Pacific Northwest Ballet's "Jewels" delivers a multitude of visual riches.
Although the program only runs through Feb. 7, the company's marketing campaign claims it as a perfect Valentine's Day gift.
It is certainly choreographer George Balanchine's mash note to both his boyhood training in the grand traditions of Russian ballet and his adopted home, New York City.
The divinely cool "Diamonds" that forms the grand finale of the evening fills the stage with everyone's vision of the traditional ballet. Girls in floating white net, glittering tiaras securing those classic ballet "buns" of hair, twirl in formation to Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 3 in D Major."
It doesn't get much more Russian than that, and Balanchine's choreography, from crossed hands to precisely pointed toes, clearly draws from the story ballets like "Swan Lake" or "Sleeping Beauty."
At the center of "Diamonds," principal dancers Carla Korbes and Stanko Milov certainly evoke the fairytale princess and her princely escort.
Korbes embodies so absolutely the dream ballerina, especially in the long pirouette demanded by the choreography, that you expect her to be popped on top of a music box to revolve eternally after the curtain falls.
"Rubies," Balanchine's jazzy homage to the snap and pop of his adopted city, gives the dancers a Broadway extravaganza leaped to the beat of Stravinsky. Of course, nobody hits the boards running better than principal dancer Jonathan Porretta.
He's all million-dollar smile and fantastic airs above ground in this piece, something that PNB audiences anticipate with equally big grins when he appears. You can even sample a little of his performance on YouTube. Type in Porretta and "Rubies."
While Porretta has always dazzled in his solo roles like Puck or the Prodigal Son, this compact guy has never had quite the right partner in this company of often tall ballerinas. He partners well (because he is incapable of anything less) but often best when the role calls for a certain amount of goofiness, rather than romanticism.
Matched in "Rubies" with soloist Jodie Thomas, Porretta looked as good with a girl hanging off his arm as he did flying through the air. The pair clicked. They balanced each other. Neither one looked better than the other. They both looked great together. We can only hope that artistic director Peter Boal will explore this chemistry in future productions.
One remarkable pairing at Pacific Northwest Ballet has always been principal dancers Louise Nadeau and Olivier Wevers.
While both dancers partner well with any others in the company, and excel at solo turns, when they are together on stage, the emotion evoked turns subtly refined, both passion and loss mingled together.
The quieter Nadeau makes you sigh.
And, when dancing with Wevers, the masculine embodiment of the same refined grace and fluid movement, she makes you search your purse for that crumpled Kleenex to dab at moist eyes.
The pair began the evening in "Emeralds" and they became the heart of that romantic piece set to the music of Faure. They were the true valentine to the audience, a valentine made more poignant by Nadeau's recent announcement that she plans to retire at the end of the season.[[In-content Ad]]
