but in a good way.

“Mr. Joffrey would bring things into the company repertoire for certain people, he would search out pieces that would show them off,” she recalls, noting that her first breakout role with the company was the full-length “La fille mal gardee,” in which she attracted the attention of the New York critics with her lyricism, as well as her “assurance and emotional range.”

It’s those qualities which endear her to San Francisco Ballet audiences now, in roles from Kitri in Don Quixote to the dreamer in Julia Adam’s “Night.” But there is lurking question as to whether the Words on Dance retrospective means that she’s considering herself at the end of distinguished career? Fear not, at least for this year.

Retirement is definitely on my mind, it’s looming,” says the 40-year old LeBlanc with a wry tone. “I feel like I’m constantly pulling myself together to get through the daily grind, but I’m committed through the 2008 season, which will be SFB’s 75th anniversary.”

This season, she's hosting the Community Matinees sponsored by the Center for Dance Education, which she says has been enjoyable. But she's really hankering to work in the studio with kids, so she sees teaching in her future almost certainly.

"I think I have a gift for working with children," she says, "I love to work with people who are hungry to learn. I love to be in the studio, teaching them and working with them."

Already she's taught for the SFB School's audition tour, an experience that she describes as depressing and exhilarating and exciting.

"It was eye-opening, but it was also hard to see so many kids come to audition, when the reality was we could only take a few," she says with a sigh, " There are just so many kids out there who study and have these hopes and dreams and it's difficult to know that they may never make it."


This article originally appeared in In Dance Magazine.

WHO: San Francisco Ballet Principal Ballerina Tina LeBlanc onstage in conversation with former Joffrey Ballerina Leslie Carothers
WHAT: Words on Dance
WHERE: Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
WHEN: Monday, April 30, 2007 at 7:30 pm
HOW MUCH: $65
MORE INFO: 415-345-7575 or online @ www.fortmason.org/boxoffice

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Dance Review: SF Hip Hop DanceFest

San Francisco Hip Hop DanceFest
Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
November 19, 2006

A certain palpable energy was humming through the audience at the Palace of Fine Arts, where Micaya’s San Francisco Hip Hop DanceFest played host from November 17-19 to two dozen groups from around the world.

Festivals like these should be archived for textbook study. After all, we’re living out a golden opportunity to trace the evolution of a dance phenomenon that has been growing and absorbing changes rapidly in the last ten years. Moves borrowed from gymnastics, capoeira, conventions drawn from modern, African and jazz dance have all been steadily seeping into hip hop and, I dare say, hip hop has been crossing over in the other direction as well. The SF Hip Hop DanceFest offers a timely look at where the forward momentum is taking the culture.

“Work it out! Represent!” someone shouted in the darkness as Funk Beyond Control took their places for “Side Show,” a jubilant free-wheeling routine for the nearly 30 dancers.

This Bay Area-based troupe – made up mainly of teenagers – took top honors at the Hip Hop World Championships and it’s easy to see why. “Side Show,” a winking tribute to the auto sydeshows of the now-emerging hyphy culture, was choreographed by several of the dancers along with director Darnell Carroll and these young dancers set the bar for the whole night at a high level. With a zippy pace and flambosting solos that merged into pulsing urban funk parties “Side Show’s” rowdy hyphy-train fired up the audience, who grooved along with tunes from Too $hort, E-40 and Keak da Sneak as well as Santana and Janet Jackson. But lest you think it was all frenzy, lurking under the rollicking atmosphere was an unmistakable focus and discipline that made FBC one of the cleanest crews of the evening.

For a change of pace, local group fLO-Ology Dance Collective moved into a house groove, adopting a dramatic narrative approach to their politically-charged “Dancing in the Wind.” If the quintet of dancers looked a little less focused than FBC nevertheless, their clear command of the driving rhythms underscored a sense of desperation in the pulse of modern life.

Later in the program, the brawny Lux Aeterna had a slightly different take, merging capoeira with hip hop beats in a more fully-realized work titled “Navaras,” to the music of the same name by Juno Reactor. Colored in twining silver body paint against a blood red screen, the five dancers seemed tinged with the slime of urban dystopia. Less refined than gymnastic, nevertheless, the dancers made good use of their charismatic physicality, and Jacob “Kujo” Lyons’ fearless tumbles across the floor, planches and gymnastic flares, while seemingly out of context, were impressive nonetheless.

Clad in grey and black hoodies, Khaotic GroovemintZ, from Vallejo served up sexy breaks in a fly routine titled “VII,” while the tough-as-nails Extreme, a group of six women from Montreal, Canada set a convincing “don’t mess with the b-girl” tempo. Hailing from Boulder, CO was Elements of Motion, whose athletic “Mile High” featured power moves, freezes and acrobatics that sent the crowd into cheers.

The clubbing couples of “2 AM” from Phoenix Dance Company showed a more industrial sensibility melded with hip hop, while SanRancune’s “It’s Deep…” for the Paris-based duo of Meech and Joseph Go along with David Imbert, mixed an animatronic pop-and-lock feeling with a dark cool European delivery. Shaun Evaristo’s serious-looking, thirteen-member Gen 2, from Daly City, adopted a casually grounded urban style in the group piece “Team is Back.”

Somewhat mystifying was Mind over Matter’s “Ghetto Circus,” which closed the evening. Featuring a bewigged Allan Frias as ringmaster, “Ghetto Circus” looked less like a circus and more disturbingly like a cross between a poorly costumed voguing act and a questionable cheer routine. That the dancers of this crew have skills was evident, but they deserved better material to work with.

High points of the program, though, were two solos, one from a rubber-man Kenichi Ebina, who replaced an injured Rauly Dueñas at the last minute and one from the human cartoon, Takahiro Ueno. The liquid-limbed Ueno, who won the 2006 Showtime at the Apollo Dance Challenge, also won spontaneous cheers from the crowd with his contortionist antics in “Nightmare Spiral,” which called up images of a carnival shooting gallery, a hat trick that weirdly inverts the “bullet time” effect, melting legs. He has to be seen to be believed.

Looking a bit like a lanky, nerdy otaku in his loose red track suit, Kenichi delighted the audience with whimsical but expert mime perfectly synched with a soundtrack of noise effects. From the old flashlight in the jacket trick to hovering balances a la Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix,” it wasn’t that it was hard to see how the tricks were done – the magic was in the artistry of the perfect illusion, which made suspended any disbelief entirely. Now that Jet Li has retired, maybe it’s time to call Kenichi and Takahiro in.

This review originally appeared in In Dance.

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