SAN FRANCISCO – CITY HALL
Lee Heidhues 1.16.2021
The blogger was at City Hall on Wednesday in a futile effort to gain some respect from the Board of Appeals. It was not meant to be. He was lined up against the Planning Department, the Department of Building Inspection and a stern faced group of political appointees.
Nearby there was a marvelous party going on in the City Hall Rotunda. The San Francisco Ballet opening night Gala. The sounds of happy attendees and music resonated throughout the historic building.
Enjoying the scene of San Francisco cultural aristocracy partying like there is no joyful tomorrow in the dystopian World of ‘The Donroe Doctrine’ my black and white photo montage captured the action.
It was a positive counterpoint to a just concluded difficult time in front of the City’s uncaring and unbending bureaucratic establishment.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 1.15.2021
As political tensions and cultural anxieties ripple through the arts world nationwide, with the Bay Area’s own institutions facing uncertainty, the San Francisco Ballet kicked off its 93rd season with the usual glitz and pageantry — even as unease at times colored the night.
But not everyone embraced the program’s tone.
Santa Cruz-based composer Riley Nicholson, who has worked with Bay Area dance companies for years, attended the gala wearing a suit jacket in quiet protest featuring a design by San Francisco artist Elliott C Nathan. The back of the jacket was emblazoned with the words “Melt ICE,” in acknowledgement of the recent shootings at the hands of U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers.
The opening gala on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at San Francisco City Hall drew a mixed crowd whose conversations ranged from the just-announced sale of the California College of the Arts to the Ballet’s decision to proceed with its scheduled performance at the newly rebranded Trump Kennedy Center.
George Balanchine’s “Stars and Stripes” is a comic, campy and enduringly brilliant ballet set to the military marches of John Philip Sousa. The last time it appeared on the War Memorial Opera House stage, back in 2009, America had just inaugurated its first Black president. The curatorial message from San Francisco Ballet’s then-artistic director Helgi Tómasson needed no verbal elaboration: Let’s celebrate, his choice said.
Today we inhabit different times. As the San Francisco Ballet launched its 93rd season on Wednesday, Jan. 14, current Artistic Director Tamara Rojo explained that she brought back “Stars and Stripes”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_and_Stripes_(ballet) to mark the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding.
Considering that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers currently terrorize our city streets, while the threat of military action to seize Greenland distresses our NATO allies, Rojo’s curatorial message came across as less than crystalline. And yet, scanning the varying faces and skin tones of the prancing dancer “regiments” dressed in hot-pink tutus and faux army uniforms, one thing was clear: It is immigration that makes America — and our city’s Ballet — truly great.
Lee's Perspective 