sandik

Oh my. Theme and Variations. Oh my.

How interesting -- I liked Jillian's work as well, but did think that the drapey guy (Rami?) made some very beautiful things.

Well, I certainly hope so!

And casting is up for the first week of the program here It looks like the only change in casts is for the Saturday matinee, if you're planning multiple visits.

The casting for their opening party evening has been posted here It's a very full evening, with a peek at one of the new Tharps as well as chunks of Balanchine and Wheeldon.

If someone goes to this, please post your observations -- they're doing a very rare deMille work (Dust, from her American Suite) and I'm sure I'm not the only reader here who is quite curious about it.

As a parent I've spent ages reading out loud to children, and listening to others read as well. There's a big difference between reading yourself and being read to (timing, emphasis, tone, just off the top of the list) -- I love to read to myself, but there's something really special about someone else reading to you. There are several authors (like Sarah Vowell) whose work I first heard read aloud, and only later did I read text for myself. And I still hear her in the back of my head when I read her work to myself. I read most of the Harry Potter series aloud to my child, and then borrowed some of the recordings. Jim Dale knocked me for a loop -- it's a whole different world in his voice!

When I think of all the liberties that are taken with religious ritual in fictional works (leaving out the real world...) this concern about accuracy just makes me giggle a bit.

Leigh, thanks so much for the link -- I would have missed this otherwise. I loved the moment when he said that it was good to explore different things. For me, that's at the heart of talking to people outside the mainstream arts audience, the idea that they might want to have this new experience. And I truly appreciated his observations about the complexity of the production -- that behind the performers on stage (just like his experience as an athlete on the field) there are many people working to make the whole operation go.

I reread this thread to get the gist of the recent additions, and had a tangential comment about this. As a dance writer I see a lot of dance over the course of a year, and am paying pretty strict attention to what's happening on stage, so that when I go to a music event, where I don't have to watch, I often close my eyes altogether, or deliberately look left and right and up and down -- anywhere but forward at the performers! And, more to the point of the thread, I get to see a lot of rehearsals of one kind or another, often without sets and costumes, or just the bare minimum of stuff. For some works, there is almost no difference between that pared-down world and the version on stage with the usual accompaniments, but for others, this is a skewed view. I think it's important to remember that ballet originally comes from the world of Renaissance pageantry, where the movement was seen in the same context as exotic scenic effects, extended tableaus and even dressage. Somewhere in the previous comments, someone brought up the concept of gesamtkunstwerk, and I think it applies in some contexts.

oh lordy -- I'm still laughing!

And there are many companies in the US that hire a significant number of dancers with green cards. At PNB, four of the twelve principals were trained outside the US. And if I'm not mistaken, a significant percentage of baseball players in the 'big leagues' come from outside the US too.

I had to giggle at this -- when the company brought their Giselle to Seattle, several years ago, the image on the front of the program was a medium-sized photo of the current Giselle and Albrecht, superimposed on a page-sized half-tone of Alonso in the role. AA really is everywhere.

Ah, thanks for the reminder. It's a great video, and her 'dressing room talk' is charming. I love watching Taylor in this -- you can see his old days as a swimmer in his shoulders.

DV's book is worth the trouble of an interlibrary loan -- erudite, clear, comprehensive and very, very readable.

Graham did this frequently -- I think that she never really got over having to stop dancing, and this was her way of continuing to perform. I saw the company several times during this period, and was repeatedly gobsmacked by how funny she was in these little curtain speeches. We always think of Graham as being dead serious -- the technique is so fraught and she made so many works based on dire stories, but she could be very witty, and seemed to take pleasure in tickling the audience.

Oh ouch, what a description!

Actors need to pay the bills too.

The La Brea Tar Pits = the the tar tar pits Acronyms are always tricky. Before the breakup of "Ma Bell," the local iteration of the phone company was Pacific Northwest Bell, or PNB. They overlapped with Pacific Northwest Ballet, and I always used the acronym for the dance company rather than the phone, but I in the minority with that one. And for me, DNB is the Dance Notation Bureau.

It's a zippy example of what I always think of as the "42nd Street Phenomenon," but the phrase "suit up" really gave me the giggles.

An interesting tangential note (well, at least I think it's interesting) -- the art director of Red Shoes, Hein Heckroth, also designed Kurt Jooss' The Green Table.

Oh, do! Alongside the ballet listings, you've got Dayton in a piece by Asadata Dafora and Sheron Wray doing Jane Dudley's Harmonica Breakdown -- modern works we don't get to see very often. Not to mention the hula...

I know, I know. I think it was part of a set, that came with an English lit curriculum, but by the time I got there the school had abandoned the full program and was just using the texts wherever they could. I used to wonder what other combos they had in the set.

sandik, I resorted to the same expedient with The Mayor of Casterbridge in high school. I never did get around to trying the book again and perhaps I should. I haven't managed to read the book again -- I couldn't even sit through the PBS Masterpiece Theater program!

The company just released casting for their Bumbershoot performance From the press release Kiyon Gaines’ Interrupted Pri’si’zh’en Kiyon Gaines’ Interrupted Pri’si’zh’en was first performed as part of PNB’s 2008 Choreographers’ Showcase. In addition to having his work performed at Bumbershoot, Mr. Gaines (a member of PNB’s corps de ballet) is creating his first repertory work for PNB, which will premiere in PNB’s November NEW WORKS repertory program. Interrupted Pri’si’zh’en will be performed by Batkhurel Bold, Benjamin Griffiths, James Moore, Jordan Pacciti, and Lucien Postlewaite. Jonathan Porretta’s Lacrymosa Jonathan Porretta joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 1999. He was promoted to corps de ballet in 2000, to soloist in 2002 and to principal in 2005. Mr. Porretta has choreographed Duel, Flawless, and Jubilant for PNB’s 2004, 2005 and 2006 (respectively) Choreographers’ Showcases. Mr. Porretta’s Lacrymosa will be performed by Chalnessa Eames and Seth Orza. Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs The popular classic Nine Sinatra Songs, choreographed by American dance icon Twyla Tharp, returns for Bumbershoot. Nine Sinatra Songs features seven couples in a delicious ballroom homage to Ol’ Blue Eyes. The series of pas de deux will be danced by seven couples: Lesley Rausch and Stanko Milov, Ariana Lallone and Bakthurel Bold, Maria Chapman and James Moore, Carrie Imler and Jonathan Porretta, Carla Körbes and Jeffrey Stanton, Jodie Thomas and Josh Spell, and Kaori Nakamura and Olivier Wevers. Program and casting subject to change.