sandik

The company has just released information on promotions for next season -- I'll paste the release here, and comment separately. PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET ANNOUNCES DANCER PROMOTIONS FOR 2010-2011 SEASON SEATTLE, WA — As the company returned to the rehearsal studios today following their post-season break, Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal was very pleased to announce six dancer promotions for the 2010-2011 season. Seth Orza, who joined PNB as a member of the corps de ballet in 2007, has been promoted to the rank of principal dancer. Corps de ballet member Laura Gilbreath, who joined PNB as an apprentice in 2003, was promoted to the rank of soloist as was Sarah Ricard Orza, a member of PNB’s corps de ballet since 2007. Mr. Boal was also happy to announce that Chelsea Adomaitis, Ryan Cardea, and Ezra Thomson, who joined PNB as apprentices in 2009, have all been promoted to the corps de ballet. Seth Orza is from San Francisco, California. He trained at San Francisco Ballet School and on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet. In 1999, he joined New York City Ballet as an apprentice. He became a corps de ballet member in 2000, and in 2007 he was promoted to soloist. At New York City Ballet, Mr. Orza danced leading roles in George Balanchine's Agon, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Nutcracker, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Symphony in C, and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2; Peter Martins' Reliquary and Romeo + Juliet; Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free, Fanfare, In Memory Of…, Interplay, and Piano Pieces; and Christopher Wheeldon's Carousel (A Dance), Evenfall, and Polyphonia. Mr. Orza joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2007 and was promoted to soloist in 2008. He has originated leading roles in Benjamin Millepied's 3 Movements, Jonathan Porretta's Lacrymosa, and Susan Stroman's TAKE FIVE…More or Less and danced leading roles in George Balanchine's Agon, Coppélia, Diamonds, Emeralds, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, and Symphony in C; Val Caniparoli's The Seasons; William Forsythe's One Flat Thing, reproduced; Paul Gibson's Sense of Doubt; Ronald Hynd's The Sleeping Beauty; Jiri Kylian's Petite Mort; Jean-Christophe Maillot's Roméo et Juliette; Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering, Fancy Free, In the Night, and West Side Story Suite; Kent Stowell's Nutcracker and Swan Lake; Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs; and Christopher Wheeldon's Carousel (A Dance) and Variations Sérieuses. In April 2009, Mr. Orza performed as a guest artist with San Francisco Ballet in Balanchine's Emeralds. Laura Gilbreath is from Hammond, Louisiana. She trained with Phoebe Brantley in Baton Rouge, Joseph Giacobbe and Richard Rholdon in New Orleans, and on scholarship at the School of American Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2003 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2004. She has danced leading roles in George Balanchine's Diamonds, Prodigal Son, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Serenade, Rubies, and Symphony in C; Ulysses Dove's Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven and Red Angels; William Forsythe's One Flat Thing, reproduced; Ronald Hynd's The Sleeping Beauty; Jiri Kylian's Petite Mort; Brian Reeder's Lost Language of the Flight Attendant; Jerome Robbins' In the Night and West Side Story Suite; Kent Stowell's Nutcracker and Silver Lining; and Susan Stroman's TAKE FIVE...More or Less. Ms. Gilbreath has performed as a guest artist with Lafayette Ballet Theatre. Sarah Ricard Orza is from Amherst, Massachusetts. She trained at Amherst Ballet School and on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet. In 1999, she joined New York City Ballet as an apprentice. She became a member of the corps de ballet in 2000 and danced with the company until 2006. At New York City Ballet, Ms. Orza danced leading roles in Balanchine's Coppélia, Peter Martins' The Sleeping Beauty, and Jerome Robbins' Fanfare and Interplay. In 2007, she joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a corps de ballet dancer. She has danced leading roles in George Balanchine's Agon, Coppélia and Emeralds; Val Caniparoli's The Seasons; Ronald Hynd's The Sleeping Beauty, Jiri Kylian's Petite Mort; Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering, In the Night, and West Side Story Suite; Kent Stowell's Nutcracker; Susan Stroman's TAKE FIVE…More or Less; and Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs and Opus 111. Chelsea Adomaitis is from Boston, Massachusetts. She studied with Wayne Stewarte in Massachusetts and at Harid Conservatory and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and she attended summer courses at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Harid Conservatory, the Royal Ballet School (London), and National Ballet School (Canada). While a student at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Ms. Adomaitis performed leading roles in George Balanchine’s Cortège Hongrois and La Source and originated roles in ballets by Sonia Dawkins, Kiyon Gaines, and Olivier Wevers. In 2009, Ms. Adomaitis won a National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts youngARTS Level I award. She was also a Youth America Grand Prix finalist in 2003, 2004, and 2005. Ryan Cardea is from New York City. He studied on scholarship at the School of American Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and he attended summer courses at American Ballet Theatre, Chautauqua School of Dance, Miami City Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where he was a 2009 recipient of the Flemming Halby Exchange with the Royal Danish Ballet School. While a student at Pacific Northwest School, Mr. Cardea performed leading roles in Bruce Wells' Pinocchio and originated roles in ballets by Barry Kerollis and Jonathan Porretta. Ezra Thomson is from San Bernardino, California. He studied on scholarship at Riverside Ballet Arts, Orlando Ballet School, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School and attended summer courses at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, National Ballet School (Canada), the Rock School, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Burklyn Ballet Theatre. Mr. Thomson was a 2009 recipient of the Flemming Halby Exchange with the Royal Danish Ballet School. He danced with Orlando Ballet before joining Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2009. While a student in Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Mr. Thomson performed the lead in George Balanchine’s La Source and also originated roles in ballets by Kiyon Gaines, Stanko Milov, and Olivier Wevers, as well as the role of Geppetto in Bruce Wells’ Pinocchio. In 2007, Mr. Thomson won the gold medal in the regional Youth America Grand Prix competition.

Oh my goodness -- the possibilities!

It's very sweet, even with the glitch (Alicia Markova was not a "Russian ballerina")

Thanks again to the admins who are willing to deal with these details, so the rest of us can chatter away!

Well put, diane. Maybe this is just catching me in a sad moment, but in my community we're having so much trouble finding adequate funding for the public schools that I wonder what universal good we would be willing to support. If not the arts, if not education -- then what?

In one of the recent box sets of Astaire/Rogers films, critic John Mueller narrates several of the dance numbers, discussing the structure of the choreography and relating it to other works (I'm sorry but I cannot remember which film this is, and I've lent my copy out to a friend)

I found this comment "Q: The diversity of styles was impressive tonight. How did you choose what to bring? J-P B: We were asked for videos and the Kennedy Center chose." (from Jack Reed's description of a post-show discussion) very interesting, in light of the comments that have been made about repertory choice. I'm wondering, now, what the mechanism was for the last festival (where PNB, my hometown company, caught some flack for dancing Nacho Duato's "Jardi Tancat")

Oh this is just excellent news, and just in time for my birthday! RG, I'm so glad to hear your thoughts on this -- she's been a big interest of mine for many years.

Indeed -- and referred to "tiny, tiny toe shoes." We are big fans at our house...

Likely they just grabbed the whole bag and ran -- that's pretty standard. My question is what they thought when they looked to see what they got.

Le Hengda has been teaching, running a school and setting work in the Northwest for several years after his time at PNB -- I always feel very slow when I hear about his schedule.

A couple of notes to follow up on Jayne's thorough descriptions. Ben Griffiths had a severe leg cramp just moments before he was supposed to go on in Mopey this evening -- he was in the wings ready to go when it happened. This was so last minute that they just decided to cut the work from the program. The unannounced encore piece was Ordinary Festivals by Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig. The piece dates from 1995, but PNB acquired it for their Laugh Out Loud Festival in 2008. We saw maybe 2/3 of it this evening. It's a charming piece, but one of the omitted sections, which is all about the dancers throwing oranges up in the air, and catching them on their knife as they fall, is extraordinary. Pacitti looked great in the sections we saw tonight, but he's even more interesting in the knife contest.

That turning sequence for Franz is incredibly difficult, and I have great admiration for the performers there. Your distinction between the rotation and the final pose is an interesting one -- we tend, both in dance and in sport, to put a high value on the "finish," the still picture we leave with the audience. In general, the more you learn about dance or about sport, the more you start to see the action that goes on before the snapshot.

Billie Burke -- August 7 (my birthday too!) Not a dancer per se, but she does wield a mighty wand in The Wizard of Oz.

A couple of years ago at Pacific Northwest Ballet, in their production of Sleeping Beauty. After the vision scene, the Lilac Fairy and the prince get into the little boat to "go and find her!," but alas, no going occurs for several uncomfortable moments. They stand there valiantly, the LF holding her wand in the "I say go!" position, until finally the boat starts with a lurch, and they almost fall over. I know this particular glitch has occurred in almost every theater where they have some kind of transport other than your feet -- boats, carts, carriages -- whatever.

I heard through the grapevine there were a couple of rocky moments on Saturday night, but also that Korbes looked lovely. Live theater means that you can get both in the same performance -- I can understand the desire to edit that filmmakers have, but I'm also a big fan of the actual event.

Oh this is just charming!

I'm glad to get the chance to see her during the first week of the run, but wish the circumstances were different.

When I think about Chase's career, the phrase "she just likes to dance" just makes me giggle.

Changes for the Saturday matinee casting: Swanhilda -- Leslie Rausch Franz -- Jerome Tisserand Dawn -- Carrie Imler War and Discord -- Lindsi Dec and B Bold I didn't ask if Nakamura was swapping performances with Leslie Rausch, or if she was out for the rest of the run. (This is as of 1:30 on Friday -- the gods know that things could shift again...)

Some quick information from Thursday night's Q/A after the performance - Kaori Nakamura injured her calf during the performance and they will be deciding later today (Friday) if she's dancing tomorrow. Jonathan Poretta has a small tear in one of his medial meniscuses (sorry, don't know the correct plural!) and is scheduled for surgery after the end of the season. And he introduced his mother as a real housewife of New Jersey!

I don't really know the show or either of the films, but for what it's worth, "age" in pregnancy is skewed fairly young in the medical world. When I was born in 1956, my mother was considered quite old to be having a first child (at 30) -- when I had my son at age 37 I was categorized as an "elderly mother."

Second week casting is out, at the usual spot. Foster and Griffith dance the leads, and Jordan Pacitti dances Coppelius on the 10th and the 13th. Sarah Ricard Orza dances Dawn, Lindsi Dec dances Prayer, and Margaret Mullin dances Spinner on the 11th, and Kiyon Gaines gets a chance at War on the 13th.

Thanks for setting it up -- I keep thinking maybe I can get to California for a performance but it's not very likely.

I'm reading through the news reports (in links) about the cutbacks, including laying off Graham Lustig -- is there anyone here who follows the company and could speak about the possible fallout from this move?