At Hellman tribute, music says it all

Taking a seat Monday afternoon onstage at the San Francisco Opera House — where Chris Hellman had once danced — your glance was drawn outward to the concert hall, to the rows of empty seats, the burgundy draperies in the shadowy doorways, the glimmering spots of golden lights at even intervals at every tier and level in the house. And there, in the center of the horseshoe, was the Hellman box, radiantly lit, white lights shining on a ballet costume, surrounded by pink roses and underlined with a garland hung on the outside of the box. Among all those empty seats and spaces, the sight was a dramatic reminder of real people who once sat there, who came to the ballet with their sons and daughters, applauded and cheered the onstage magic, and then passed on the tradition to their families.

This memorial for Chris Hellman, who died in February, was of course all about her individual accomplishments, as ballerina, ballet board leader, watercolorist and athlete. But much more, it was a celebration of the love between quirky and affectionate Chris and Warren Hellman (who died in 2011), a tribute from their civic admirers and from their four children, each of whom carries on the family traditions of activism, humor and love of music.

So of course, there was music. The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra was seated onstage, too, and played selections from “Giselle” and “Dance of the Cygnets,” because she had danced as a cygnet in “Swan Lake.” Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Emmylou Harris, musical stars who became family friends in the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass era, sang, along with the family band, the Wronglers. And when you glanced sideways, you could see your neighbor’s lips beginning to move, and then you knew it was OK for you, too, to sing “I’ll Fly Away.”

The speakers — Helgi Tomasson, Charlotte Shultz, Nancy Bechtle, and of course Tricia Hellman Gibbs and Francis, Mick and Judith Hellman — told moving and funny stories. But the Hellmans, it was said, always knew that what needed to be said is best said in music. “Beautiful mother, beautiful dancer,” sang daughter Tricia, “where are you dancing now?”

It was a song she said she’d been writing for years, while her mother struggled with Alzheimer’s. “Tie the ribbon on your satin shoes, and dance your way back home.”

At George’s in San Rafael, Eileen Denny Alexander noticed that when the rock dance band Pride & Joy was playing, a couple sitting next to her found a way to communicate despite the loud music: They texted each other all night, with “occasional smiles” as punctuation.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music announced last week that it will honor Brent Assink, who just stepped down as executive director of the San Francisco Symphony, at its April 18 gala for — among other things — being a “champion for music education,” said Conservatory president David Stull.

As to music that turns musicians on, keyboard whiz Joshua Raoul Brody cites “songs so exuberant they make me weep with joy: Talking Heads’ ‘Once in a Lifetime’; Bernstein’s ‘America’ ... or the good old reliable Beatles’ ‘You Won’t See Me.’ ” At Martuni’s on April 24, Brody’s doing a sneak preview of “I Am Woman: The Feminine Condition as Represented in Popular Song,” which he describes as “every song I can think of that might be hilarious for a straight guy to sing.”

When it’s topped off on April 6, San Francisco’s new 1,070-foot Salesforce Tower becomes the second-tallest building in California, 30 feet shorter than the not-yet-open Wilshire Grand Tower in Los Angeles. “We must not allow that brazen hussy from the South to overshadow our beloved Queen of the West,” says Michael Stanfield.

As to whether size matters, Hoodline just searched for the tallest tree in San Francisco, and came up with a 218-foot tall Tasmanian Blue Gum in Stern Grove. That’s only about a fifth of the size of the Salesforce Tower, but I don’t think the tree is suffering from a lack of self-respect. Stephen Curry is not the tallest Warrior.

Anyway, the California buildings are both minis, notes Mark Russell. The 164-story Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai is 2,700 feet tall. And three Salesforce towers balanced one atop the other just about equal the height of the planned 3,200-foot-tall Jeddah Tower, under construction in Saudi Arabia.

We are not only chopped liver, but also small potatoes.

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “The only way for the country to get out of this mess is by thinking.” Middle-aged man to another customer at Peet’s in Berkeley, overheard by Bruce Reeves