Ballet Talk with Pacific Northwest Ballet

Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal and retiring PNB Principal dancer James Yoichi Moore talk about the ins and outs of James' career as a dancer. They cover his journey as a dancer pre-PNB, his on and off stage collaborators (Noelani Pantastico, Twyla Tharp, Seattle Dance Collective, etc.), his advice for young dancers, and more! Tune in to this conversation for a brief summary...

Doug Fullington talks PNB audience members through the exciting double-bill program consisting of Matthew Neenan's Bacchus and Alejandro Cerrudo's One Thousand Pieces. Doug covers the music of Oliver Davis and Philip Glass, the costuming, and how dancing in water works in the Cerrudo work. Tune in for this behind the scenes look at Rep 4 of PNB's 2023/24 Season! Recorded in the Nesholm Family Lect...

PNB's music director and principal conductor Emil de Cou moderates this Dress Rehearsal Conversation with four members of the PNB Orchestra. Michael Jinsoo Lim (Concertmaster, violin), Jennifer Caine Provine (Associate Concertmaster, violin), Alexander Grimes (viola), and Page Smith (cello) talk with Emil and answer questions from our audience members about playing Philip Glass' music in Alejandro...

Pacific Northwest Ballet welcomes a new host of our pre-show Ballet Talk series, Dr. Anne Searcy ! Anne is an Assistant Professor of Music History at the University of Washington. Listen along as Anne walks our audience through the history of Tchaikovsky's "undanceable" Swan Lake score, the origin of Swan Lake's infamous 32 fouette turns that end Act III of the ballet, and a quick plot summary inc...

PNB's associate artistic director Kiyon Ross moderates this Dress Rehearsal Conversation with two PNB Principal dancers. Lucien Postlewaite and James Kirby Rogers talk with Kiyon and answer questions from our audience members about playing Prince Siegfried in Kent Stowell's Swan Lake, their interpretations of key moments of the ballet, recurring themes in romantic ballet, and so much more.  This e...

Join dance historian Doug Fullington as he takes us through the three works of Pacific Northwest Ballet's second production of the 2023/24 season, LOVE & LOSS. This trio of works created for PNB shines a light on some of the stunning world premieres that our New Works Initiative has created in recent years. Donald Byrd’s haunting Love and Loss premiered in 2019, Alexei Ratmansky’s stunning tri...

PNB artistic director Peter Boal moderates this Dress Rehearsal Conversation with choreographers Donald Byrd and Dani Rowe.  Both Byrd and Rowe have works featured in the second rep of PNB's 2023/24 season, LOVE & LOSS. Both works were made for PNB through PNB's New Works Initiative. Donald Byrd's Love and Loss premiered in 2019, and Dani Rowe's The Window premiered in the LOVE & LOSS prog...

Welcome to PNB's 2023/24 Season opener, PETITE MORT. We’ve packed as much whimsy, artistry, and drama as possible into our 2023/24 season opener. Built on a foundation of music from Mozart to Beethoven, this triple bill looks at the world of dance through unique shifts in perspective. Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort and Sechs Tänze return after a long hiatus, along with Alexander Ekman’s delightful Cact...

Join Doug Fullington introducing the final program of PNB's 50th Anniversary Season, WORLDS TO COME. Recorded live in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall in McCaw Hall in Seattle, Doug takes us through the three works that make up the program. Works include the onstage premiere of Edwaard Liang's The Veil Between Worlds, featuring music composed by Oliver Davis, which first premiered during PNB's digi...

Enjoy this Dress Rehearsal Conversation for the closing rep of PNB's 50th Anniversary season, WORLDS TO COME. This conversation between choreographers Edwaard Liang, Kiyon Ross, and composer Oliver Davis was co-moderated by PNB's music director and principal conductor Emil de Cou and conductor and PNB company pianist Josh Archibald-Seiffer. The group focused on the inspiration and collaboration in...

In Doug Fullington's pre-performance talk for George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, he outlines the plot of the ballet (based on the Shakespeare play of the same name), details the 1997 PNB-specific redesign of the ballet, and the international touring history of the ballet at PNB. Fullington also answers questions from the audience including details about working with The Balanchine Trus...

Doug Fullington takes our audience through ballet's preeminent ghost story, Giselle. Fullington talks about the origins of the ballet including the history of the spectral maidens, the Wilis, Giselle's pantomime and classic choreography, Jerome Kaplan’s costumes and sets, and Adolphe Adam's score. Recorded live in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall in Marion Oliver McCaw Hall in Seattle, WA on Februa...

In observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, PNB hosted a Community Open House in partnership with Holocaust Center for Humanity, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Mary Schwartz Summit, the Stroum Jewish Community Center, Temple Beth Am, and Temple De Hirsch Sinai. This free event featured a panel discussion moderated by PNB faculty member Miriam Landis, with the intention to...

Join Doug Fullington introducing our second program of the 2022-2023 Season. Recorded live in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall in McCaw Hall in Seattle, Doug takes us through the three works that will be on this program. Works include Catching Feelings, a world premiere from Dwight Rhoden, George Balanchine's Duo Concerto and closing with the North American premiere of Crystal Pite's The Seasons' C...

This episode of PNB's Conversation Series features choreographer Crystal Pite. She and PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal talk about community and mentorship of young dancers and choreographers, insight into Pite's creation process and collaborators on her work The Seasons' Canon, and her creation timeline for new works on her own company Kidd Pivot.    This episode was recorded live in the Nesholm...

Join Doug Fullington in kicking off Pacific Northwest Ballet's 50th Anniversary Season with CARMINA BURANA. Recorded live in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall in McCaw Hall in Seattle, Doug takes us through the three works that make up this first rep of the season. Works include George Balanchine's Allegro Brillante, Alexei Ratmanky's world premiere work for PNB, Wartime Elegy, and founding artistic...

PNB's Dress Rehearsal Conversation series returns! Enjoy this conversation between PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal and choreographer Alexei Ratmansky on the eve of the world premiere of Ratmansky's new work, Wartime Elegy. This episode was recorded live in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall inside McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington on September 22, 2022. 

Doug Fullington closes out PNB's 2021-22 Season with an overview of our final rep of the season, ALL THARP. ALL THARP features three of the many varied dance works by legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp. Fullington talks through the Scottish-themed Brief Fling, the nod to Tharp's Shaker roots Sweet Fields, and PNB fan favorite Waiting at the Station. 

Recorded live at McCaw Hall, enjoy Doug Fullington's pre-show Ballet Talk about Kent Stowell's Swan Lake. Fullington covers a brief history of the ballet, Swan Lake's history at PNB, and answers audience questions. 

Doug Fullington talks all things PLOT POINTS, PNB's fourth rep of the 2021-2022 Season. Fullington's pre-performance talk from the Saturday night show takes you through Robyn Mineko Williams' world premiere work for PNB Before I Was, David Parsons' Caught, Crystal Pite's Plot Point, and the PNB premiere of Justin Peck's The Times Are Racing. 

Listen to Doug Fullington's opening night talk about Jean-Christophe Maillot's Roméo et Juliette. Fullington talks through the history of the ballet from Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Sergei Prokofiev's haunting score, and answers a few audience questions including a few about retiring PNB Principal dancer Noelani Pantastico.  Recorded at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall in Seattle on February 4, 2022. 

Ballet Talk is back in person! This episode was recorded was recorded on opening night of PNB's second rep of the 2021/22 Season, BEYOND BALLET. Former Manager of Audience Education Doug Fullington walks a small live audience through the three works that make up BEYOND BALLET. As we celebrate internationally acclaimed choreographers Ulysses Dove, Jessica Lang, and Alonzo King, we can find even mor...

Join PNB's former Manager of Audience Education Doug Fullington in kicking off the 2021/22 season with SINGULARLY CERRUDO. The triple bill celebrates the creative power of PNB’s Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo in the presentation of his most beloved work. Breathe in the moving tranquility of Silent Ghost, get a tantalizing look at the spectacular teamwork in an excerpt from One Thousand P...

Doug Fullington talks about PNB's conclusion of our first-ever digital season with two world premiere works choreographed, rehearsed, and filmed exclusively for the digital stage by Tony-award winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, and artistic director of Ballet Met, Edwaard Liang. PNB's Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo's cheeky work, PACOPEPEPLUTO, closes out the triple bill.

Doug Fullington's pre-performance Ballet Talk on George Balanchine's Coppélia.