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[Helene]

Helen Wilkins, who along with her late husband John, founded Olympic Ballet Theatre and has been Artistic Director of Olympic Ballet Theatre in Edmonds, WA (a little north of Seattle), is retiring at the end of June, and former Pacific Northwest Ballet dancers and husband-and-wife Mara Vinson and Oleg Gorboulev will become the new co-directors of the company:

Quote

“They are high-level artists, but, most of all, they are beautiful people. They have the talent, passion and desire to take Olympic Ballet into an exciting and professional future,” Wilkins said in a release.

http://heraldnet.com...69913/-1/NEWS01

Vinson and Gorboulev have choreographed and staged Olympic Ballet Theatre's production of "Coppelia" to be performed next month.  Vinson is on the poster.  In this preview, Gorboulev coaches the dancer playing Dr. Coppelius.



Gorboulev also danced with Moscow Classical Ballet, Ballet International, and, after PNB, with Los Angeles Ballet and Julie Tobiason's Seattle Dance Project. According to the Emerald Ballet Theatre website (Bellevue, WA, close to Microsoft-land), he is currently the Assistant Artistic Director there as well as a teacher.  He also has been teaching at Olympic Ballet Theatre, the PNB school, and Spectrum Dance Theatre.  This page has a small photo of him dancing in "Apollo" with Corina Gill at a 2006 benefit.

Since leaving PNB, Mara Vinson has danced with Le Yin in several productions for International Ballet Theatre, also in Bellevue, including "Don Quixote" and "Giselle".  Gorboulev also danced in the same production of "Don Quixote", as well as in "Dracula" and as Drosselmeier in "The Nutcracker".

[SandyMcKean]

Very cool.  I'm sure all us PNB fans are tickled pink to see these 2 fabulous dancers land in a place so near, and in a position to contribute to the next generation, as well as being able to express their own personal artisty from a more global place.  (I have always thought of Mara as one of the most precise and accomplished ballet dancers around; now instead to see her in the video clip considering costume designs, was a real treat.....a whole new world!!)