Helene

Since we launched the fundraiser at the beginning of the month, we've received generous support from long-time supporters, a few old friends -- we miss you -- and a few new members and first-time donors. We even have the frustration from someone whose country/currency isn't supported by PayPal . And we thank you all. To everyone else reading, including people who primarily or exclusively use dirac's comprehensive Links as a daily source of ballet- and dance-related news: Our amazon commissions have dropped precipitously: when we had a sudden price increase five-six years ago, they covered 20-25% of our yearly expenses, and with expenses almost the same now, they now cover only a little over 5%. (And we do thank the people who earn us that .) There are a few factors: ad-blockers. more people using mobile where the amazon search widget is a slog to find, amazon's successful strategy of getting us to click buttons to buy from their devices and apps, and, dang it, a dearth of new ballet books and DVDs. (YouTube is our great frenemy.) BA! is lagging behind BT4T (proportional to the resources we use), and we need your help to close out this year's fundraiser. We are *not* talking to the people who've already been so generous, nor do we mean people for whom this would be a hardship. We've raised just enough to make to Thanksgiving, and we need to cover through March 2019 in order to not make this a semi-yearly effort. (We shudder to think...) We are grateful for any amount, because a lot of small donations add up, and as soon as we reach our goal, we can stop sounding like your local NPR station.

I saw Delgado in Vancouver in "Symphony in Three Movements." The woman is a goddess.

Just a heads up: a few days before Opening Night, PNB sends out an email with the cast lists, program notes, and post-performance Q&A schedule attached. I looked at the weekend two cast list, and it doesn't match the website, at least for the Sunday matinee. I haven't done all of the checks, and I'm not sure which is correct. Here's the post-performance Q&A schedule: POST-PERFORMANCE Q&A Rep 4 Lecture Hall (Wardrobe level) Friday 17-Mar eve Cecilia Iliesiu Saturday 18-Mar mat Sarah Ricard Orza KUOW w/ Peter & Marcie Sillman Saturday 18-Mar eve Joshua Grant Thursday 23-Mar eve Calista Ruat Guillaume Basso Friday 24-Mar eve Madison Taylor Henry Cotton Saturday 25-Mar eve Angeli Mamon Dammiel Cruz Sunday 26-Mar mat Lindsi Dec

As always, if you want to discuss what critics have to say, the place for that is the "Writings on Ballet Forum. Here's the thread to Macaulay on " Whipped Cream": Please continue to discuss what you've seen/will see/won't see here.

I've been having issues seeing the casting on Chrome on a PC or a Mac, although it shows up on my Android phone. Last week, I couldn't see Week 1. Now, I can only see Week 1, but not Week 2. Firefox to the rescue! Debuts in Week 2 in Empire Noir are Elizabeth Murphy, Dylan Wald, Sarah Ricard Orza, Angelica Generosa, Kyle Davis, and Miles Pertl. In New Suite, Calista Ruat and Guillaume Basso. https://www.pnb.org/season/16-17/directors-choice/ Link to downloadable spreadsheet: Rep 4 performance casting weeks 1-2 03_14_17.xlsx

"The Golden Cockerel" was made for Royal Danish Ballet, a company with a deep but very different mime tradition. It was made for the great Thomas Lund, the last role made for him in his dancing career, and Gudrun Bojesen. From all descriptions, "Whipped Cream" is a very different kettle of fish.

Rebecca Gladstone http://www.dawsonarts.net/Team/Rebecca-Gladstone/15 is the stager for the Dawson. I'm not sure if Dawson is coming to polish it. Jessica Lang is the speaker at the March 16 Lec-demo before the dress.

An update: There's a different cast first Saturday evening for "Her Door to the Sky." The link to the updated spreadsheet: Rep 4 performance casting week 1-Updated.xlsx

First week casting is up on the website (under the program notes): https://www.pnb.org/season/16-17/directors-choice/ One cast each for Dawson's "Empire Noir" and Lang's "Her Door to the Sky," and different casts in the Forsythe, with debuts in each performance. Imler-Bold Watch: *Bold is cast in the Dawson in all three performances *Imler dances with Porretta in the closing Handel in the Forsythe, one of the highlights in the original run, on Friday, March 17. Here's the link to the spreadsheet for download: Rep 4 performance casting week 1.xlsx

Then don't ever see Act II of the Matthew Bourne "Nutcracker."

If I posted what I thought in the words I'm thinking, I'd have to ban myself from the board.

Casting isn't up yet: next Tuesday-ish is when I'd be expecting it on the website, but in the meantime, there's a lovely snippet of Jessica Lang's piece on the PNB website: https://www.pnb.org/season/16-17/directors-choice/ These dresses will rival the "Lambarena" dresses as the biggest potential money-generating engine for the gift shop if they could sell knock-out. (Just sayin'.)

Part 3 TICKET INFORMATION & DISCOUNT OFFERS Tickets ($30-$187) may be purchased through the PNB Box Office: · Phone - 206.441.2424 (Mon.-Fri. 10am–6pm*) · In Person - 301 Mercer Street, Seattle (Mon.-Fri. 10am–6pm*) · Online - PNB.org (24/7) Subject to availability, tickets are also available 90 minutes prior to show times at McCaw Hall. *On Saturday performance days, the box office and phones are open 10am – 6pm. GROUP SALES Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. For group tickets for your family, friends, and coworkers, please call Group Sales Manager Julie Jamieson at 206.441.2416, email JulieJ@PNB.org or use PNB’s online contact form at PNB.org/Season/Group-Tickets. GET THE POINTE The Pointe is PNB’s exclusive mailing list for ballet fans between the ages of 20 and 40. Members of The Pointe receive information about special events and flash sales just for them. Born between 1977 and 1997? Visit PNB.org/ThePointe for more information and to sign up. TEENTIX PNB is a proud participant of TeenTix. Founded by Seattle Center, TeenTix’s members (13 to 19 years old) can purchase tickets to PNB and other music, dance, theater and arts events for only $5. To join TeenTix or view a list of participating organizations, visit TeenTix.org. STUDENT AND SENIOR RUSH TICKETS Subject to availability, half-price rush tickets for students and senior citizens (65+) may be purchased in-person with ID, from 90 minutes prior to show time at the McCaw Hall box office. SPECIAL EVENTS FRIDAY PREVIEW Friday, March 10, 5:00 pm The Phelps Center, 301 Mercer St., Seattle PNB’s popular Friday Previews are hour-long studio rehearsals hosted by Artistic Director Peter Boal and PNB artistic staff, featuring Company dancers rehearsing excerpts from upcoming ballets. Tickets are $15. (Note: These events usually sell out in advance.) Friday Previews are sponsored by U.S. Bank. LECTURE SERIES & DRESS REHEARSAL Thursday, March 16 Lecture 6:00 pm, Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall Dress Rehearsal 7:00 pm, McCaw Hall Join Artistic Director Peter Boal in conversation with Her Door to the Sky choreographer Jessica Lang during the hour preceding the dress rehearsal, discussing the creative process involved in the development of a new ballet. Attend the lecture only or stay for the rehearsal. Tickets are $15 for the lecture only, or $30 for the lecture and dress rehearsal. Tickets may be purchased through the PNB Box Office. PRE-PERFORMANCE LECTURES Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall Join Audience Education Manager Doug Fullington for a 30-minute introduction to each performance, including discussions of choreography, music, history, design and the process of bringing ballet to the stage. One hour before performances. FREE for ticketholders. POST-PERFORMANCE Q&A Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall Skip the post-show traffic and enjoy a Q&A with Artistic Director Peter Boal and PNB dancers, immediately following each performance. FREE for ticketholders. YOUNG PATRONS CIRCLE NIGHT Friday, March 24 Join members of PNB’s Young Patrons Circle (YPC) in an exclusive lounge for complimentary wine and coffee before the show and at intermission. YPC is PNB’s social and educational group for ballet patrons ages 21 through 39. YPC members save up to 40% off their tickets. For more information, visit PNB.org/YPC. POINTE TO THE STARS Thursday, March 9 PNB’s volunteer organization STARS presents Pointe to the Stars, an exclusive event to benefit PNB School Scholarships. The evening includes the premiere of Silent Resonance, an original work in virtual reality choreographed by Price Suddarth, directed by Scott Squires and produced by Pixvana with support from PNB. For more information, visit PNB.org/support/special-events.

Part 2: PROGRAM NOTES Empire Noir (American Premiere) Music: Greg Haines Choreography: David Dawson Staging: Rebecca Gladstone Scenic Design: John Otto Costume Design: Yumiko Takeshima Lighting Design: Bert Dalhuysen Running Time: 24 minutes Premiere: June 17, 2015, Dutch National Ballet The world of Empire Noir is a ballet designed as a blast of graphic energy—fast-paced and relentless in its own journey through the darkness of the night, the color black, the void of madness. Performed as a pure-dance event,Empire Noir works to allow each of its ten dancers to shine as individuals, but also to present themselves as a team. This dance is contained inside an architectural illusion created by John Otto, who as set designer manages to create simplicity in building a structural surprise. Completed with an upbeat original score by Greg Haines, an over-exposed light design by Bert Dalhuysen, and costumes that behave as a second skin by Yumiko Takeshima, Empire Noir is a force unto itself. An observed entertainment played at its fullest force aiming to leave its audience breathless. [Notes reprinted by permission of dawsonarts.net.] The 2017 Pacific Northwest Ballet premiere of David Dawson’s Empire Noir is generously supported by Chap & Eve Alvord, Katharyn Alvord Gerlich, David & Cheryl Hadley, Sharon Lee, and Jodi Wong. New Suite Music: George Frideric Hande (from Concerti grossi, Op. 6, 1736-1741)l, Luiano Berio (selections from Duetti per due Violini, Vol. 1, 1979-1983), and Johann Sebastian Bach (Allemande, from Partita in B minor for solo violin, BWV 1002, 1720) Choreography: William Forsythe Staging: Laura Graham (Handel and Berio duets), assisted by Oleg Klymyuk (Bach duet) Scenic and Lighting Design: William Forsythe Costume Design: William Forsythe and Yumiko Takeshima Running Time: 25 minutes Premiere: February 25, 2012, Dresden Semperoper Ballet PNB Premiere: March 13, 2015 Rosyln Sulcas writes: “The fact that the first work choreographed by Forsythe was a duo and that he was always interested in the duo as a form—Herman Schmermann or Of Any If And, The The, Duo, and Approximate Sonata, just to name a few of the most obvious examples—tells us a lot about the very human element in his work. Forsythe may not be interested in emotional contents in the narrative sense, but he is definitely interested in the relationships and emotions that are created through physical interaction.” New Suite is made up of a series of pas de deux, which William Forsythe has rearranged or created for the Dresden Semperoper Ballett and in 2015, with some differences from the Dresden version, for Pacific Northwest Ballet. All underlying works were created around the nineties for Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt. The Handel is from a 1995 Forsythe choreography with the promising, absurd title, Invisible Film. The Bach, in turn, uses material that was developed forKammer/Kammer—a largely performative piece that premiered in 2000 in the Bockenheimer Depot, Frankfurt. Finally, the Berio is based on the first part of Workwithinwork (1998). [Notes courtesy of Forsythe Productions. Used by permission.] The 2015 Pacific Northwest Ballet premiere of William Forsythe’s New Suite was generously underwritten by Jeffrey & Susan Brotman. Her Door to the Sky (Seattle Premiere) Music: Benjamin Britten (Simple Symphony, Op. 4, 1933-1934) Choreography: Jessica Lang Scenic Design: Jessica Lang Costume Design: Bradon McDonald Lighting Design: Nicole Pearce Assistant to the Choreographer: Clifton Brown Running Time: 21 minutes Premiere: August 24, 2016, PNB at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Massachusetts 2017 marks the centennial celebration of legendary American painter Georgia O’Keeffe’s first solo exhibition in New York. Her Door to the Sky is inspired by O’Keeffe’s Patio Door series that she painted between 1946 and 1956. Her Door to the Sky was commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and Pacific Northwest Ballet. It premiered at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival on August 24, 2016. Major support for the Seattle premiere is provided by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, with additional support from Aya Stark Hamilton, Deidra Wager, and Leslie & Tachi Yamada.

I though I posted the advanced press release, but I don't see a thread. Here is part one if the press release for the upcoming "Director's Choice" program: PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET PRESENTS Featuring works by DAVID DAWSON – WILLIAM FORSYTHE – JESSICA LANG March 17 – 26, 2017 Marion Oliver McCaw Hall 321 Mercer Street @ Seattle Center Seattle, WA 98109 March 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 at 7:30 pm March 18 matinee at 2:00 pm March 26 matinee at 1:00 pm SEATTLE, WA – For the fourth offering of its 2016-2017 season, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Artistic Director Peter Boal selects three contemporary works for PNB’s perennially popular DIRECTOR’S CHOICE mixed rep. In the eponymous director’s words: “PNB debuted Jessica Lang’s enlightening new ballet, Her Door to the Sky, this past summer at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival to rapturous ovations. The work takes inspiration from Georgia O’Keeffe and, in particular, her Patio Door series. Bradon McDonald’s earth-toned costumes, edged with vibrant gemstone colors, create a wonderfully playful palette. Lighting designer Nicole Pearce seems to steal the Santa Fe sky and bring it indoors. The team Jessica brought to this work, with invaluable coaching from Clifton Brown, was cohesion personified. “New Suite offers a delicious sampling of duets from William Forsythe. The mix of dances differs with each company who performs the work, which was created for Dresden Semperoper Ballet in 2012. (PNB premiered its version of New Suite in 2015.) The common denominator is innovation. Forsythe is one of the great mold-breakers and envelope-pushers, and yet all of his twisty vocabulary stems from the centuries-old lexicon of classical ballet technique. “David Dawson worked for Forsythe as a dancer with Frankfurt Ballet before finding his own voice as a choreographer. Though David's work is well-known and admired throughout Europe and other parts of the world, PNB is one of the first American companies to present his ballets.Empire Noir was created for the Dutch National Ballet in 2015. David’s choreography (see A Million Kisses to my Skin) is absolutely unleashed, finding the intersection of expression, movement, and extreme.” DIRECTOR’S CHOICE runs for seven performances only, March 17 through 26 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at $30. For more information, contact the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424, in person at 301 Mercer Street, or online at PNB.org.

This is great to read on all fronts. I saw many wonderful surprises in PNB's first production, as well as the least surprising and to-the-bones rewarding Imler's Myrtha. As a Romantic ballet given a boned corset by Petipa, "Giselle" gives companies a lot of leeway and formidable challenges and is a great barometer for where dancers and companies are. The long tutus, for example, are less exposed in leg line than the short ones in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Bayadere, and Corsaire, and give dancers the opportunity to work on upper body expression. Being set outside the court gives more range to "acceptable" characterizations. I'm so glad Washington audiences and visitors will get to see this production with Kent's and her collaborators' stamps on it.

I haven't seen this group often since I moved from NYC, but when I saw Schumacher's name I remembered how much I loved his Puck, which I've never seen surpassed.

Clearly my sarcasm was not effective. ETA: Nor was my cynicism, as he, unlike many ex-convicts, has peers and friends in high places who approved of his behavior. Dis-barre-d is his case would be appropriate.

Sure, if one of my employees has permanently disabled another and was convicted for it, i would welcome him or her back into my company with open arms, simply because he had specialized skills that have been dormant for years in which that is generally a career-ender in itself, and when I had a feeder system with new talent coming up the pipeline. Perhaps his friend Tsiskaridze could offer him a job at the Mariinsky, or a friend through Grigorovich could help him be placed, because I'm sure outside the Bolshoi, he would have a less polarizing influence.

We all have our preferences for where our tax dollars go, and we all have our opinions on the decor and decor in general. If the NEA is abolished, then the discussion becomes moot.

Why Macaulay writes what he does or posts on Instagram is purely speculation until he says something about it. I don't get commenting on dancers' social media though, by critics. I disagree about Sugarplumgate itself, but I agree that the follow-up was, at best, ill-conceived. He could have said what she herself said on her book tour: She did not come into the season at perfect weight or shape, and it took her a few weeks of rehearsal and performance to get there. If I had a dancer with that pattern, unless there was an emergency, I would not be casting him or her on Opening Night, but later in the run instead. This was not a world premiere in which she was first cast and no one else could cover, it wasn't the end of the run where injuries were accumulating, and I've never seen it published anywhere that the entire company was wiped out by illness at the time, and she was the only one left standing. It's clear in my reading of him that he's hardly a critic who has one body type idea and slams anyone who doesn't meet it: if he liked skinny, he hardly would be admiring Mearns. If Ringer wasn't in perfect fighting shape when she danced, there's no set-in-stone reason Macaulay should not have brought it up: his job is to write about the performance, and her eating disorder alone should not determine whether a critic determines it impacts that performance, however well-loved the dancer is and how understandable his or her colleagues response to criticism is. Unfortunately, he was too clever for his own good and his wording itself read as a set-up to the real slam, her partner, who apparently looked like he had eaten half the Kingdom of the Sweets. That was mostly lost in Sugarplumgate, and where were the colleagues up in arms about that? And in a career that spans decades and many, many printed words, I don't think any critic of his stature has made mistakes and regretted what he or she has written. Usually this is remembered, if at all, by people who are in or watch ballet, a very small number of us, and it rarely gets hashed out in the main stream media or network television or book tours.

It's lovely! Congratulations to them

And, of course, style, both individually and for the company.

It would be nice and respectful to assume good faith, but we don't always get what we want.

It was done beautifully in Seattle as part of a Fall 2011 mixed bill called "Love Stories," which included the last act of "Sleeping Beauty," "Black Swan Pas de Deux," Robbins' "Afternoon of a Faun," and the Balcony Scene from Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette." The first weekend, Kaori Nakamura and Jonathan Porretta danced in one cast and Rachel Foster and Benjamin Griffiths in the other. I was living in Vancouver at the time, and only came down for second weekend. By then Porretta was injured, and Nakamura replaced Carla Korbes in the Maillot, while the younger casts, Liora Reshef and Matthew Renko in one and Leta Biasucci and Kyle Davis in another, got an extra performance each, and they were the dancers I saw in three of four performances in the run. They were all superb -- it was probably the French-trained Reshef's best role, although she was also a lovely Bluebird, and her epaulement was exquisite -- and Kyle Davis was a revelation in the Tomasson role. Nothing he'd done before made me expect him to own something with such a strong point of view in a knockout performance.