Executive Director’s Notes: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®
Dear Friends, Welcome to George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®! On behalf of everyone at PNB, thank you for choosing to celebrate the season with us. Over the years we’ve heard from many in our audience about what this production means to you. It may mark the official start of your holidays, be the destination for a much anticipated […]
Artistic Director’s Notebook: The Window, Wartime Elegy, Love and Loss
Dear Friends, When we think of storytelling, we think of words – spoken, signed, sung, or written. Recall a favorite novel or poem. Words illuminate plots and plays bringing them to vivid existence. How does dance tell a tale without words? Classical ballets have relied on two methods of communication – mime and program notes. I […]
Executive Director’s Notes: The Window, Wartime Elegy, Love and Loss
Dear Friends, Welcome to PNB’s November program and the place in our season we often mark by presenting new and contemporary work – a very PNB counterpoint to The Nutcracker immersion already taking place in our studios. This program is also an excellent expression of the interconnectedness of the dance world. Each of these three dancemakers has a […]
Artistic Director’s Notebook: Petite Mort, Sechs Tänze, Cacti
Dear Friends, George Balanchine’s influence over ballet in America is unmatched. One could trace the origins of his reach to New York City where he established the company he helmed for 35 years. With Balanchine’s encouragement, dancers from New York City Ballet went on to found or shape regional companies from San Francisco to Harlem, and […]
Artistic Director’s Notebook: The Veil Between Worlds, Khepri, …throes of increasing wonder
Dear Friends, Turning 50 never felt so good. PNB’s celebratory season has brought us so many treasured moments, with a few more just around the corner. What is your 50th anniversary highlight? It might be the monumental first sounds of Carmina Burana, the awe of Crystal Pite’s ode to nature in The Seasons’ Canon, Giselle’s mad scene, Puck’s zany […]
Artistic Director’s Notebook: Duo Concertant, Catching Feelings, The Seasons’ Canon
The three works presented in this program span the same lifetime as our Company. George Balanchine’s Duo Concertant, one of 34 offerings in a landmark New York City Ballet Stravinsky Festival in 1972, is 50. Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon is six, and Dwight Rhoden’s new creation Catching Feelings is either newborn or in its first 10 days of existence, […]
Artistic Director’s Notebook: Carmina Burana, Allegro Brillante, and Wartime Elegy
Guess who’s turning fifty? Not me, that happened already. It’s PNB. In 1972, a small but committed group of extraordinary individuals envisioned a great classical ballet company based here in Seattle. Several years of blood, sweat, tears, and triumphs followed. In time, their dream became our reality and, fifty years later, we couldn’t be more grateful […]
Artistic Director’s Notebook: Swan Lake
Swan Lake defines a classical ballet company. It offers the epitome of cohesion for a corps de ballet, the apex of artistry for principal dancers, a challenge and a triumph for an orchestra, and an opportunity to lay claim to greatness. It certainly helped to elevate the reputation and expectations of a fledgling Pacific Northwest Ballet […]
Executive Director’s Notes: Roméo et Juliette
Dear Friends, As I write this, we are in the homestretch of 37 performances of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®. Without a doubt, this was our most complicated production in many years, with Covid protocols alone requiring multiple PNB teams to implement. And yet, what a joy it has been. Enthralled audiences back in festive holiday attire, […]
Artistic Director’s Notebook-Roméo et Juliette
The story of Roméo et Juliette offers many takeaways: humor, drama, tears, and passion, to name a few. From my first read of the play in Mr. Crosby’s seventh-grade classroom to a recent viewing of the new Steven Spielberg film version of West Side Story, I’ve enjoyed a lifetime of different perspectives. Now in my sixth decade, I […]