PNB photos © Angela Sterling The moon always seems to be full in Maurice Sendak's illustrations. He's done some 90 children's books, two of them cherished icons (Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen), along with one ballet. As it happens, Seattle is the beneficiary of this unique venture into set-and-costume design: the wildly popular Nutcracker, which celebrates its 25th season this year. It was the early 1980s. Kent Stowell and Francia......

"Ah, this is ballet," sighed one white-haired woman to another. And then, for emphasis, "This is ballet." Originally choreographed by George Balanchine, this is Francia Russell's staging of the master's A Midsummer Night's Dream (at McCaw Hall through April 13, tickets $20-$150). It's "real" ballet in the way that a Cheever short story signifies the New Yorker. But we're not here to beat up on oldsters, according to our parole officer--and neither is the Peter......

First we heard that principal dancer Casey Herd was moving to Amsterdam to join the Dutch National Ballet; now we learn that 27-year-old Noelani Pantastico is spreading her wings to join Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, which is led by Jean-Christophe Maillot. We totally would not have praised his choreography so much if we'd known he was going to steal one of our dancers. They're both staying with PNB through the end of this season, so......