Cover image: Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer Lindsi Dec (center) as Anita, with company dancers in Jerome Robbins’ “West Side Story Suite” (Photo © Angela Sterling)
It’s always fun when Pacific Northwest Ballet lets its hair down and heads for ballet based on Broadway. This month’s program (running through April 23) includes Christopher Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance), Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, and Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite, all of them with the music we know so well.
Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancers Seth Orza and Lesley Rausch with company dancers in “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” choreographed by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust (Photo © Angela Sterling)
The company was in great shape for opening night last Friday, but the evening belonged without question to principal dancer Seth Orza. As the Hoofer in Slaughter, his every quicksilver move, whether balletic or tap, was infused with immense vitality as well as character. In West Side Story, as Riff, the leader of the Jets, he had plenty of competition, as his gang warily walked around or tangled violently with Karel Cruz as Bernardo and his gang, the Sharks. But whenever Orza was on stage it was hard to look anywhere else.
Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer Lesley Rausch with company dancers in “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” choreographed by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust (Photo © Angela Sterling)
Despite his magnetism, there was plenty to see elsewhere. Lesley Rausch shines in any come-hither role like Showgirl in Slaughter, Jonathan Porretta in a cameo role as the Russian is always a delight to watch, and the Keystone-Cops antics of Ryan Cardea, Kyle Davis, and Ezra Thomson kept everyone laughing.
Lindsi Dec was a small whirlwind as Anita in West Side Story, and Cruz made an excellent Bernardo, while the chorus of gang members and their girls kept the stage alight with fast, lithe movement.
Pacific Northwest Ballet company dancers in Christopher Wheeldon’s “Carousel (A Dance)” (Photo © Angela Sterling)
Carousel began the performance and Wheeldon‘s brilliant choreography highlights both the carousel itself and the barriers between the two feeling their pull of attraction. Rachel Foster danced as well as she ever has, with a fine sense of the emotions from shyness and reluctance to shy acceptance, all beautifully rendered by subtle movement, with James Moore as her pursuing partner.
This is a great show to introduce kids to ballet with, as it’s enormous fun all the way through.
