By PNB Founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell
When Francia and I arrived at PNB in 1977, we immediately got to work building a ballet company for Seattle. That meant, of course, educating the next generation of dancers and dance fans in our School, growing PNB’s Company of dancers, and establishing our own Orchestra, so we had the talent to perform the ambitious works we had planned. Just as important to all of that was intentionally building an audience for dance. To do that, we knew we had to use big names. We started with Swan Lake, to show the ballet crowd just how serious we were, and they noticed.
From there, we started creating work to build PNB’s repertory, give our Company and School artistic fodder to grow, and to attract audiences to PNB. The undercurrent to all of this growth was Balanchine, who gave us the ability to dance better. First was Nutcracker in 1983 with Maurice Sendak – a gift to the city. From there came Romeo & Juliet in 1987 for the theater goers and PNB’s first collaboration with Ming Cho Lee. Firebird debuted in 1989 for the music fans. Firebird was followed by Carmina for the opera crowd, Cinderella for families, Silver Lining for Broadway, and Carmen – all created for PNB at specific times in PNB’s history to nurture and cultivate the growing audience of ballet supporters.
