When You're A Jet You Stay A Jet

This afternoon we spent a couple of hours at the ballet. We saw the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Broadway Festival, featuring Broadway and Broadway-inspired ballets.


The main attraction was the final piece, the "West Side Story Suite" choreographed by Jerome Robbins from his Broadway choreography and to Leonard Bernstein's amazing music. But the rest of the program was equally intriguing: Balanchine's "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue" from Rodgers & Hart's 1930's musical "On Your Toes"; a ballet by Christopher Wheeldon to "Carousel Waltz" from Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Carousel"; and the Broadway choreographer/director Susan Stroman's "TAKE FIVE...More Or Less" commissioned by PNB and premiered last year.


Seeing "West Side Story" danced by ballet dancers was exciting, and interesting to see them step out of their comfort zone to do some singing and dialogue. The best, by far, was Carla Korbes as Anita, who was the only one who sounded and acted like someone who had stepped off a musical stage to perform, and really acted like a star. (Professional musical comedy singers filled in at other times, and provided entertainment in the lobby at intermission.) Equally as exciting to watch was Jeff Stanton as Riff. In the suite, Tony and Maria become secondary characters for a large part -- Riff and Bernardo take center stage.


Stroman's piece was witty, sophisticated and charming, enough to capture even my crabby-from-hunger 12-year-old. It started with the premise that artists, even when they "take five" never really take a break from their art, because it is always within them. This will be a ballet that other companies will start to perform. Hopefully not before it becomes a PNB signature piece.

But the big revelation was "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue." Choreographed as a performance ballet within a show, it is also tied in with the (albeit flimsy) plot of the show in a way that was never done before in the theater. Balanchine was hired to give the ballet legitimacy, but went far beyond into wonderful jazz ballet in a way that is in no way reminiscent of his standard ballet choreography. Gene Kelly choreographed and danced (with Vera Ellen) a clever, more modern excerpt of the ballet for "Words and Music," the Lorenz Hart star-studded biographical film.


When he pulled the ballet from the musical in 1967 to add it to the NYC Ballet repertoire, Balanchine created all new choreography; perhaps he took some inspiration from Gene Kelly? Regardless (or, irregardless as my old boss used to like to say), it was an exciting piece of ballet that was unanimously the favorite of the family. It was the ideal example of why live performance will never be replaced: nothing engages the audience like live theater, especially when it takes place amidst the audience.

The big star of the day was, without a doubt, Jeffrey Stanton. Known to many of us casual ballet goers as Patricia Barker's favorite partner, we haven't seen much of him in the past year because of injury, even leading to speculation that he was quietly retired or on his way somewhere else. But as the Hoofer in "Slaughter" and "Riff" in "West Side Story," he was the focal point whenever he was on stage, demonstrating every bit of experience, stage savvy and talent.

Not enough good can be said about the orchestra, either. A collection of music that would make a great symphony program, the ballet orchestra outdid itself as it played Rodgers, Brubeck and Bernstein with equal deft.

Backstage at "Nutcracker"

Sunday evening we were delighted to have the rare opportunity to sit back stage and watch Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of "Nutcracker." With sets and costumes by children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and choreography by recently retired artistic director and resident choreographer Kent Stowell, the production is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Our older offspring danced in it the past two years, and our younger offspring is in it this year. We have also contributed to the ballet, so the combination of the two led us to an invitation to watch from back stage during one of #2's performances.

We picked Sunday night's performance because our favorite male principal, Stanko Milov (I've written about him before), danced the prince, and our favorite dancer, Stacy Lowenberg, danced both Mrs. Stahlbaum (Clara's mother, in the first act), and the Peacock (in the second act). It turns out a lot of dancers liked the casting too -- three people in the space of ten minutes at #2's ballet class mentioned it.

We dropped off #2 at the stage door, and met up with our fourth in our party, the mother of one of the other children in the cast. After waiting a bit, we were met by the highly capable Charitable Giving specialist, Katie Johnson, who was even cuter in person than on the phone. She took us back and down to the backstage entrance.

We met Jill, the amazing Stage Manager for the ballet, who was our shepherd. The volunteer coordinator, Dianna, who has the unofficial title of Child Wrangler, was also there to help us settle in. We were given the rules: Stay in our corner when we're asked to, don't go in front of the light grids in the wings, don't talk to the dancers unless they talk to you.

We had a great chance to look at the sets and backdrops. The thing that struck all of us is that the stage is much smaller than it looks from the audience. The forced perspective in the sets and drops is fantastic. And close, the color, texture, depth and richness of the sets and costumes is impressive.

We asked for, and were given, headsets to listen to the stage manager and crew. The assistant stage manager was running cues so the stage manager had a little more freedom to move around and make sure things were running smoothly. They answer trivia questions, read by the acting stage manager so she could stop when she needed to give cues, and chatter quite a bit. We were able to talk, if we wanted to, and #1 and I even answered a couple of questions.

Just before curtain, Dianna came up with our two little dancers in tow. She showed us where we could stand in the wings and watch the prologue, a mere couple of feet from the performance, but still (of course) hidden from the audience. I think the kids really liked being able to see it from that perspective, since they are in the dressing rooms for the first act. At the end of the Prologue, Clara's bed set exited right by us with a whoosh.

After that, the kids went back downstairs, and we settled down in our seats until we were able to move around. After that, we moved from the wings to other perspectives backstage to watch the performance, until of course it was time to stay out of the way again.

There are a tremendous number of sets for this ballet, and most of them were stored on stage left where we were seated. At intermission, we were able to take a closer look at some of the sets that hadn't been on that side before Act I.

For the second act, we were able to stand and watch our dancer perform, which was a real treat. The game of trivia also resumed.

At the end of the second act, after the curtain call, #2 finally ran over to us and said hello. then ran downstairs to take off makeup and costume. We went up a short time later, collected our dancers, and left.

Later, as we were discussing the experience, my spouse made the observation that he was surprised by how calm it was back stage. He had expected a lot of panic, or at least rushing around, but everyone knew what to do and when to do it.

All in all, it was a marvelous experience, certainly one that not many people get a chance to have. We have such a great understanding, now, of what the children's cast members experience. Watching the smooth competence of both backstage crew and onstage cast, it is easy to understand why the children dancing in "Nutcracker" quickly gain a kind of confidence and poise that they don't have prior to that first performance.