Last modified on Mon 8 Mar 2021 01.02 EST
Australian choreographer Danielle Rowe has a clutch of stage works under her belt, but in lockdown she has turned to film-making. First it was funny ballet skits, and now sheâs made her first major work for San Francisco Ballet, in their latest online triple bill. Wooden Dimes is the tale of a talented but naive 1920s showgirl named Betty (Sarah Van Patten), corrupted by success that splinters her marriage to solid but stressed-out accountant type Robert (Luke Ingham). It is not a wildly original conceit, but it has fizz, drama and vintage glamour â who doesnât love drop waists, bobs and minimally styled deco designs? (Thereâs a story in the colour schemes of Emma Kingsburyâs costumes, which are nicely done.)
Rachel Howard March 4, 2021Updated: March 14, 2021, 12:57 pm
Betty Fine (Sarah Van Patten) is a vaudeville chorus girl in “Wooden Dimes.” Photo: Lindsay Gauthier, San Francisco Ballet
If a choreographer wants to make the most of this pandemic era, Sarah Van Patten is the woman to put on the screen. Van Patten, who joined the San Francisco Ballet in 2002, is the finest actress-dancer in the company, so it is good to have a beautifully directed record of her theatrical genius in Danielle Rowe’s new dance film, “Wooden Dimes,” the clever Art Deco centerpiece of the Ballet’s digital Program 3, which begins streaming Thursday, March 4.