Macho, moody, and whimsical, PNB's All Robbins program is a stand-up triple, if not a home run (at McCaw Hall through June 8; tickets: $20-$150). Actually the Mariners could learn a lot from the raw athleticism, discipline, and teamwork on display. Opening night's Fancy Free sparked and fizzed erratically; conductor Stewart Kershaw, swinging the baton sans panache, kept Bernstein's charged score sounding off-kilter. But PNB rallied during In the Night, and by the time The......

Depending on how quickly we post this, there are two more showings of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Laugh Out Loud Festival's Program B today, at 1 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $20-$80. We don't know about you, but with all the sleet and snow this weekend, we've been craving some silly indoor festivities. This fills the bill to a T. Program B presents a light-hearted world premiere from the PNB's Olivier Wevers, "Shindig," with music......

"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......

POETRY: This is a bit of a hike, but former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins is down in Tacoma at the Pantages Theatre. Collins is admired and reviled because people "get" his poetry, which is written largely in the key of sardonic. He sees his poetry as “a form of travel writing” and considers humor “a door into the serious.” Friday 7:30 p.m. // Pantages Theatre, 901 Broadway, Tacoma // Tickets: $24-$46 FILM: This......

We'll tell you right now, there is just not going to be a better Valentine's Day-ish gift than this Roméo et Juliette. When we lived in France, we got used to rounding a corner and seeing an impossibly attractive young French couple having what seemed to be fully clothed intercourse. On a park bench. In the train station. Outside a bar. Halfway up a mountain. In the bus. Ah, la jeunesse! the older people would......

Saturday night, Pacific Northwest Ballet's season sampler began with Balanchine and ended with Robbins but cannily included fresher works in the middle. It was their gala night, and the lobby was filled with suspiciously tanned women of a certain age in demi-haute couture. Our coverage is going to be bloggily breezy, but if you're interested in a more substantial take, check out Richard Campbell at the P-I. Ballet Imperial: it's tutus and tights and corps-de-ballet......

Stravinsky125 @ PNB Through June 10 // McCaw Hall // Tickets $18-$145 The big thing on PNB's Stravinsky-celebrating program is State of Darkness, a 34-minute solo choreographed by Molissa Fenley. We saw Jonathan Porretta, but the casts change. The music is Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and in contrast to the "pagan sacrifice" orchestral theatrics, Fenley emphasizes solitary ritual and the limits of human endurance. A movement sequence (nothing showy, nothing too aerial) is presented, the......

After hearing "emerging Seattle choreographer" Zoe Scofield and PNB's Peter Boal at a talkin-'bout-dance panel Sunday, we were looking forward to Monday, which featured performances by Scofield and PNB. Non-dance highlights were our uber-local, fast-talking, Spalding-Grayish Matt Smith monologuing about manliness and his move to Bainbridge Island, the new wave rearrangements of cover band Nouvelle Vague (including a sing-along to "Too Drunk To Fuck"), and finishing the day inside a sweaty knot of teens listening......