DANCE REVIEWS : San Francisco’s ‘Krazy Kat’: Better Scenery Than Ballet

Before “Dick Tracy” reaches the big screen and “Archie” hits network prime time, here comes “Krazy Kat” (the ballet), another vintage comic strip newly peopled for the ‘90s.

Based on George Herriman’s classic triangle--dog loves cat but cat loves mouse--this one-act dance-parable enlists principals and soloists from San Francisco Ballet, the choreography of Brenda Way (founder/director of the modern-dance company ODC/San Francisco) and a pile of snazzy jazz records by Jelly Roll Morton, Charles L. Roberts and William Bolcom.

At the War Memorial Opera House on Thursday, however, “Krazy Kat” clearly belonged to painter Wayne Thiebaud, who created enormous still-life cutouts and landscapes (some massive enough for Wagnerian opera) in luminous watercolor pastels.

Sometimes black curtains and small scenic units isolated a character in space (Krazy Kat alone in the night). More often, the vista expanded to a full, multilevel stage with giant palm trees and other scenic elements providing an environment for dances by an 11-member “Cartoon Chorus (the dailies)” dressed in black and white.

Besides punctuating the discontinuous, quasi-narrative episodes involving Krazy Cat, Ignatz Mouse and Offisa Pup, this chorus served as Way’s primary choreographic focus--dancing much more than the principal characters. However, their flurries of loose, wiggly, slumpy movement--mostly performed in place--never looked as purposeful or interesting on the big stage as such inspired scenic diversions as a “Swan Lake”-style procession of oversized ducks and a leisurely boat chase.

Way seemed to be aiming for an anarchic, off-the-wall style--a ballet made up as it went along in contrast to the rigid every-finger-in-place premeditation of the classical repertory. Nice idea, but her impacted vocabulary and constricted sense of space never yielded much satisfaction.

In the title role, the winsome Grace Maduell got a major solo only at the very end--a katastrophic antiklimax. Val Caniparoli made a very appealing Offisa Pup but scarcely danced at all. And, as Ignatz, Christopher Stowell attacked his showcase opportunities energetically without making them particularly memorable.

Completing the otherwise familiar program: an uneven performance of James Kudelka’s “Comfort Zone” that came fully alive only in the passages dominated by Elizabeth Loscavio, Antonio Castilla, Jamie Zimmerman and/or Christopher Boatwright. Helgi Tomasson’s “Menuetto” featured excellent principals--Evelyn Cisneros, Jim Sohm, Sabina Allemann and Ashley Wheater--each of whom, alas, seemed to have a different concept of placement, timing and style.