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San Francisco Ballet: A Farewell Performance Celebrating Principal Dancers Joan Boada, Pascal Molat and Gennadi Nedvigin

by Joanna G. Harris
April 18, 2016
War Memorial Opera House
301 Van Ness Avenue at Grove Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 861-5600
Joanna G. Harris Author, Beyond Isadora: Bay Area Dancing, 1916-1965. Regent Press, Berkeley, CA, 2009. Contributor to reviews on culturevulture.net
Three important principal male dancers are leaving the San Francisco Ballet after the end of this season (Spring, 2016). Over many seasons they have each performed in the varied repertory of the company. Each is an accomplished and brilliant artist as well demonstrated by the program on April 17, 2016 at War Memorial Opera House celebrating them.

Joan Boada is a lyrical dancer from Cuba who joined the company in 1999. He is a charming and responsive partner. He is well known for leading roles in “Swan Lake,” “Cinderella,” and especially in “Don Quixote.” In 2003, he received an Isadora Duncan Award for Best Ensemble performance in that ballet with Lorena Feijoo. His exuberance and humor will be sorely missed.

Pascal Molat is French and offered the enthusiastic audience a glimpse of his ability as a mime in an excerpt from Wayne McGregor’s “Borderlands” (2013). As the lead dancer in Tomasson’s “Concerto Grosso” (2003) he demonstrated the heroic dimension of his skills. His work was notable throughout the 2016 repertory season.

For Tomasson’s 2015 film of “Romeo and Juliet” he performed the role of Mercutio. He is a great character dancer as well as a profoundly skilled technical performer.

We also say goodbye to Genadi Nedvigin who has been appointed artistic director of the Atlanta Ballet. Nedvigin received his training in Russia at the Bolshoi Ballet. He truly represents the "dance noble," bringing grandeur to such roles as Seigfried in “Swan Lake,” Albrecht in “Giselle,” and Lensky in Cranko’s “Onegin.” He too won an “Izzie” as well as the Erik Bruhn Prize at the 5th International Competition in 1999. He has been with SF Ballet since 1997. The cheering audience at the April 17 event was delighted with all his work, but especially with Tomasson’s “Two Bits,”(1998), a duet he performed with Vanessa Zahorian. It was a lively romp for them both.

The evening ended with the three heroes of the evening offering an excerpt from Yury Posokhov’s “Magrittomania,” (2004). It was a lively and delightful interaction among these three great dancers.
Joan Boada with Maria Kochetkova in the balcony scene from Helgi Tomasson’s “Romeo and Juliet” (1994).

Joan Boada with Maria Kochetkova in the balcony scene from Helgi Tomasson’s “Romeo and Juliet” (1994).

Photo © & courtesy of Erik Tomasson


Pascal Molat in Helgi Tomasson’s “Concerto Grosso.”

Pascal Molat in Helgi Tomasson’s “Concerto Grosso.”

Photo © & courtesy of Erik Tomasson


Gennadi Nedvigin in Yury Posokhov's “Margrittomania.”

Gennadi Nedvigin in Yury Posokhov's “Margrittomania.”

Photo © & courtesy of Erik Tomasson

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