Corps de ballet dancer Eric Hipolito Jr. recently fulfilled a lifelong dream when he made his debut as the Nutcracker Prince in PNB’s Stowell & Sendak Nutcracker. A graduate of PNB’s DanceChance program, Eric has been performing in Nutcracker since he was small enough to play a Party Boy in Act 1. Given Eric’s unique […]
Imagine this: A large studio filled with young children auditioning for PNB’s Nutcracker. Adults sit behind a table at the front of the studio talking quietly with their lists of numbers and names, pencils and notepads. Groups of students are led across the floor doing various steps until, suddenly, one young girl trips […]
You already know how this story goes.There’s a sense of anticipation when the lights in the theater go down. A hush comes over the audience and the orchestra tunes their instruments. The conductor walks out and we hear the first few notes of Tchaikovsky’s wonderful score. The curtain goes up and the magic begins…
Stories are the bridge between the public and the art form. We can’t get them to watch The Four Temperaments until we get them on that bridge. And I can do those stories in ways that haven’t been done before.
Kent Stowell in Mindy […]
by Sarah Ricard Orza
When Kent Stowell and Francia Russell offered principal dancer Paul Gibson the position of Assistant Ballet Master during their last year as artistic directors of Pacific Northwest Ballet, Paul’s answer was a no-brainer. A self-motivator and perfectionist from a young age, he was well aware that […]
George Balanchine rarely spoke about his ballets or the process of making them. Didn't the ballets speak for themselves and, besides, aren't the critics always offering their analysis of what the artist was thinking? He made an exception for Apollo, though, calling Stravinsky's score "a turning point in my life. It seemed to tell me that I could dare not to use everything—that I, too, could eliminate."
I’m Tom Dziekonski, a violinist in the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. For Nutcracker, I’m the person that decorates the pit with the wacky lights and who writes the orchestral gags for the “nutty” show on Christmas Eve. (The Pink Panther outfit you may have seen during the midnight chime I got from London.)
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production is larger than life in many ways. Here a handful of fun facts to help answer this question.
PNB’s Nutcracker debuted on December 13, 1983 at the Seattle Center Opera House (now McCaw Hall); over 1.5 million people have seen PNB’s Nutcracker.
Act I
As the curtain rises, Cinderella is daydreaming about a happier life some day in which she will be loved and valued. Her fantasy is interrupted by her stepmother and her two homely stepsisters, who are […]
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Cinderella premiered in May, 1994 and the Company has toured the production to California, Arizona, and Edmonton and Calgary, Canada. It was last performed in Seattle in 2002 at the Mercer Arts Arena.
PNB Founding Artistic Director and Choreographer Kent Stowell began work on Cinderella in […]