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This season, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley took audiences everywhere, from swashbuckling with Gilbert and Sullivan to a world premiere journey through Chinese history, so a program showcasing the company's versatility perfectly sums up such an eventful year. Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley closes its season with A Grand Finale, on May 5-8.
With a mix of contemporary and traditional styles, A Grand Finale features a little bit of everything. The program includes Danish choreographer Flemming Flindt's The Lesson, inspired by absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco's ultra-dark comic play La Leçon. Flindt's version tells of a private lesson in which the ballet master, to grossly understate it, is an unduly harsh disciplinarian.
A Grand Finale features two works by company artistic director Dennis Nahat. His Some Times is a jazz ballet that paints an abstract portrait of modern youth and his Moments, set to Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1, is comprised of four movements that each evoke a different mood.
Concluding A Grand Finale is a pas de deux excerpted from Maurice Petipa's 1886 update of the classic ballet La Esmeralda. The piece depicts a Greek myth about the apropos revenge that the goddess Diana takes upon a hunter who spied on her in the bath.
Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley presents 'A Grande Finale' May 5-8 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd., San Jose. Tickets are $22-$68. 408.288.2800 or www.balletsanjose.org.
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