IT’S SHOWTIME!
SEATTLE SHOWCASE OF MIXED WORKS
FROM JAZZY RAZZMATAZZ TO PURE NEO-CLASSICISM

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET
SADLER’S WELLS, LONDON
2-6 July 2002

For its return visit to London, Seattle’s acclaimed Pacific Northwest Ballet is bringing a truly mixed bill of fare for the 4th of July week. The week-long season is a varied showcase for the wide range of PNB’s talents and techniques and includes a full-length tribute to the father of Broadway, Jerome Kern, plus works by Marius Petipa, George Balanchine, Peter Martins and Nacho Duato.

Silver Lining (2 July and and two performances on 6 July), choreographed by Kent Stowell, is an exuberant look at America’s theatrical heritage, swinging from sassy Vaudeville and boogie-woogie Cotton Club to the glamour of the Ziegfeld Follies and the sophisticated routines of Astaire and Rogers. Originally created in 1998 for the grand finale of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 25th anniversary season, it is a nostalgic revue-style work in which the whole company of 48 dancers not only ‘strut their stuff’, but also sing in the chorus line. Stowell’s extensive research into the Kern archives has revealed many unfamiliar Kern pieces in different moods and styles to be performed alongside familiar tunes such as They Didn’t Believe Me, Till the Clouds Roll By, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, The Way You Look Tonight, I’m Old Fashioned and Look for the Silver Lining. Baritone Erich Parce and soprano Valerie Piacenti accompany the dancers on stage to sing some of the numbers.
Stowell, who as a boy was inspired to take up dance by the thrill of watching Astaire and Rogers and the nostalgic American musicals on the silver screen, has created a ballet piece infused with idioms of charleston, tango and jitterbug which has won standing ovations from American audiences. Distinguished collaborators on this project include Russell Warner, foremost American arranger and orchestrator of vintage musicals and expert on Kern’s work, who forged the score of Silver Lining; set designer Ming Cho Lee, with whom Stowell has worked for more than a decade on many of his ballets; and costume designer David Murin who has more than 200 Broadway and off- Broadway design credits to his name and a particular love of 1920s and ‘30s style.
The rest of the season is a mixed bill programme (3, 4 and 5 July). The ballets of ‘Mr B’ have a special place in PNB’s repertoire as Stowell and Russell were both New York City Ballet dancers under his direction and Russell mounts his pieces for companies all over the world. Both of them danced key roles in ‘Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 to Mozart’s Divertimento in B-flat major (K.287) which has been in PNB’s repertoire since 1991. For five ballerinas, three men and eight corps de ballet, the delicately-wrought choreography and luminous imagery is a celebration of Mozart’s score in five movements and is rarely performed in the UK.

Jardi Tancat (Catalan for ‘Closed Garden’) is the very first ballet Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato created in 1983 when he was with Nederlands Dans Theatre. Infused with Duato’s distinctive Mediterranean flavour, the ballet is based on Catalonian folk tales collected and sung by Maria del Mar Bonet. With a sweet, yet passionate melancholy, these folksongs and their dance portrayal tell the story of the people who work the barren land, praying to God for the rain that does not come and enduring with great spirit in the face of hardship. Jardi Tancat has been in PNB’s repertoire since 1996.

Peter Martins, Balanchine’s successor at New York City Ballet, choreographed Fearful Symmetries to John Adams’ composition of the same name in 1990. A large one-act ballet for 23 dancers, it is bathed in dramatic and ever-changing hues of red and blue and matches the music’s racing pulse in striking combinations. PNB first danced the work in March 2001.

Finally, a gala item of breathtaking virtuosity in the Russian tradition – the spectacular pas de trois from Le Corsaire, after Marius Petipa to music by Riccardo Drigo. This piece has been specially staged for PNB by Yuri Fateev, Ballet Master of the Kirov Ballet in St Petersburg.

Pacific Northwest Ballet is one of the top five ballet companies in the US and has thrived in the classical ballet and modern dance repertoire under the artistic guidance of Kent Stowell and Francia Russell for 25 years. The company was warmly received by British audiences and critics in 1998 at the Edinburgh Festival and in 1999 at Sadler’s Wells in London.

The Pacific Northwest Ballet London tour underwriter is The James D. & Sherry Raisbeck Foundation International Touring Fund. The tour is also sponsored by Citigroup Private Bank and participating sponsors Cell Therapeutics, Inc. and Northern Trust.

Sadler’s Wells Box Office
Tel. 020 7863 8000 or online www.sadlerswells.com
Tickets from £10 to £41

Further press information:
Debra Boraston
UK PR Consultant
Henry Moore Studio, 11a Parkhill Road, London NW3 2YH
T: 020 7483 1950 F: 020 7586 3790
E: debra@henrymoorestudio.co.uk
W: www.henrymoorestudio.co.uk/dbpr
Margo Spellman
Director of Marketing and PR
Pacific Northwest Ballet
T: [00 1] 206 441 9411

Programme:
2 July 7.30pm, 6 July 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Silver Lining (Stowell/Kern)
3, 4 & 5 July at 7.30pm

Divertimento No. 15 (Balanchine/W A Mozart)
Jardi Tancat (Duato/Maria del Mar Bonet)
Le Corsaire pas de trois (Petipa/Drigo)
Fearful Symmetries (Martins/Adams)