Modern Masterpieces at Pacific Northwest Ballet
Modern Masterpieces, Pacific Northwest Ballet March 15-24, 2013 Modern Masterpieces is a collection of four dances, three by acknowledged masters George Balanchine, Ulysses Dove and Twyla Tharp. The evening’s wild card was a world premiere called Mozart Pieces, choreographed by PNB ballet master Paul Gibson. Taken as a whole, Modern Masterpieces presented audiences with a...
“All Premiere” at Pacific Northwest Ballet
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s All Premiere program was a bit like an old Mickey Rooney movie. You know the one, where everyone comes together to put on a stirring show. In this case, PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal invited three of his dancers to join choreographic heavy hitter Mark Morris in creating four world premieres to...
Amy O’Neal’s Innovative, Daring and Original Dance/Performance
The title is a mouthful. The Most Innovative, Daring, and Original Piece of Dance/Performance You Will See This Decade. Amy O’Neal meant it to be tongue in cheek, but her evening length work is most definitely innovative, original and daring. Over the course of more than an hour, divided into eight sections, the choreographer tackles...
Mark Morris Dance Group at On The Boards
One hour before showtime. A line snaked down the stairs and up the block from On the Boards front door on Roy Street, on Seattle’s Lower Queen Anne. A harried OTB staff member corralled the crowd into two lines: season subscribers and will call pick ups. Dance fans held up hand-lettered signs, begging for spare...
Mike Simi at Season
Normally when one reviews an art show, the venue in which the art is displayed is not part of the story. Modern galleries and museums go to great lengths to keep their settings neutral; art is shown on blank walls carefully separated from windows, books, furniture, or anything else that might diminish our ability to...
If Chairs Could Speak: Roy McMakin at Western Bridge
The Roy McMakin exhibition at Western Bridge completely turned my head around regarding his work. Before this show I’d seen McMakin’s pieces in a number of group and solo exhibitions, but I hadn’t been able to quite figure out what he was up to. Not that McMakin makes it difficult on purpose, but most of...
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Encore, or Farewell to Lucien Postlewaite
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Encore, or Lucien Postlewaite’s Farewell By Marcie Sillman How do you say goodbye to someone whose artistry has challenged and delighted you, provided moments of transcendent beauty and pure emotion, opened your eyes to something you hadn’t seen before? That was the question for the audience that packed McCaw Hall on Sunday...
Everett DuPen at the Museum of Northwest Art
When the Seattle City Council was searching for a site for a new skateboard park at Seattle Center, their first idea was to replace a very period fountain from the 1962 World’s Fair near the center of the campus called the Fountain of Creation. The hue and cry that arose from the art community and...
Approaching Ecstasy
Approaching Ecstasy/Whim W’him and the Esoterics By Marcie Sillman Esoterics’ Founding Director Eric Banks says the collaboration between dance company Whim W’him and his vocal group, The Esoterics, was, perhaps, destined. After all, he pointed out at a post show Q&A, Terpischore is the Greek muse of both dancing and the dramatic chorus. And Approaching...
Goodbye, Lucien Postelwaite
Goodbye Lucien Postelwaite By Marcie Sillman Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Seattle dance fans, will say goodbye to one of the city’s finest dancers this summer. PNB Principal Dancer Lucien Postelwaite leaves the company in June, to join Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. Ironically, Lucien Postelwaite first knocked my socks off in a ballet that was...
New Works at Pacific Northwest Ballet
New Works/Pacific Northwest Ballet March 16-24, 2012 By Marcie Sillman The good news is, you can still get a ticket to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s latest program, New Works, at McCaw Hall. The bad news is, there are still tickets available for the show this coming weekend. That’s bad news, because this program is something dance...
Gauguin and Polynesia at Seattle Art Museum
Few artists present viewers with as many challenges as Paul Gauguin. A colorist of genius, a fearless, pusher of boundaries, and a pioneer apostle for the exotic, what we feel about his work is almost impossible to untangle from what we know about his life. Gauguin himself was more than aware of how his dramatic...