sandik

Our recommendations are all over the place -- if it were me, I'd come to see the Balanchine triple bill, since I'd get a broader view of more of the company, with three different groups. Plus it's 4Ts -- my all-time favorite ballet. But really, it depends on you. Do you love big story things best, do you want to see a big variety of performers, do you want something you already know so you can make some comparisons, or do you want something you don't get to see at home...

I'm sorry to be so wordy, but I wound up seeing all five O/Os (and, I think, most of the additional casting as well) and have things I'd like to say. Peter Boal gives curtain speech 4/9 -- performance tonight is dedicated to Peter Donnelly, who was a big part of the Seattle arts community. Ran the Rep for a long time (especially important during the capital campaign for their current building), and then on to found Arts Fund, which helps channel corporate donations to the arts. When he first stepped out I thought perhaps he'd be talking about Gwenn Barker (former Ballet Russe dancer who taught and coached here for many years) who also died recently. Act 1 Jordan Pacitti is Victorian elegant as the tutor, with little picky steps to match. I loved Paul Gibson in this part, it was made on him and he really made the whole “who, me? Drinking?” sequence with Siegfried and the Queen Mother very organic. But Pacitti is making this his own -- he's just this side of bibulous. At one point he dances with all six women (three on each arm) like a collector, and then towards the end he's got a series of increasingly tipsy turns resolving into a bobble-headed moment. With one hand on his hip and the other held in front of his waist he could appear on Project Runway -- he's a caricature of a fashion designer. But he's very carefully doing his job, looking out for the prince's interests, trying to find a young woman who would suit. Lucien Postelwaite bounds on stage and that's his mode for the act -- he's young and bouncy and dazzled by life. “All these girls, and look, now we're dancing. Uh, oh, it's my mother -- I'd better put my coat back on. What -- get married? How would I do that?!” He loves his mother and wants her approval -- he turns to her over and over again, and as Carrie Imler plays her, she's an icy one. Kind when she gets her way and withholding affection when crossed. The way she takes her hand away from his as she leaves the stage after handing down her ultimatum is stunning. Quick, powerful and directed -- she snatches it back. In movement analysis terms that combination of energy is called a “punch” and though she doesn't actually strike him here, it has the same effect. Stanko Milov and Karel Cruz are more grown-up as Siegfried, they tell people what to do, they break up fights. For this Siegfried, actual love comes as a revelation -- like Alberecht in Giselle, he is transformed and undone. Milov has done this part before you can sense his confidence in the role. Cruz is newer and so is more of a surprise. He's really filled out this last year -- when I first saw him he seemed all height and no breadth (though the boyshorts he wore in Tharp's Waterbaby Bagatelles didn't help much), but he's more in control of his length now -- his sissones are so arrowy I was smiling like a goof. I don't know if Seth Orza has done this role before elsewhere, but it feels like he hasn't -- the technique is more developed than the character. Good and clean (and easier in the upper body than he's been the last few programs) but I didn't see specific moments (“this is who I am right now”) so much as a clean general performance. Pacitti and Jonathan Porretta as the Jester have a highly developed mime chat during the act -- I think it must have at least some actual meaning -- it certainly doesn't feel like unshaped hand jive. Helene is right -- Barry Kerollis is meant for the Restoration. He's checking out the girls upstage and making comments behind their backs. Everyone comments on Porretta's theatricality, and it is indeed a big part of his work no matter the part, but the thing that strikes me right now is just the physical facility. In past generations, the fast and gymnastic dancers were often not the ones with flexibility or really elegant line, but Porretta does have those attributes as well as the high-test stuff. The Jester is full of tricks, choreographically, and I've often seen them performed by dancers with more panache than clarity, but that's not happening here. The trio, as Francia Russell has staged it, is very close to the original Petipa, and it feels like it. He loved setting little challenges for dancers (how many ways can you do this pas de bouree?) or showcasing someone's particular skill (hops on pointe -- hell on earth for some and a walk in the park for others) Benjamin Griffiths has been whipping off extra multiple turns everywhere this season and here is no different. He's so poised with them, though, that I begin to doubt my finger math at the end of the phrase -- did he really do three/four/what? and then pause in releve -- he doesn't look like butter would melt… Maria Chapman is lovely in all the pointey hopping and Leslie Rausch is just clean, clean, clean in the releves. In another cast, Jodie Thomas is excellent -- the busy precision really suits her. She should be just fine in Denmark. Kyle Davis substitutes for Porretta as the Jester on 4/17, He's got the technicals skills, certainly, but he hasn't quite worked out the showmanship of the role. He's very pure (I would be interested in seeing him in the pas de trois), but I think he needs to be more selfish (Hey! Look at me!!) in his performance. He needs to come to his own terms about what he does and why he does it. (in act 3, after Odile reveals true bad self, the characters winds up at the feet of the QM, weeping into her train. Both Porretta and Griffiths make this a totally believeable moment, but with Davis he seems to dive at the QM's train before his emotions tell him to go there, just because the choreography says so. Act 2 At the lake, Seth Orza manages to make Benno make sense -- he's the outrider -- the one who checks the field before the prince comes along. I know that the original character was inserting for purely pragmatic reasons, but over time we've inherited him without the reason he exists. There has to be some reason he gets a program credit of his own rather than the ubiquitous “friends” or “retainers.” As O/O, Kaori Nakamura has real quickness on her entrance -- rather than just being fast she's got the true 'precipite,' which feels very birdy. She's not soft here, so much as she's still. Watching and worrying -- just like the last time around, when she performed this role with Olivier Wevers, she seems the more mature of the pair, which lets Postelwaite, in this case, be the hopeful, fragile one. Carla Korbes first go at O/O, a couple years ago, was clean, but she's so much further along now. She really seems to have thought the character through, and found the movement components of her interpretation within the choreography rather than grafted on. She's got the “let me go” part of the first extended duet, just like in “Firebird.” When she looks at Siegfried, she's really hopeful -- maybe the curse can be broken. Louise Nadeau's O/O was the most eccentric of the run, especially in the upper body where she really used her natural facility to support her characterization. I know that we see her performances right now thinking that she's leaving at the end of the season, but even without that awareness this would feel like a highly developed and personal interpretation. Mara Vinson, understandably, was much less adventurous -- this is her first time out in the full ballet and she acquitted herself well, but it felt a bit like a performance as much based on what she's seen of other dancers as what she thinks of herself. I'm hoping that the work comes around in the repertory again soon enough for her to get another go at it (or that she guests somewhere that she can keep working on the part). Miranda Weese is having an interesting time of things here -- she's been in and out of performances often enough that many of the people I speak with feel they really don't know her very well, for all that she's been on the roster here for almost two years. Like most people, I saw her in the televised performance of the Martins' Swan Lake, but I don't have many specific memories of her distinct from the production. Here she is almost a photo-perfect O/O in the tableaus, with a side tilt of her head reading as modesty in the white acts and seductive in the black. Liora Reshef is very clear in the 4 little swans, but she's decided the downbeat is a slice earilier than her colleages. I actually think she's right, but in a variation like this, unison is more important than right. She's been popping up all over the stage in the last few productions, and there's almost always something interesting to see. Wever's Von Rothbart is great -- his timing is very innate, like Imler's, and almost violent -- he makes that oversized cape really snap. William Yin-Lee had some excellent moments as well, glaring at the audience as well as Siegfried. Act 3 Okay, I can manage with the tilting walls/columns in the fist two acts, but when the curtain opens for the beginning of act 3, I look at that big wall of off-kilter windows upstage and all I can think is “Titanic!” The national dances are looking really snappy this time around. I've loved the Spanish as much for its incredibly gaudy costumes as for the rose-in-the-teeth choreography since I first saw it, but this time out it's particularly nice. I do miss Kerollis and Kiyon Gaines here -- they were a great match for timing and amplitude, but Pacitti does a lot to make up for it. Stacey Lowenberg and Jerome Tisserand have great tension in the Czardas, but I think I love Kari Brunson and William Yin-Lee best -- you can hear their heel clicks and stamps throughout the dance, which really links it to its ethnic dance roots. He's been popping up on the radar in all kinds of things this year -- he looked great in Benjamin Millepied's “Three Movements,” in a white shirt and a skinny black tie. Stowell has choreographed several doll dances and commedia pieces, and the Neopolitan here is a good example. Tricky, with the big movement payoff not linked to the crescendo in the music. Jodie Thomas is charming and flirty here, and Griffiths is an excellent partner for that. The relationship between the QM and Von R can shift in a couple different ways. Imler is condescending, so that at the end of the act Von R's victory is as much over her as it is over Siegfried. There's an interesting moment as Von R and Odile enter the ballroom -- they're coming down the diagonal towards the throne when Odile and Siegfried leave the stage (off to canoodle in another room?) Von R continues down the diagonal towards the QM, but she gestures across the stage “There's your seat.” Otto Neuberg plays it very broody -- he's been dissed by the QM, and he slouches in his chair and sulks during the national dances. Olivier Wevers is less surly as Von R, more devious. Nakamura's Odile is very glittery -- very wiley. Postelwaite's Siegfried doesn't stand a chance. Körbes is more sinuous, more overtly seductive -- Milov's Siegfried is probably much more experienced than Postelwaite's -- it will take more to win him over. Act 4 If I had my way I'd see acts 2 and 3 from fairly close on a level with the stage, and then see act 4 from above. The geometry of the corps work is quite lovely, and it's hard to see from the orchestra section. There are some great bits here, and the constant thrum of their bourrees is reinforced by the roll of the tympani. The differences between O/O come mostly in act 2 -- by the time we get to act 4 they all seem to be on the same page. Not sure how much individual coaching they get on the details. Compared with the plot points that they need to make in the preceding acts, this one is quite straightforward -- apology, forgiveness, death and apotheosis.

I saw Miranda Weese on Friday night and have other things to say, but no time right now, except that Kyle Davis replaced Porretta as the Jester, which makes me hope that Porretta isn't injured. And yes, Carrie Imler as the QM is scary, scary, scary.

How interesting -- this is certainly a Swan year for the left coast. Pacific Northwest Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater and San Francisco Ballet have all presented SL (PNB is in the middle of their last week right now) and here's another one. Please return and tell us how it went!

I think you've put your finger on a big element in this development -- scripted drama is on the wane everywhere, it seems, as our attention is diverted by other electronic media, and television is increasingly full of semi-reality programming. On the one hand, media is becoming increasingly specialized, with women's channels, men's channels, children's channels, etc, but the whole paradigm for drama is undergoing a sea change, not unlike the shift from radio to television mentioned above -- I'm still wondering how it will play out over the next several years. And yes, Gunsmoke is an excellent example of that kind of change. My father had been a faithful listener of the radio show, but never adjusted to the television program. "They looked all wrong."

Another casting change for the second week -- Carrie Imler and B Bold are not going to be performing after all. He is still recuperating from an injury, and they didn't have time for her to rehearse with a different partner. So Nakamura and Postelwaite are getting another turn at it on Sunday.

Oh, I remember Jackee (and how interested I was to see her break out from soaps into other work later on) but I'd forgotten Morton and Freeman (I think I was away from home and television during their tenure). It amazes my son now when I tell him that there were whole years when I didn't really watch any television at all.

Oh, this is my second favorite quote from Cunningham, only surpassed by 'dance is movement in time and space,' because it is such a universal truth.

What she said. It's just too long to add another hour to the end of the event. It's the same reason there's not a full intermission between acts 3 and 4. Especially on matinee days, you want to get the matinee crowd out of the theater and let their seats cool down before the evening crowd shows up to sit in them...

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think the choreography expects them to be in unison. Each of the "Guests" in Act 1 is expected to have a sort of "fugal" start of a phrase rather than strict unison. Maybe someone else has the definitive answer to this. Thank you for responding. I hate the feeling that I'm talking to myself. Yes, I know that dance is a fugal feeling, but there are unison parts that I thought weren't in sync. Still the dancing was gorgeous. I'm going to the Oregon ballet this Saturday night for my first time ever, and I'm looking forward to familiarizing myself with that company. There were some glitches in synchrony there, mostly in terms of initiation (at what point do people think they need to 'start' a movement phrase) but the thing I noticed that was more itchy was mismatched arms and facings -- some arms high to the side and some in a straight second position, some faces into the croise direction and some out to the audience -- that kind of thing. But in general I've always found Kent Stowell's waltzes to be extra-busy, with as many accents off of the standard 1 and 4 downbeats as on them, so I sometimes see agitation that might not read the same way if the rhythm was more traditional. I'm so glad you're seeing OBT -- I'm hoping to get down there for the second week of the run, but things are busy here and I'm not sure I'll make it. I really liked the last piece Kudelka made for them, and I don't know this Forsythe, so it's an intriguing program. Please know you're not "talking to yourself" here -- I read pretty much every day, though I can't always participate in the conversation.

I've had several friends who've moved to Portland saying they wanted to live in a place like Seattle used to be. And I know several artists who have relocated because the cost of living and making work is much more reasonable there. But I have to say they've been having even more trouble funding their schools than we have.

And people think that standard geneology is difficult. Not for those of us who cut our teeth on soap operas!

Thanks so much for the link -- I've been thinking about flashmobs recently, and the upsurge of interest in large groups dancing in public spaces. On one level, I think it's related to Bollywood films, and their continuation of the old Hollywood musical trick of people breaking out into song or dance wherever they are. But I think that there are references to the pedestrian dance trend from the 1970s, where choreographers used very simple movement, and the complexity came from the structuring devices.

I saw all four performances this week, and the reappearance of the "please turn things off and don't take photos" announcement came in yesterday's matinee, at the beginning of act 3, after some snap-happy person was taking photos during acts 1 and 2. There was general audience applause after the announcement!

My understanding is that there may be more rescheduling for next week. I'm trying hard to see all the Odettes, but it's going to be tricky.

I watched quite a lot of these shows when I was in grad school, and was struggling with my thesis, but yes, I remember thinking it odd that they never seemed to watch television!

I love Golden Section, and though I think it works fine as a stand-alone piece, seeing it in its context (as the apotheosis at the end of a complex, dramatic work) might make Tharp's choices seem more clear. She does seem to make some dynamite roles for men, and GS has a fair share of them, but I love the rush of action and the thrill of the virtuosity piling up as the work develops so much that I tend to gloss over what might be glitches in other pieces. Ailey has been performing GS recently, and doing a fabulous job, as you might imagine. If you get the chance, see them!

If you go to the dress rehearsal on Wednesday night, you'll see another pairing (not scheduled for the opening weekend) Second week casting should be posted some time today (Tuesday) -- I know they were initially rehearsing six women for O/O, but don't know how many will eventually perform. Alongside the big parts, Imler will do the Queen Mother on opening. She was great in this role the last time the company did the ballet -- just like an Edith Wharton character. In the same performance, Jodie Thomas is dancing Neopolitan, which is an excellent role for her, fast and tricky (see her before she leaves at the end of the season) And Barry Kerollis is doing Spanish on the Saturday matinee. Last time out, he and Kiyon Gaines did that for several performances and they just wiped the floor. Between the fringe and the ruffles and the pantaloons of the costume, and the shimmying choreography, it's so over the top that it flys off the other side -- just astonishing.

Oh, best wishes to them! I'm a short person, and used to date a tall guy. It's been many years, but I still remember the neck ache...

The company has often used the live/canned music differential to balance their books in the past, but I can't remember an entire season without live music. I think the cuts, though hard, reflect some sound thinking, and are fairly reversible when the economy improves (unlike some organizations who choose to sell assets or wait only to make more draconian cuts later). I was interested to read the comments on the article -- several people assumed that the administration was making really significant money and was not taking their fair share of the hardship. Though I see the company perform about once a year, I don't know very much about their financial structuring -- does that sound like a true allegation?

I've only seen the Balanchine/Danilova Coppelia once, on television, but I remember it as very sweet, and of course, intensely musical. And since the score is so very, very lovely, that makes it even better. When I first heard the idea floated, the company was hoping to get Iole Allessandrini to design (did the sets for Carmen, did that big installation outside the theater with the mesh and the lights) but I don't know if they're still planning for that. I think, near as I can tell, that "New Caniparoli" means new altogether, not just new to the company. I agree about R&J -- I always think of it in the winter, when I need something rich and sweet. It will be different to see it in the autumn, though I think the last time the company did the Stowell version it was early in the season. I'll have to go back and look at my notes...

I cannot easily find a reference right now, but this is absolutely true. We see the first couple letters of a word, and our brains fill in the rest. You can see this phenomenon play itself out with most text message programs on cell phones. You type in the first couple of letters and it will guess what you're trying to say, getting closer and closer to the 'truth' with each letter. The more sophisticated programs will learn your vocabulary preferences over time, and suggest words they've seen you use frequently. (dare I say, just like a Brain Reeder. Sorry, couldn't resist)

The company hasn't sent out an "official" press release, but you can piece together the details from the promotional materials at the theater during this last program. The dates for the individual reps are on their website -- here's what I know about the actual programming: rep 1 Romeo et Juliette (Maillot) rep 2 Petit Mort (Kylian) ** New Caniparoli West Side Story Suite (Robbins) Mopey (Goecke) rep 3 Sleeping Beauty rep 4 Suspension of Disbelief (Quijada) Vespers (Dove) Red Angels (Dove) Serious Pleasures (Dove) ** rep 5 Serenade (Balanchine) Four Temperaments (Balanchine) Square Dance (Balanchine) rep 6 Coppelia (Balanchine/Danilova) ** ** new production (there may be another Balanchine in there somewhere) There are some interesting choices here. No Morris, and no Tharp, but a Kylian (first one for PNB) Three program-length ballets, which certainly cuts down on the number of different works they can do. Romeo was very, very popular when it premiered, and I'm sure the company hopes that they can build on that momentum. A new production of Coppelia, so I'm pretty sure we won't see the Stowell choreography again. (edited about 20 minutes after it was first posted, to correct a couple errors)

Working in the arts here, we get that message all the time, implied or overt. It's a lovely city, but there's no way we could actually generate important art here -- we need the pros from Dover. Of course, I remember when Stowell and Russell came in 1976 from Frankfurt, the knowledgeable outsiders!

See, if you wait long enough, someone smart will answer, and all you have to do is say "what she (Helene) said." The company recently sent out this internal document as a press release (it's probably what Rosemary Jones was referring to in her review of the company examiner) ~~~ To: PNB Staff; Advisory Board of Trustees; Board of Trustees; PNB Dancers Subject: Something to be proud of I thought I would share some good news with all of you. As of a few hours ago, we have broken two records with our Broadway Festival. With 5,250 tickets purchased to date, we have broken the old record for single tickets sold for a mixed repertory program. It is also the highest grossing mixed repertory program in our company's history, surpassing the old record set by Valentine in 2006. Given the times, this is pretty incredible. Credit goes to many onstage, in the pit and behind the scenes. Congratulations to all. Catch the last three shows if you can! Peter Peter Boal Artistic Director Pacific Northwest Ballet <http://www.pnb.org>www.pnb.org ~~~ I don't have firm information about ticket sales over the last several years, but I'm not sure that would be much of a help if I did -- there are so many variables at play that it would take more math skills than I have to create a reasonable comparison. (the season directly before Stowell and Russell left was a valedictory year for them, and the year before that was the first year in the newly-remodeled theater. The company performed in a rehabbed sports arena for a year and a half before that... you see what I mean) I can say, though, that I don't agree with the tendency to denigrate Stowell and Russell's tenure in order to make Boal's contributions seem more miraculous, and I'm quite sure that Peter Boal would agree with me. They spent almost 30 years making a ballet company here -- if they'd been less than capable, they wouldn't have lasted half that long. Was their work always to my taste? No, and neither is Peter Boal's. His programming, at this point in his art life, skews slightly younger than Stowell's and Russel's did when they left -- they had significantly more experience in the dance world generally, than he has had so far. Boal is part of a different generation of artistic directors -- it would be ridiculous to assume he would be the same. But it's also ridiculous to assume that everything that came before wasn't necessary to get to the place we are now. Boal is doing an excellent job for the company and the community, but it's by building on what existed when he got here -- not by tearing it down and starting over.