Balanchine’s Theme and Variations at PNB

The final program of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s regular season is Themes & Variations, a mixed rep of four ballets that finishes with the title piece, George Balanchine’s Theme & Variations. It’s common for PNB to end a mixed rep program with a very traditional Balanchine piece. Balanchine is the foundation of this company, and his more classical pieces are sure to satisfy audiences at the end of an eclectic program, especially one that contains works like The Moor’s Pavane that aren’t for everyone. Theme & Variations is what people think of when they think of ballet.

True Tutu Ballet

Even if you’ve never seen it before, you can tell from the title that it will be a classical tutu ballet with taxing, academic choreography. It’s what nonballet-types are afraid they’ll end up watching if they go, and the sort of thing that beginner balletomanes yearn for as “true ballet.” For the longest time, I had the sophomoric impression that this sort of ballet was like being tricked into watching the dancers practice a set of drills. Lots of technique, but very little choreography – and therefore, kind of boring.

True Skill

I hesitate to say I’ve graduated into some sort of ballet expertise (because I’m sure I’d be wrong). But for the first time in a long time, I was really able to appreciate the structured choreography of a classical ballet for the way it highlighted the dancers’ abilities. The fluid movement of contemporary dance draws attention away from the effort required to perform it. Those dances ask you to think about other things, and any number of mistakes can be made to look intentional. But classical ballet is naked in its predictability, and, like the X-Games of dance, it invites us to marvel at the dancers’ mastery.   

True Beauty

And marvel I did. A lot of the time, classical ballet is more about lines and shapes than combinations of movement. When you allow yourself to focus on the images, there is exquisite beauty in the sculptural poses the dancers hold and in the patterns in which they are arranged on the stage.

If I could stand in Mountain Pose with as much stability as Lesley Rausch does vertical splits on pointe, my yoga teacher would be so proud. Jerome Tisserand seemed almost to disappear when partnering, only to burst into view with bold straight lines and powerful spins when it was his own turn to shine. The corps de ballet, even with the new variation in heights and body types that PNB used to avoid, all molded themselves into synchronous uniformity, fluttering on pointe for ages. Individual expression is very important, but there’s also something very stirring in military precision.

And sometimes, it’s comforting to know what should come next and to trust that the dancers can deliver it.  

Theme and Variations

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Suite No. 3 in G Major, 1884; last movement)
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust
Staging: Judith Fugate
Scenic Design: Charlene Hall
Costume Design: Mark Zappone
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Running Time: 26 minutes
Premiere: November 26, 1947, Ballet Theatre (New York)
PNB Premiere: October 16, 1985

Cast I Saw

Lesley Rausch
Jerome Tisserand

Both were performing the role for the first time.

Details

Remaining performances: June 7 – 8 at 7:30 pm and June 9 at 1:00 pm

 Tickets ($30-$187) are on sale through the PNB Box Office:

·         Phone – 206.441.2424
·         In Person – 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center
·         Online – PNB.org

Subject to availability, tickets are also available 90 minutes prior to show times at McCaw Hall.

{I attended Theme & Variations courtesy of Pacific Northwest Ballet. The tickets were theirs, but the opinions are mine.}