Helene Posted September 26, 2015 Share Posted September 26, 2015 Tonight, which is opening night of PNB's 2015-16 season, Peter Boal announced that Joshua Grant has been promoted to Soloist I am so thrilled for him: he has unmatched presence and dramatic certainty in everything from featured roles to the smallest cameos. Here is the press release: Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal Announces Promotion of Joshua Grant at Opening Night. Seattle, WA – Following the curtain call for Christopher Wheeldon’s Tide Harmonic during Pacific Northwest Ballet’s season-opening performance of SEE THE MUSIC, PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal made a special announcement to the audience. “On rare occasions and when it is most well-deserved, we have the distinct pleasure of promoting dancers and tonight I have a promotion to announce. This individual has enjoyed a most unusual career path. Like many of his peers, his first job was as an apprentice with Pacific Northwest Ballet in 2001 and a few years later he left to join the National Ballet of Canada and later to try his wings as a principal dancer with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Those wings, and a pair of size 13 pointe shoes, brought him back to PNB as the Dying Swan for PNB’s 2008 Laugh Out Loud Festival, which in turn led to an audition and a return to this company. Since then, he has triumphed as a dancer, as a partner, and as an enthusiastic member of the team. By now I think you know who I’m talking about. Ladies and gentleman, introducing PNB’s newest soloist, Joshua Grant.” Joshua Grant is from Niceville, Florida. He trained at Northwest Florida Ballet, Harid Conservatory, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and he attended summer courses at Virginia School of the Arts, the Rock School, Harid Conservatory, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Mr. Grant joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2001 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2002. In 2004, he joined National Ballet of Canada, and in 2006, he joined Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. He performed as a principal dancer with Trockadero until 2011, when he rejoined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. Mr. Grant has performed leading roles in George Balanchine’s Agon, Emeralds, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Demetrius, Theseus, Cavalier); Lew Christensen’s Il Distratto; Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven; William Forsythe’s New Suite and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated; Kiyon Gaines’ Sum Stravinsky; Ronald Hynd’s The Sleeping Beauty (Gold and Silver pas de trois); Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land and Petite Mort; Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette (Paris); Peter Martins’ Fearful Symmetries; Margaret Mullin’s Lost in Light; Justin Peck’s Debonair; Crystal Pite’s Emergence; Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH; Kent Stowell’s Carmina Burana, Nutcracker(Prince), and Swan Lake (Baron von Rothbart); Susan Stroman’s TAKE FIVE…More or Less; Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Ballad of You and Me; and Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs. He originated a leading role in Christopher Wheeldon’s Tide Harmonic, and he has performed a featured role in Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote. With Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Mr. Grant performed leading roles in Chopiniana, Gaîté Parisienne, Giselle, Go for Barocco, Majisimas, Paquita, Pas de Quatre, Swan Lake, Trovatiara,Vivaldi Suite, and La Vivandiere. He also performed the solo Dying Swan. At National Ballet of Canada, he performed leading and featured roles in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, Michel Fokine’s Petrushka, and James Kudelka’s Désir and Nutcracker. He also originated the role of the Horse in Kudelka’s An Italian Straw Hat. Mr. Grant has performed the Dying Swan as a guest artist on the Titus Command Gala in Dallas and for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Laugh Out Loud! Festival. In 2008, he performed on the Royal Variety Show at London’s Palladium Theatre in the presence of HRH Prince Charles. For the remainder of the run of SEE THE MUSIC, Mr. Grant is scheduled to appear in Tide Harmonicon Saturday, September 26 (evening) and Sunday, October 4; and Prodigal Son on Saturday, September 26 (matinee) and Friday, October 2. Tickets to SEE THE MUSIC are available through the PNB Box Office, 206.441.2424, in person at 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center, or online at PNB.org. Link to comment
sandik Posted September 26, 2015 Share Posted September 26, 2015 This is indeed very good news! Link to comment
Helene Posted September 29, 2015 Author Share Posted September 29, 2015 A lovely photo of Grant after the announcement: https://www.facebook.com/PNBallet/photos/pb.21358443951.-2207520000.1443511318./10153323167858952/ Link to comment
Helene Posted February 6, 2016 Author Share Posted February 6, 2016 I'm at Opening Night "Romeo et Juliette," which should start in five, and there are three promotions: William Lin-Yee to Principal Dancer and Leah Merchant and Kyle Davis to Soloist and Two more Apprentices, too: Dammiel Cruz and Leah Terada join Angeli Manon and Link to comment
sandik Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Congratulations all round! Link to comment
choriamb Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Congrats to all! I don't know PNB's dancers well, but loved Lin-Yee's performance with Carrie Imler in Don Q last year: a thoughtful partner with good stagecraft (which allows one to appreciate that he is also a dreamboat with a clear conscience.) Link to comment
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