I sensed right away that I was in for a creative, immersive experience on Friday night at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House when the programs provided for Mere Mortals were enclosed in a sealed grey packet that stated DO NOT OPEN. Mystified, I took a packet, found my seat and pondered the situation. Mere Mortals, I knew already, was a contemporary ballet that explored the parallels between the myth of Pandora and issues in today’s society, but beyond that, I needed to read the program to learn more.
And thus echoing Pandora’s fateful curiosity, I ripped open the packet that I’d been warned not to open.
Clever. Very clever. And that’s the first thing to know about San Francisco Ballet’s thought-provoking opening program, in this, the first season artistic director Tamara Rojo has curated, following Helgi Tomasson’s long, successful tenure. Mere Mortals, an immersive sensory-experience ballet that merges dance, lights, visuals and sound, is clever.
Mere Mortals offers an exploration of contemporary issues that includes the unintended consequences of rapid technological advancement, specifically AI. Touches of AI are found in the ballet itself, in the program's artwork and in onstage projections.
The ballet commences with semi-darkness and a red glow, fog shrouding the stage floor, images behind on three mobile LED-screen panels that share parts of the storytelling throughout the ballet. A lone dancer, Wei Wang, as Hope, clad in a sleek, latex black unitard that seemed to have been poured on him, danced with his trademark grace, with supple extensions and an enviable airborne quality. Then with a neat shift, the upstage panels pivoted around to shine the stage lights out at the audience, heralding the arrival of an ensemble of forty-three dancers striding out in costumes (designed by Michelle Jank) of long, belted black coats over skirts, for male and female alike, that swirled with their motions. In a militaristic march they strode on, moved fast in rhythmic formation, bobbing their heads in precise, hypnotic unison, letting the audience know instantly that this would be a ballet worth talking about.
Isaac Hernández, as Prometheus, a mischievous sort who has stolen fire from the heavens, danced with a commanding, assured presence. Jennifer Stahl, as Pandora, brought many facets to her character as first she slumped, one arm raised, moving awkwardly as if just learning how to work this new mortal body of hers. Her undulations and extravagant extensions were mesmerizing to watch. Later, her pas de deux with Epimetheus (Parker Garrison) was even more extraordinary, rich with chemistry and sensuality. Garrison’s a corps dancer to Stahl's principal status, and it’s always a thrill to watch promising young talent to excel in this way.
Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton created Mere Mortals as a collaborative effort that includes Barcelona-based Hamill Industries, a creative studio that develops cutting-edge AI-informed visuals, and Floating Points (a.k.a. Sam Shepherd), a U.K.-based composer and producer who creates transportive sonic environments. Intriguingly, Floating Points performed live, right alongside the SF Ballet Orchestra, on the Buchla, a synthesizer created in the Bay Area in 1963, that interpreted and looped the orchestra’s instrumentation. I was grateful for the more classical touches; at points when the electronica began to grate on my nerves, I’d hear the classical instrumentation, the sweetest strains of a solo violin and, later, the harp, to glorious effect.
Mere Mortals is not a perfect ballet, and sometimes I felt the projections played too heavy a hand. There’s a section, once Pandora has inadvertently unleashed evil and chaos into the world, where the LED screens behind depict an eerie unspooling of clouds and lightning. Pandora stands in dark silhouette as the LED panels showed AI-developed displays of chaos: the aforementioned storm clouds and lightning, either a representation of the turmoil following the Big Bang, or the destruction brought about by the atomic bomb. It went on and on, losing its impact, making me think, okay, enough already. Yes, an important moment, an important message. But watching a dancer stand still for so long gets boring.
Will everyone like Mere Mortals? I’m going to say no. Fans of Tomasson’s considerable efforts over the previous 35 years might feel bewildered by this edgy new take on ballet. Fortunately the season includes plenty of the tried-and-true as well. What Mere Mortals has done, though, is created a fascinating dialogue about the relevance of ballet in 2024, and the relevance of 2024 right back into ballet. It’s a work that is spot-on with the times, edginess, musical synthesis, AI and all. Keep an eye on the San Francisco Ballet under Rojo’s tenure. I’ve a hunch she will continue to lead the way into ballet's future.
