Pacific Northwest Ballet's Love Stories is not to be missed, as it showcases some of PNB’s finest dancers, the full breadth of their mastery of the form and leaves the audience members with a lot of places to identify themselves in the artistry. There’s a lot to love here. more ›

Today's activities include: remembering loved ones, becoming a better writer, ballet, and vegan cake. more ›

Pacific Northwest Ballet opened their 2011-2012 season with a showcase of the work of contemporary darling choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. The company, now under its 6th year with Artistic Director Peter Boal, solidly executed four of the complex pieces, a testament to the strength of Wheeldon's choreography and the precise beauty of the PNB dancers. more ›

In an emotional and powerful evening PNB showcased of a dozen short pieces and highlighted the careers of eight parting dancers. more ›

So the weather is going to suck this weekend. To that, we say "Hallelujah!" Now there's no chance of summer-time inside-kid guilt from just wanting to stay inside darkened theaters watching movies. Or plays. Or looking at cool art. Because it's raining and cold and no one can say we "wasted this nice day staying indoors." Since Thursday marks the unofficial beginning of the weekend, a few suggestions to help fill your social calendar, avoid the drizzle and enrich your brains. more ›

Alex reviews "A Midsummer Night's Dream," decides that it is, in fact, dreamy. more ›

We've got a lot of action this week in Seattle's Lit World; everything from the stories of ballet dancers and drug addicts, to reading with rock stars and oceans filled with rubber ducks. Better try hitting them all this week. more ›

This December, the Dress Code celebrates fictional fashions of the stage; it is the season of wonderment and magic, after all. Nothing employs whimsical, imaginative fashions like performance art, especially when the premise is all but a dream. Yet, the Nutcracker, with its sexually loaded title and eerie darkness of the adolescent subconscious, is just begging to be transformed into a playfully perverted sexfest. Guest author, Amy Mikel, brings you this week’s “good” pick, and yours truly brings you “the bad”. more ›

There is no way quite so glamorous to celebrate the season like going to go see The Nutcracker. It's nostalgic and timeless. The Tchaikovsky score is as much a part of Christmas as fruitcake, and the story, imagery and the setting are all pure yule. While most of us have fond memories of going to see it as children--all dressed up in our finest and gawking mystified at the spinning ballerinas--it's a delight for adults as well. more ›

Black Friday is two days away, huzzah, bringing with it hordes of extraordinary deals for Seattle's savviest shoppers. Planning to shiver on the sidewalk in front of Old Navy on 12 a.m. Friday morning? Well class it up, Charlie! Seattle's arts groups are running special Black Friday deals, too. Contact the individual arts organizations for full details about each offer. more ›

Pacific Northwest Ballet's ALL THARP performance may be your one shot to see a ballerina footing it across the stage of McCaw Hall in daisy dukes. We suggest you check it out. Not only because of the aforementioned denim booty shorts, although that's a boon, but because Twyla Tharp's showcase highlights one of the most famous examples of crossover ballet, the intermixing of classical and modern, and for us, a nice bridge between the streets and the marquee. A chance to see how hip-hop, folk, contemporary and traditional movement all combine into a night of physical ephemeralness, it's an absolutely wonderful way to spend an evening. more ›

It's been six years since Peter Boal took the artistic reins at Pacific Northwest Ballet, and this year he's made the Director's Choice program PNB's 2010-2011 season opener. The wacky Sechs Tänze (Six Dances) - from former Nederlands Dans Theater Artistic Director and choreographer Jirí Kylián - is a new aquisition for the company, as is Jerome Robbins' three-part Glass Pieces. Kylián's Petite Mort premiered in last season's Director's Choice program; you'll get the chance to see it again here. Jardí Tancat, from Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato, is an audience favorite, resurrected. Created within a decade of each other, the works in this program present a world-wide slice of dance innovation in the mid-to-late eighties. more ›

"It all starts over here, with the Bible," says Theige Hascall, as she leads us over to view a triple-ring binder full of watercolor sketches from Italian fashion designer and set and costume expert, Roberta Guidi di Bagno, fabric swatches and hundreds of pages of character descriptions and wardrobe reference notes of the Balanchine version (1974) of Coppélia. (Seattle Times interview with di Bagno here). more ›

Last night Pacific Northwest Ballet premiered George Balanchine’s Coppélia to great fanfare, as their last repertory program of the 2009-10 season. Balanchine’s foray into storybook ballet, rarely seen outside of New York, here has been freshly reupholstered, drawing out the youth and charm at the heart of the ballet “comedy.” Planning on the production began two-and-a-half years ago, with the scenic and costume departments spending nearly a year building the ballet’s new, original pieces. With a budget of $1.3 million, Coppélia is PNB’s first full-length design commission in seven years. more ›

Since 1998 the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s DISCOVER DANCE program has been bringing dance education to students in Eastside and Seattle area schools. Fun activities like field trips to the PNB costume shop and rehearsal studios are just the beginning. These students are given the opportunity to work with PNB Teaching Artists to create their own original choreography that they can perform for the public. Even the backdrops have been designed by students in the program. more ›

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s latest production, 3 by Dove, has the company exploring the world beyond convention. A collection of three works by choreographer Ulysses Dove -- Red Angels, Vespers, and Serious Pleasures - the production bears little resemblance to the Ballet’s traditional offerings, which makes 3 by Dove a 2010 stand-out. more ›

ONCE UPON A DREAM: Tchaikovsky is the King of Ballet. There is none higher. He composed three of the most widely loved and artistically immaculate ballets in history -- Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and, of course, The Sleeping Beauty -- and it’s difficult to imagine anyone ever topping the contribution that he made to the art. We all know the classic story of Sleeping Beauty; Fairies flit wild, girl gets cursed, boy meets girl and lifts curse, girl meets boy, wedding bells chime. But beginning tonight, we have the opportunity to see it all unfold as the ballet is performed by one of the country’s most acclaimed production companies. There’s no better way to celebrate the season of Love and springing out of the winter doldrums. The Sleeping Beauty was Tchaikovsky’s first major success 120 years ago. We would have loved it then too. more ›

Nutcracker season is again upon us. It’s a Christmas tradition for many, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet production--even with forty-five performances this season--is always well attended. The cherished fairy tale of Clara and her Nutcracker has a plot so familiar to audiences that there is simply a large-scale passive acceptance when hordes of mice suddenly start romping around the Stahlbaum living room (more on that later). more ›

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Director’s Choice premiered last weekend with a program that showcases Artistic Director Peter Boal’s devotion to keeping his company on their toes. The second repertory of the season, hot on the heels of Jean-Christophe Maillot’s widely praised modern re-imagining of Roméo et Juliet, maintains the company's innovative works impetus, fulfilling Boal’s vision to increase the versatility of not just his dancers, but also PNB’s orchestra, costume and production teams. more ›

After twenty-five seasons as Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Music Director, Stewart Kershaw tendered his resignation Tuesday in a letter to the company, effective immediately. In his announcement, Kershaw stated, “Please understand that I am now 68, have been a professional ballet conductor for the last 43 years, and recently completed 25 seasons as PNB's Music Director. It is also exactly 20 years since my efforts to create the PNB Orchestra were rewarded in October 1989.” more ›

We have come late to the Nadeau appreciation society--after 17 years, that bandwagon has left the station and steamed from the harbor--but it struck us that there was something extraordinary in a 45-year-old ballerina pulling Forsythe's Urlicht out of the hat for a retirement program. more ›

• A part of University of Washington football history was lost over the weekend, when former UW coach Jim Owens (yes, he's the statue in front of Husky Stadium) died at the age of 82.
• Sporting many shades of pink, thousands were out to "Race for the Cure." Grand Marshaling the quest was SPD Lt. Robin Clark.
• Tiny dancer Louise Nadeau took the ballet stage for the last time on Sunday, as she finished her 19-year career at the Pacific Northwest Ballet with a program that naturally concluded with Swan Lake.

PNB's exuberant festival hits you with what you've been missing--the panache of feeling good and knowing it. Before each ballet in its Broadway Festival (through March 22, tickets $25-$160), Pacific Northwest Ballet rolls a clip--for Jerome Robbins' West Side Story Suite it was a trailer for the West Side Story movie. As the Jets began snapping their fingers, the audience in McCaw Hall snapped theirs right back. No laughter, just snap...snap...snap. more ›

We have to start here by jumping in and saying that this is easily one of the most exciting weekends of theatre we've seen in town in months--two festivals running, genre-breaking opera, ballet crossing over into Broadway show tune territory, two shows that have had their runs extended (, you've lost your bloody mind. It doesn't get better than this! more ›

It's admittedly contrary of us to be looking for a way "in" to George Balanchine's Jewels (TM). Jewels are meant to be looked at. That's why we've put the photos up at the top of this post. Why type our fingers to the bone when you can just take a gander online and decide if that's your kind of thing? more ›

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. more ›

There is nary a tutu to be seen on Pacific Northwest Ballet's New Works program (through November 16, tickets $25-$155), which is an eclectic collection of dance pieces by Mark Morris, PNB's Kiyon Gaines, Benjamin Millepied, and William Forsythe. Not that we have anything against tutus. In fact, some of our best friends...but that's neither here nor there. We bring it up only to emphasize the leap that Peter Boal is making with PNB, in integrating so many kinds of new works into the company's repertoire. more ›

Pacific Northwest Ballet has been putting on a terrific series of educational events the last few weeks: there was the Twyla Tharp-narrated rehearsal of her two new works, and then Doug Fullington gave us firsthand foreign policy experience by showing us real Russian choreography. more ›

WAMU'S KRAUSS PLANT: Tonight's the night: some old dude named Robert Plant is appearing with the angelically voiced Alison Krauss. They're touring for the album Raising Sand, which Rolling Stone praised for its "relaxed, smoky harmonies and reverbed midtempo rockabilly." All ages. Or you could go see Great Big Sea with all these people. more ›

Tomorrow night the "All Tharp" program begins at Pacific Northwest Ballet (and runs through October 5--tickets here). more ›