Results tagged “olivierwevers”

       

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 Concert wrapped up, even the golf-clappers in the audience were on their feet cheering.

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.

    

"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 Boal-led Pacific Northwest Ballet, which approached the work with a captivating intensity, driving straight for its muscular, passionate heart.

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.

Ballet Imperial: it's tutus and tights and corps-de-ballet clockwork, but Balanchine's choreography is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe just that one scissor-kicky thing we secretly call "the Snoopy Dance," and therefore have trouble taking seriously. Otherwise, if the dancers were wearing skis, it'd be a black diamond run. This one shows up in the All Balanchine program that starts this weekend.

Through June 10 // McCaw Hall // Tickets $18-$145

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 to CocoRosie getting all rapped-up with vocal beat boxing and shiznit. We know that sounds sexy.