Pacific Northwest Ballet begins a three-week festival of Northwest choreographers and dance companies on Thursday. "Celebrate Seattle" opens with two works by Seattle choreographers Kent Stowell and Mark Morris.
Well known to PNB audiences, Stowell served as artistic director of the company for more than 25 years. Although he was born in Idaho, Stowell spent his early years as a dancer in San Francisco and New York. His influence on dance in this region did not begin until he and wife Francia Russell agreed to lead the fledgling PNB.
Under the couple's guidance, the company grew to its current stature, making the transition from regional company to one renowned for its stewardship of Balanchine's dance legacy as well as its willingness to stretch in its collaborations with outside artists.
Stowell's choice of picture-book author Maurice Sendak as the costume/set designer of "Nutcracker" was not universally praised. Early on, Stowell and Sendak's vision of "Nutcracker" was seen as bit too dark for the sugar-plum fantasy, although it has become a family favorite and annual ticket bonanza since then.
In 1993, Stowell created "Carmina Burana," using the 1937 choral work by Carl Orff and partnering with Broadway designer Ming Cho Lee. The Chinese-American designer created a fantastical 26-foot metal wheel to hang above the dancers like a Doomsday clock or, as invoked on one of the oratorio's more famous sections, like Fortuna's wheel that casts men up and crushes them down.
Like the "Nutcracker," the piece initially inspired a buzz of argument. With flesh-tone costumes and writhing bodies portraying most of the major sins, "Carmina Burana" was definitely not coolly classical. But Lee's visual concept and Orff's wildly lush music also kept it from being bare-stage modern abstract ballet. Some dance critics stated that they were unsure if "Carmina Burana" was a ballet or just a big theatrical extravaganza. Audiences didn't seem to care about the distinction; the work quickly became a PNB favorite, attracting more and more supporters each time the company repeated it.
With Lee's golden clockwork and a full chorus, both suspended above the dancers, Stowell's work was theatrical in the best possible sense, effortlessly invoking the bold and bawdy nature of the oratorio based on the very secular poems of some 13th-century monks and troubadours.
When the work premièred, Dance Magazine praised Stowell's choreography for its ability to move from "the madly lusting and carousing in pastoral and tavern scenes to the frankly refined, carefully classical, in the fourth section, which is the Court of Love."
While many of the original dancers from that première have moved on, two major ladies from the 1993 presentation remain with the company. Expect both principal dancers Patricia Barker and Ariana Lallone to appear in "Carmina Burana."
During the original run and subsequent remounts, Lallone was singled out by critics for her lusty portrayal of a red-clad temptress in the "In Taberna" section, a role created for her by Stowell. Barker, the blond diamond of the company, is enjoying an extended celebration of her own long years with PNB. She retires at the end of this season, and devoted fans of the elegant dancer have been making sure to catch as many of her performances as possible.
Although Mark Morris grew up in Seattle, his career flourished in New York, where he established the Mark Morris Group in 1980 and, with Russian ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov, formed the White Oak Project in 1990. He has danced and choreographed modern work for companies throughout the United States and Europe.
His work has been characterized as appealing to both dance aficionados and casual dance attendees because of his personal style: as a dancer, Morris combined the athletic grace of the best dancers with the physique of a regular Joe, much as Gene Kelly's own tough-guy American look served as stark contrast to the more elegant styling of Fred Astaire. Don't be fooled, it takes enormous technical skill to do what Morris asks of dancers - it just looks more casual, and there's more than little sly humor to many of his pieces, most notably his own adaptation of "Nutcracker" known as "Hard Nut."
PNB adds Morris to their repertoire with the debut of "Pacific" this week.
Originally created for San Francisco Ballet in 1995, "Pacific" references the cultures touched by that ocean. Combining the music of Lou Harrison with the passionate energy of its themes, the work has become a regular part of SFB's repertoire, most recently repeated in March.
For fans of native sons and modern dance, the introduction of Morris to PNB is long overdue and a reason to "Celebrate Seattle" all on its own.
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