Seattle and Beyond--Art & Culture

The 50th season at Pacific Northwest Ballet has come to an end and boy, did it conclude with a bang as ballet dancers and PNB students came together to create amazing dances that dazzled with nary a moment of misstep.  The event brought together by N ext Step Program Coordinator Eva Stone, with lighting design by Reed Nakayama and the PNB costume shop is a chance for ballet dancers and advanced students to create new choreography and ultimately, to create magic! And magic was in fact made at the June 16th event! Highlights include James Kirby Rogers dark trip into the deconstruction of the colonized female body in contemporary ballet, Miles Pertl's Ricochet that is a loving look at the history of the form, Traverse , which is just beautiful, but, ultimately, Zsilas Michael Hughes steals the show from everyone, with something that is personal, dynamic, full of style and a wonderfully queer, contemporary energy.  After the event, I noted to the choreographer that during their b

  Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancers Leta Biasucci and Jonathan Batista in the stage premiere of Edwaard Liang’s  The Veil Between Worlds,  which PNB is presenting on a triple-bill with new works by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Kiyon Ross, running June 2 – 11, 2023, as the culmination of its 50th Anniversary season. (Streaming digitally June 15 – 19.) Photo © Angela Sterling. PNB has been around for 50 years, which is an accomplishment to say the least and it got me thinking, just what is it that keeps us coming back, month after month and year after year.   What is it that makes this artform—perhaps the one form that exists on the stage that has the greatest number of limitations set upon it, it is silent for the most part speaking its mysteries through movement and music—what makes it for me, at least, the most amazing, interesting, and versatile of the dance forms of today. Pacific Northwest Ballet’s finale of the season consists of three contemporary premieres—two having nev