Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer Ariana Lallone in Nacho Duato’s Jardí Tancat, presented as part of DIRECTOR’S CHOICE (Photo © Angela Sterling).
For over two decades, anyone who's seen more than two Pacific Northwest Ballet performances has learned to look forward to the moment that the phenomenal Ariana Lallone takes the stage. This season those moments will be priceless, as Lallone has announced the 2010-11 season will be her last with PNB. The full news release, with a list of her leading roles, after the jump.
Seattle, WA – Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal and Chairman of the Board Aya Hamilton have announced that principal dancer Ariana Lallone will be leaving the company at the end of the 2010-2011 season, following a 24-year career with PNB. The announcement was made during this evening’s Board of Trustees meeting.
“On behalf of the board of PNB, it is with mixed emotions that we acknowledge Ariana's final season at PNB,” said Ms. Hamilton. “Ariana is an extraordinary dancer, an earnest PNB advocate, and a true friend. We hope all of her many admirers will be with us throughout the season as we look for ways to honor Ariana’s glorious career and celebrate her truly unique imprint on PNB.”
Ms. Lallone joined the PNB company in 1987 (after a year in Pacific Northwest Ballet School), and very quickly made her mark as a dancer with a “singular style,” as former Seattle Post-Intelligencer writer R.M. Campbell noted in a 2007 profile. “Start with her height – 5-foot-11, rising to 6-foot-5 on pointe – then proceed to her intensity, dramatic temperament and individuality as she speeds across the footlights. She operates on a scale different than most dancers – larger, longer, more expansive. Her profile could have been sculpted in marble, and her line is so extended, it seems to stretch to infinity.”
“Ariana Lallone is at the very core of Pacific Northwest Ballet,” said Mr. Boal. “As perhaps the most admired and identifiable presence onstage and off, we know that no one will match her contribution to our company. Personally, I am proud to call Ariana a friend and to have worked so closely with her, bringing over 20 new roles to her repertoire during the past six years. At home in both the lyrical romanticism of Balanchine's Emeralds and in the grounded pathos of Duato’s Jardí Tancat, Ariana’s range as an artist has been tremendous. Looking back on a career filled with memorable performances in the finest classical and contemporary roles, it was difficult for me to make the decision to have this be her farewell season. Over the next nine months, Ariana will dance roles which she defined for PNB in works by Kylian, Duato, Tharp, Morris, Stowell, and Balanchine. Her career as a unique and accomplished ballerina is one for us to celebrate: Her fans are many for her onstage contributions, but she also deserves recognition for her tireless offstage advocacy and devotion to PNB. We will savor her performances this season and salute the extraordinary career of this powerful artist.”
In a letter read to the Board, Ms. Lallone said "Although it was my wish to take my final bow during the 2011-2012 season, I am extremely grateful for the 24 years that I have been able to perform with PNB. You have provided me with the opportunity of a professional career that has been more of a fairy tale and dream-come-true than anything I could have imagined."
Ariana Lallone is from Woodland Hills, California. She trained at the Rozann-Zimmerman Ballet Center (now known as California Dance Academy) in Chatsworth, CA, and on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 1987 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 1988. In 1993, she was promoted to soloist and became a principal in 1994.
Kent Stowell created the title role in Carmen for Ms. Lallone in 2002 and roles for her in Carmina Burana, Cinderella, Fauré Requiem, and Silver Lining. Ms. Lallone also originated leading roles in Stephen Baynes’ El Tango, Donald Byrd's Capricious Night and Subtext Rage, Val Caniparoli's The Bridge, The Seasons, and Torque, Dominique Dumais' Scripted in the Body and Time and other Matter, Nicolo Fonte’s Within/Without, Kevin O'Day’s [soundaroun(d)dance], Ton Simons’ The Tenderness of Patient Minds, and Twyla Tharp’s Afternoon Ball and Opus 111.
In a 1998 profile of Lallone in Dance Magazine, choreographer Mark Dendy, who created leading roles for Ms. Lallone in Les Biches and Symmetries, is quoted as saying “Right away I knew I wanted to work with her, because her spirit is there. I was struck by her face and her eyes. She's got that marvelous bone structure, that beauty that comes from many incarnations – you've worked to acquire that beauty. There's an old spirit there with some deep knowledge. She's a very mature performer, very much at home onstage. In the Nacho Duato piece [PNB's Jardí Tancat] she's an individual, yet becomes one of the ensemble. That's not anything I had thought of using her for – as a member of the group – and yet she does that equally well, and that's stunning for me."
In the same Dance Magazine article, Francia Russell (PNB founding artistic director) described Ms. Lallone succinctly: “She dances with her heart and soul as well as her mind and body.”
In 1997, Ms. Lallone performed the solo from Val Caniparoli’s Lambarena at the Benois de la Danse Gala in Warsaw. She also performed the role of Hippolyta in the BBC’s 1999 film version of PNB's production of George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, filmed at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London. In 2005, she performed with Peter Boal and Company.
Other Leading Roles: George Balanchine's Agon, Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, Coppélia, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Prodigal Son, Rubies, Serenade, La Sonnambula, Stars and Stripes, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Symphony in C, Western Symphony, and Who Cares?; Todd Bolender's Souvenirs; Val Caniparoli's Lambarena; Merce Cunningham's Inlets 2; Ulysses Dove's Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven, Red Angels, Serious Pleasures, and Vespers; Nacho Duato's Jardí Tancat and Rassemblement; William Forsythe's Artifact II, In the middle, somewhat elevated, and One Flat Thing, reproduced; Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow (Hanna) and The Sleeping Beauty (Lilac Fairy); Jiri Kylian's Petite Mort; José Limón's The Moor's Pavane; Jean-Christophe Maillot's Roméo et Juliette (Lady Capulet); Peter Martins' Fearful Symmetries; Mark Morris' A Garden and Pacific; Jerome Robbins' The Concert, Dances at a Gathering, Fanfare, and In the Night; Kent Stowell's Delicate Balance, Dumbarton Oaks, Hail to the Conquering Hero, Nutcracker (Peacock, Flora), Swan Lake (Queen Mother), Time and Ebb, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and Zirkus Weill; Richard Tanner's Ancient Airs and Dances; Lynne Taylor-Corbett's The Ballad of You and Me and Mercury; Paul Taylor's Company B and Roses; Glen Tetley's The Rite of Spring; Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs; Rudi van Dantzig's Ginastera; and Hans van Manen's Five Tangos.
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