ByGD
PNB company dancers in Yuri Possokhov’s RAkU, 2018. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Not gonna lie. I didn’t really like RakU, the ballet that premiered in Seattle as part of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Emergence program last week. Despite absolutely loving some elements, there were a couple things I just don’t think audiences should tolerate. Even so, I keep turning the piece over in my mind, worrying at it like a splinter that won’t come out. There’s just so much to say about RakU. Read More
ByGD
The ballet has left me breathless before, but breathless and speechless? That’s new. There is so much to say about the current mixed rep at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Emergence, that I’m paralyzed before I begin. The title comes from the final piece in the rep, Crystal Pite’s Emergence. It’s an audience favorite capping off Little Mortal Jump and the Seattle premiere of RakU. I always go on about how Director’s Choice is the best rep of the season, but this one is so powerful. I wanted to go to the artist Q&A after the performance, but I was too wiped out and had to go straight home. Emergence left me exhausted and wrung out, like I had been through something. But in a good way. Mostly. Anyway, it felt more like an experience than a performance. Read More
ByGD
“You never take me to the modern ballets,” my 8-year-old complained. “I only get to go to the story ballets.” Was she right? Conventional wisdom tells us to introduce kids to ballet through story, but I’ve never really bought it. After all, little kids are far more likely to spontaneously erupt into abstract dance than adults are, so why would they have a harder time understanding it? But as a reviewer, I do tend to take the kid closest to the age that readers are likely to want to bring, so maybe my artistic younger daughter had been unfairly sequestered in the story ballet ghetto? Fortunately, Pacific Northwest Ballet came to rescue with Her Story, a mixed rep of contemporary ballet choreographed by three of the world’s leading choreographers. The title implied a feminist theme, but the only link between the three pieces is that the choreographers are all women, and all three pieces are magnificent. Read More