pirouetta27

I'd love to see Imler do the "Plink Plank Plunk" excerpt from Olivier Wevers' "Shindig." His choreography for this section is full of humor, and the speed of some of those turns--my gosh, Imler is one of the only women who can pull it off with such confidence! As for Bold, I agree with sandik's suggestion of "Caught." It's a marvelous chance for him to not only jump but also command the stage with that quiet gravity he has.

According to Noelani's public Instagram (@hulagirl): "The role of the Fairy is what April [Ball] was taught in her audition for BMC, and she's been doing it ever since--13 years! It's not in PNB's culture to have guests, and seems to be the norm in other major ballet companies, so I'm grateful to see this unfold here and pray it happens more. I can't tell you how much it improved my dancing to see other dancers and companies outside of this realm when I left PNB in 2008." Though I don't know if Ball's guesting is as a replacement for someone or as an experiment in PNB hosting guest artists, it sounds like she'll be magnificent in the role! It must be exciting for the PNB dancers to get new faces and new voices as they prepare for Cendrillon.

Sounds like the Vail newspapers gave the company some great reviews! From the photo albums posted, it looked like some dancers took on new roles over the tour, such as Griffiths in 9 Sinatra Songs, and Bartee in Red Angels. Exciting stuff; it'll be interesting to watch casting for this fall.

Here is the link to PNB at Blogspot: http://blog.pnb.org/2010/07/artistic-director-peter-boal-on-pnbs.html

Saw some beautiful photos on Facebook of the company taking morning class in Vail, CO! Lots of shots of them jumping, as well as one of Lucien Postlewaite's amazing developpe a la seconde. It looked like there were a few NYCB dancers in the class; maybe Tiler Peck? The company's journey to Vail is also being chronicled on the PNB blog. Peter Boal wrote a humorous first entry that included anecdotes from their plane trip, and Benjamin Griffiths wrote a few paragraphs later about their arrival. It'll be interesting to see how frequently they update this in the coming days. Almost all of the company is on tour, except for Jonathan Porretta, Stacy Lowenberg, and Maria Chapman, who are all coming back from injuries. Best wishes go to them for their recoveries!

No, Korbes and Bold didn't dance at all on opening night. They made an announcement shortly before Serious Pleasures that the two of them would be replaced by the Orzas.

No, unfortunately I wasn't there on Friday night, since I had to travel out of town on Friday morning. I was grateful that, for this year at least, there are still Thursday night performances! I wonder why Carla Korbes and Batkhurel Bold were replaced by Seth and Sarah Orza that night...injury, maybe? Especially sad not to see Carla.

I was able to see 3 By Dove on opening night, and was thoroughly impressed by PNB's level of performance! The same group of dancers was in pretty much every piece, but they looked very strong. I posted a review on my blog here: http://swissbelle.blogspot.com/2010/03/3-b...to-extreme.html

Oh! That must be such a wonderful transition for Karel and Lindsi! They both richly deserve it.

Please also let those of us who aren't in town know who got promoted on opening night...It's such an exciting season for the company!

I'm really glad that PNB is posting more of these videos. It reminds me of several years ago when NYCB dancer Kristin Sloan produced a podcast series for Peter Martins' Romeo + Juliet, with rehearsal footage and interviews with the dancers...really brings the audience down to a more personal level with the ballet. I agree, Postlewaite's use of the eyes is just fantastic. Does anyone plan on going to see both casts perform? Last time, I had the opportunity to see it twice; I think that the second viewing forever changed my perspective on dancing. The ending (shown in the video, too) where Moore is dead on the ground and the music is building brought me to tears. I also thought that Karel Cruz did a particularly good job with his role in that cast. He and Wevers presented completely different Friars but both of them fit with the storyline. PNB seems to have a great marketing strategy going with this ballet and I hope that it pays off.

Kaori seems to have the huge range of emotions required for Juliette, as well as the stamina to get through all the acts. I wonder how she'll approach the transition from teasing, impetuous teen to lovestruck, devoted young woman. It's neat to see that, even after all her years at PNB, she's still adding new challenges to her repertoire. I'd be curious to see if anyone else is learning the roles of R & J...ie, Seth Orza, Rachel Foster, and Lesley Rausch. I'd be surprised if Seth wasn't an understudy, because the role of Romeo seems right up his alley. Also, who will be Nurse and Mercutio? I'm so excited to see the final cast list...

I also wonder if Chelsea Adomaitis is going to be joining. She's been a PD for two years and got quite a large role in La Source in this year's school performance.

I believe that their third son's name is Darren. He is pictured in the PNB Commemorative Program from several years back, along with Ethan and Christopher, from a photo taken back in the 70s.

The new site has such a clean, modern design to it. I'm especially happy with the simple-to-read drop down menus, since navigating the old site involved a bit more trial and error. It's also nice that, along with the design, all the company bios are current. I noticed that Ben Griffiths was listed as a soloist...is that new? Probably my least favorite part is the new logo. Yes, it's clever, but I miss the simple/elegant black and white of the previous one. It was a logo that you could see even from a distance and say "Pacific Northwest Ballet." It was definitive. This new one will take some time getting used to; it doesn't stand out as much and it doesn't conjure up the image of "PNB."