At Ratmansky’s <em>Don Quixote</em> at PNB, the Dazzle is in the Details

Arts & Entertainment, Dance

At Ratmansky’s Don Quixote at PNB, the Dazzle is in the Details

Everything is an occasion for a dance, and by the close, you are almost over-stuffed with petit pas, pas de chat, pas de bourré, grand jeté, fouetté…. You’re dizzy with pirouettes. Can they possibly be reappearing for more? The story has been long ago left behind, there is only this paroxysm of dance, building from the precisely pointed feet stepping across the stage in Act I, to the endless pirouettes and leaps of Act III’s conclusion. Continue reading At Ratmansky’s Don Quixote at PNB, the Dazzle is in the Details

Ratmansky’s <em>Don Quixote</em> at PNB Stars Actor Tom Skerritt as the Manchegan

Arts & Entertainment, Dance

Ratmansky’s Don Quixote at PNB Stars Actor Tom Skerritt as the Manchegan

“I loved the fact that Ratmansky wanted actors to do Don Quixote himself and Sancho Panza,” says Boal. Ratmansky used a comedy duo in Amsterdam, but Boal knew personally a Seattle actor, famous for his TV and movie roles, and now deeply involved in working to encourage film arts here. Tom Skerritt, he thought, would be the perfect fit, even the physical resemblance. (Skerritt is quite tall, thin, craggy-faced and even the right age, not far off 80.)

“My first reaction, when Peter suggested it, was a big smile,” says Skerritt. Continue reading Ratmansky’s Don Quixote at PNB Stars Actor Tom Skerritt as the Manchegan

Arts & Entertainment, Dance

Olivier Wevers & Whim W’Him: Dances to a Different Drummer

Speaking to an audience after a show, Wevers made a point of emphasizing that he avoids using ballet terms with his dancers, because he’s not choreographing ballet. Puckishly, he provided samples of the new nomenclature: “flying squirrel” or “the dolphin.” But there’s still a depth and boldness in how Wevers tries to speak directly to an audience–not just dance fans–about concerns “extracurricular,” over-consumption, addiction, discrimination. Continue reading Olivier Wevers & Whim W’Him: Dances to a Different Drummer

Arts & Entertainment, Dance

PNB’s ‘Contemporary 4’ is Bullish on Ballet’s Future (Review)

It feels right to pair Ratmansky with Morris because although you would not mistake one for the other (unless you freeze-framed on one slumped-over pose that appears in both works), their dances share a remarkable, rigorous charm. If Concerto DSCH is described as one of Ratmansky’s “abstract” works, you should know that it’s not Mercer Cunningham abstraction. It reminds me more of what Brian Wilson was trying to accomplish with Pet Sounds’ emotional tone poems–a distillation of feeling. Continue reading PNB’s ‘Contemporary 4’ is Bullish on Ballet’s Future (Review)