Whether creating a narrative dance performed to Willie Nelson or Frank Sinatra songs, or a non-linear piece set to a choral Stravinsky work in Latin, Smuin Ballet choreographer Michael Smuin dives head-first into the score.
He learns every note, every lyric and meaning prior to choreographing a new piece. While few of his works start with a story, the majority of his ballets are inspired by a specific tune.
“Music always takes you in the direction of what you want to say,” said the Tony Award-winning Smuin, who has choreographed for both stage and screen. “If you listen to the music, the composers, it tells you what to do.”
The San Francisco-based Smuin Ballet will travel to Mountain View this month, with shows featuring a diverse grouping of Smuin’s works and one of the final on-stage performances of longtime company member ballerina Celia Fushille-Burke.
From May 31 through June 4, the 16 dancers will present the dances “The Blue Angel,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” and “Symphony of Psalms.”
“Symphony,” Smuin’s second world premiere of the season, will be performed to the Stravinsky score of the same name, in a recording of London’s Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Robert Craft. Smuin discovered the music in 1970, when he attended a live performance conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
Meanwhile, “Fly Me to the Moon,” performed against a glowing backdrop of the night sky, features many of Sinatra’s standard tunes. The work made its world premiere at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco in October 2004, and Smuin said it has been a favorite among audiences. The piece has also been performed in New York and Italy.
“I think American music is great. They’re tiny little masterpieces in themselves,” Smuin said.
Sometimes the audience begins to sing along with Sinatra’s tunes during the ballet, Smuin said.
“If they get involved and burst out singing, that’s just fine with me. They don’t have to watch either. If you don’t like the ballet, just shut your eyes and listen to the music.”
In the third piece of the trio, “The Blue Angel,” ballerina Fushille-Burke stars in the role of Lola-Lola — her final performances before retiring from the stage.
The piece uses the cabaret songs of Friedrich Hollander, and is based on Joseph von Sternberg’s 1930 film about Marlene Dietrich’s narcissistic talent for always getting what she wants.
Getting what she wants has been a lifetime balancing act for Fushille-Burke, who has performed 113 roles with Smuin over the past 12 years while taking care of her two children, working as the associate director of the Smuin Ballet, and attending school part-time to earn her bachelor’s degree.
“It was definitely a juggling act,” Fushille-Burke said. “There were some years where I’d get to the end of a season and I’d look back at my agenda and I’d think, ‘How did I survive another year?’ On top of my dancing schedule, rehearsing, performing and traveling, I’d have to line up the carpools to soccer and piano and leave meals frozen in the freezer.”
Even as she plans to continue on as Smuin’s associate director, Fushille-Burke says she knows it’s the right time to conclude her stage career.
“Our schedule is a very grueling schedule, dancing seven or eight shows a week, and it just gets harder and harder when you get older. I see why Barry Bonds doesn’t do a day game after a night game,” she said. “I think in a lot of ways it hasn’t hit me yet. Intellectually, I feel like it’s the right time for me to be stopping.”
During her 12 years with Smuin, Fushille-Burke said a major challenge was that she never knew what to expect when approaching a new ballet.
“Michael’s work is different from most choreographers because he has such a varied background,” she said. “When you have a classical choreographer that’s only done that, it’s going to shape the choreography in a certain direction. But Michael has such a broad wealth of styles.”
As for Smuin, he says he doesn’t seek a consistent style in his work; nor does he think about an audience when creating a new piece.
“If I can please myself, I think I can please an audience, because I’m a very tough audience,” he said.
INFORMATION:
What: The Smuin Ballet performs “The Blue Angel,” “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Symphony of Psalms.”
Where: Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.
When: Thursday, June 1 and Friday, June 2 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, June 3 at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, June 4 at 2 p.m.
Cost: $36-$45, with discounts available for seniors, students and groups of 10 or more
Info: Call (650) 903-6000 or visit www.smuinballet.org
