Farewell to a remarkable ballerina
Each June, the Encore program at Pacific Northwest Ballet wraps up the season with memorable moments from the year’s productions … Continue reading Farewell to a remarkable ballerina
Tag: Kaori Nakamura
The eclectic choices of Peter Boal
Every year, one of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s repertory programs is titled Director’s Choice, in which artistic director Peter Boal programs three … Continue reading The eclectic choices of Peter Boal
PNB’s Modern Masterpieces Lives Up to the Hype
The only question about Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Modern Masterpieces program (at McCaw Hall through March 24) is at which point your soul may incandesce. My instinct is that this is likely to occur in the second half, during Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven or Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, with its spectacular use of the “fog of minimalism.” Continue reading PNB’s Modern Masterpieces Lives Up to the Hype
Maillot’s Knockout “Roméo et Juliette” Returns to PNB
With Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette in PNB’s repertoire, the company now had the perfect Valentine’s Day ballet to go with The Nutcracker at Christmas. Its bold infusion of frank sensuality with gorgeous pas de deux left mouths agape — one moment Juliette was arcing backward, held aloft by her Roméo, the next, hands were everywhere! Continue reading Maillot’s Knockout “Roméo et Juliette” Returns to PNB
Still Nuts About PNB’s Nutcracker
223 children participate each year, in several casts, so no one is on for all thirty performances. The care and training they receive is phenomenal. This is not a school performance. These kids are performing like professionals. When they are on stage they are totally on, acting their roles with seeming naturalness. Continue reading Still Nuts About PNB’s Nutcracker
PNB Principal Dancers Face a Fork in The Road
Principal dancers Kaori Nakamura and Lucien Postlewaite of Pacific Northwest Ballet say that the other one is the perfect partner. Nakamura, now turned 40, is still dancing at her peak after 15 years with the company and 14 as a principal, while Postlewaite, 26, rose to principal level in a very short time from his apprenticeship in 2003. For the past several years he has been one of the company’s most luminous dancers, always beautiful to watch.
“I’ve been fortunate to have her as a partner,” says Postlewaite. “I’ve learned so much from her.”
“He’s my favorite partner, and my best friend,” says Nakamura.
But all good things come to an end, and this summer, Postlewaite is moving on. He will join Les Ballets de Monte Carlo at the end of August. He was invited to join the company as was his husband, then-PNB principal Olivier Wevers, after the performances by PNB of Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Romeo et Juliette in 2008.
Wevers was getting ready to launch his own choreographic career here with his own company Whim W’Him. Postlewaite was promoted to principal that year, and says there was still a lot that he wanted to accomplish here. “I wasn’t ready, he wasn’t ready. It’s not that I don’t want to dance here any more,” he continues,” but I see the move as a big growth opportunity I have to take.”
Continue reading “PNB Principal Dancers Face a Fork in The Road”
O Fortuna! PNB’s Pits Apollo vs. Carmina Burana at McCaw Hall
Where Apollo is restrained asceticism, Carmina Burana, by contrast, is on the other end of the spectrum. As the curtain opens, audience members gasped at the sight of the Seattle Choral Company suspended upstage above the stage, as set designer Ming Cho Lee’s ginormous “wheel of fortune” looms above the rest of the stage. Continue reading O Fortuna! PNB’s Pits Apollo vs. Carmina Burana at McCaw Hall