Duos excel in ‘Don Quixote’

Spending Saturday afternoon and evening watching the bland new San Francisco Ballet “Don Quixote” offered the balletomane plenty of opportunities to take the measure of this vibrant and versatile company.

For starters, you could see principal dancers try on radically different roles as easily as changing costumes: Muriel Maffre, for instance, switching from the severe classicism of the Queen of the Dryads to the sensual pliancy of Mercedes with no loss of impact.

You could also watch corps members triumph in major assignments: Moises Martin, for example, giving a commanding portrayal of the matador Espada.

Or James Sofranko approaching the role of Sancho as if it belonged to a “Dumb and Dumber” sequel.

But arguably the best reason to return to this “Quixote” (again conducted by Andrew Mogrelia) on Saturday was the lead couples: the warmth of Vanessa Zahorian and Vadim Solomakha at the matinee, the dazzle of Kristin Long and Gonzalo Garcia in the evening.

Zahorian and Solomakha struck no sparks dramatically, but they danced together with great surety and technical control.

In contrast, Long and Garcia offered impressive individual virtuosity and achieved an exciting rapport in the mime passages, but no real reliability when the partnering challenges began.

For one-armed lifts, pristine supported balances and a feeling of perfectly calibrated teamwork, the afternoon principals ruled; and for spontaneity and a sense of unlimited technical freedom (as soloists, never as a

couple), the evening leads excelled.

If the two Saturday performances provided a feast of effective new casting -- Katita Waldo as Mercedes and the Street Dancer, Clara Blanco as Cupid, Hansuke Yamamoto as the Gypsy Leader, Julie Diana as the Dryad Queen -- nobody claimed a role as personal property more forcefully than Sara Van Patten in her passionate re-creation of the flamboyant Gypsy solo in Act 2.

If faceless restagings of the 19th century repertory are going to dominate our stages, let them always be danced with this much commitment and flair.