Pacific Northwest Ballet
Geography made strange bedfellows in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Celebrate Seattle Festival, at McCaw Hall in April. Robert Joffrey and Merce Cunningham don’t share a common aesthetic, but both come from the Pacific Northwest, so Cunningham’s Inlets II, with John Cage’s watery score, appears on the same program with Joffrey’s ultra-romantic [ital: Remembrances] pas de deux, its Wagner lieder sung by diva Jane Eaglen.
The festival came in two parts, with a double bill of Kent Stowell’s Carmina Burana and the company première of Mark Morris’ Pacific, followed by three different programs. There were 14 works altogether, as many as the company usually does in a year. Artistic Director Peter Boal mixed his company with guests, so Seattle audiences got a look at dancers from Ballet British Columbia and Oregon Ballet Theatre as well as local modern ensembles Spectrum Dance Theater, run by Donald Byrd, and Scott/Powell Performance.
Some dances, like Val Caniparoli’s mordant and witty Torque, were already in PNB’s repertoire, and some could be added, including Toni Pimble’s Two’s Company. Others were pièces d’occasion, like Trisha Brown’s deceptively pedestrian Carmen Overture, Carmen Entr’acte and Spanish Dance, which were salted between other works, their flamenco-influenced pacing a repeating theme for the evening. Company ballet master Paul Gibson made Sense of Doubt, a thrilling noir ensemble to Phillip Glass excerpts, and corps member Kiyon Gaines contributed a bright and cleanly crafted ballet that made much of its tango-flavored Astor Piazzolla score.
Despite the intense performance schedule, PNB’s dancers looked calm and capable. Kaori Nakamura and Jeffrey Stanton abandoned themselves lavishly in the Joffrey duet, while Noelani Pantastico looked like a classic film heroine in Gibson’s work. Carla Körbes was willing to try almost everything, from Cunningham’s eccentricities to the Ailey-influenced undulations of Sonia Dawkin’s Ripple Mechanics. And Patricia Barker, retiring after 26 years with the company, showcased her self-possessed elegance in Pimble’s trio, partnered by Karel Cruz and Bakthurel Bold, whose emotional resonance is starting to match his technical dazzle.
It was fascinating to see Spectrum and Scott/Powell on a larger stage. Byrd’s Bhangra Fever runs on the momentum of its Bollywood score, sweeping its mass of dancers along. Locate, by Mary Sheldon Scott, treats its dancers more like individuals. Ellie Sandstrom was especially fierce, vibrating alone onstage and daring the audience to look away.
Celebrate Seattle had a true party atmosphere and cemented Boal’s connection to the Seattle dance community. If next year’s festival, planned to explore humor in dance, is half as successful, it will send everyone home grinning.
Sandra Kurtz writes about dance for the Seattle Weekly and other publications.
