Seattle Middle’s McCaw Corridor, Seattle, WA.
September 24-October 5, 2026 (seen nearly).
There’s an intriguing rigidity at hand with Balanchine work: extremely classical and formalized, but additionally with fairly singular styling – groundbreaking for its time and formative for the artwork type. That’s arguably current in live performance dance general; codified approach and construction are the launching pad for distinctive artistic discovery and creative achievement.
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Season 2026-2027 opener Serenade had me reflecting on this spectrum of ease and energy in dance artwork. The title Balanchine work started this system, however this dynamic additionally resonated from the 2 different works – to fairly satisfying impact.
The harmonious, dreamy Balanchine basic Serenade (1934) opened this system. It started with dancers posed in clear stage group, with a sublime aesthetic of sunshine blue lighting (lighting design by Randall G. Chiarelli) and plain Romantic tutus (costume design by Karinska). A attain led into easy, elegant port de bras. In all elements, the work was an Exhibit A of Balanchinian minimalism.
Motion accrued dimension and layers – in each time and area – but readability and formal group maintained that feeling of chic simplicity. The corps saved the stage image of shifting formations feeling each visually crisp and like a dwelling, respiration organism all by itself.
These qualities adopted the rating (Tchaikovsky’s 1880 Serenade in C), including layers because it progressed but retaining a transparent central melody. Efficiency high quality mirrored that interaction, with the corps extremely unified but not on the expense of every artist bringing their very own signature to the motion.
Earlier than the corps returned, a waltzing, lilting pas de deux interluded that unity in new type. A soloist supplied her soulful execution, with spectacular growth and power from a smaller body (don’t underestimate the shorter ballerinas!). Her companion was rock regular whereas additionally exuding one thing mild and playful.
None of that concerned “pyrotechnics” of approach and athleticism, the flash bangs for the sake of it – which was refreshing in a time when the technical ante retains rising. On the identical time, with quick small jumps and sophisticated weight shifts galore, Balanchine’s choreography referred to as for loads of nimble pace.
Additionally interluding had been references again to the work’s opening – the palm held out to the facet and barely up, as if in reaching for one thing simply past grasp. The corps even introduced a craving high quality to the gesture. Balanchine understood construction; such slower, extra contemplative moments all through helped to make the high-energy sections really feel all of the extra enjoyable and memorable.
A wide range of energies on supply might additionally depart viewers members feeling extra totally glad, as artwork like a balanced meal for the soul. A quartet part wherein the ballerinas (actually) let their hair down even contributed a touch of untamed abandon; lengthy tresses added dimension to turns and expansive shapes, and a sense of freed launch from sure norms of the context at hand. An exquisite picture ended the act – a type of ladies lifted and walked towards offstage mild, her arms excessive. That powerfully embodied the exaltation that such launch can supply.
Jessica Lang’s atmospheric and intriguing Pages (2026) introduced fairly the change of tone. Ethereal singing accompanied dancers shifting out and in of shadows – navigating area with each other and set items that themselves generally moved. A sure eeriness within the ether – from parts like these attractive shadows and a single chair suspended excessive above the stage – made the work really feel like the proper one for “spooky season” (and followers of that type of factor can stay up for the corporate’s Ghost Tales subsequent month!).
Lang’s singular motion idiom – technically grounded however with thrashes, surprising gestures and kinetic battle generally obvious versus hidden – additionally signaled that we had very a lot moved out of Serenade’s world. Technical feats, resembling a number of turns in arabesque, cohered with a sense that bodily weightedness is not any evil – all truthful sport in this world.
Spatial and rhythmic group additionally introduced a great deal of multiplicity. Dancers at occasions discovered unison. At different factors (and arguably extra usually), they acted as autonomous brokers – negotiating time and area collectively – on this setting of sunshine and shadow, launch and rigidity.
Use of props additionally felt recent, presenting a lot to feast one’s eyes and thoughts on. A red-carpet model material (however white) grew to become one thing for one dancer to simply rip away, leaving a big white block unadorned (scenic design additionally by Lang). She then wrote “TRUST” in giant black letters. The work introduced a lot of the surprising, unsure, and unconventional, however in the end left us with a reminder to belief and really feel assured it doesn’t matter what transpired.
Closing this system was Alexei Ratmansky’s effervescent and pleasing Footage at an Exhibition (2014). A block of enormous work, summary and extremely multichromatic, hung above and behind the dancers (projection design by Wendall Ok. Harrington, from Wassily Kandinsky’s 1913 Coloration Examine. Squares with Concentric Circles). The ensemble unfold out from a clump to instantly meet the energetic rating (from Modest Mussorgsky, 1874): fast jumps, quick turns, massive smiles. Their costumes had been simply as vivid and enjoyable, multicolored and with diverse shapes in patterning (designed by Adeline André).
Such exuberance earlier than lengthy shifted right into a solo with a bit extra thriller, the jazzy cool of swiveling hips and snaking backbone by means of in any other case classical vocabulary. The portray behind the soloist, modified from the prior, featured dots haphazardly positioned on a blue background – the thriller there matching the playful exploration in her motion.
The work, simply as the 2 earlier than it, additionally demonstrated its personal relationship with gravity and weight – mainly, the great thing about rising from the discharge into gravity’s pull, of surrendering to weightedness after which pulling away from it. Such rise and fall in the end instilled a visceral sense of hopefulness. That impact was thus one other instance on this program of the strain between classical and up to date qualities successfully leveraged.
On the identical time, the temper continued to shift with every time the rating and backdrop portray modified (the rating remaining classical, the work summary: colour, line, form). Motion made the artwork and the music visceral: an embodiment of accompanying artwork kinds. With sufficient creativeness, we might think about the dancers as the various shapes within the work, every with their very own texture and directionality, come to life and shifting, interacting with one another.
By means of refined bodily comedy and intelligent interactions between dancing pairs, dashes of humor even labored their manner in. The ensemble demonstrated eager and considerate versatility in executing all of those diverse methods of shifting and being.
The piece concluded with a piece filled with concord and jubilation – even ending with dancers lifted excessive, dealing with the viewers with joyful expressions. Summary artwork with fields of vibrant colour and steady shapes can convey that type of enhanced ease and concord to the spirit: a sure calmness merely from witnessing one thing with peacefully co-existing parts. Ratmansky’s work embodied that impact with care and coronary heart.
All three works on this program had been equally considerate and soulful, balancing uncooked artistic impulse and thought of creative selection. It was therein a robust begin to the corporate’s 2026-2027 season. It additionally granted us a reminder to take into busy fall and vacation seasons: to maneuver ahead with each rigor and launch, effort and ease. Onwards!
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
