Carla Körbes and Karel Cruz in The Sleeping Beauty. Photo © Angela Sterling

"It is rare to see an evening of such diversity, with every artistic element of such high quality."  (seattlepi.com)

*Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fée"  (Igor Stravinsky/ George Balanchine)
*Afternoon of a Faun  (Claude Debussy/Jerome Robbins)
Balcony pas de deux from Roméo et Juliette  (Sergei Prokofiev/Jean-Christophe Maillot)
Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake  (P.I. Tchaikovsky/Kent Stowell after Marius Petipa)
Aurora’s Wedding from The Sleeping Beauty  (Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky/Ronald Hynd)

Ballet ponders love's many moods with a mixed bill that adds Balanchine and Robbins works to PNB's repertory. George Balanchine's buoyant Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fée" was created for New York City Ballet's legendary 1972 Stravinsky Festival. Its charismatic choreography contains notable solos for the male and female leads as well as hints of an enigmatic attraction between the pair. Afternoon of a Faun, Jerome Robbins' reconsideration of Vaslav Nijinsky's 1912 ballet, portrays an innocent exchange between two dance students. Holding their gazes toward the audience as if seeing their reflections in a studio mirror, the couple carefully appraises each movement in their tentative partnership. In Jean-Christophe Maillot's balcony pas de deux from Roméo et Juliette, the ecstasy of love "unfolds as a series of chases, of catches, of rapture...as if happily drowning in a pool of sensation." (Seattle Times) The fiery Black Swan pas de deux from Kent Stowell’s resplendent Swan Lake is classical ballet’s most famous depiction of seduction and betrayal, as well as a show-stopping technical accomplishment. For a very grand finale, Aurora's Wedding from Ronald Hynd’s eminently English The Sleeping Beauty fills the stage with splendor "in a word, lovely, a lavish production for the eyes and ears, a testament to the company's depth of skill and talent." (seattlest)

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