TeenTix Blog Dance

Throughout the world, ancient languages are fading away at an alarming rate. Alonzo King’s Figures of Speech, performed by his LINES Ballet company, aimed to preserve these moribund dialects by conveying the struggle of maintaining each language’s culture. The ballet recently shared pieces of these dialects, which range from the provincial Hawai’ian language spoken by 27,200 people to the extinct Selk’nam language that has no known native speakers, with the Seattle community.

Bringing his San Francisco-based ballet ensemble to the UW’s Meany Hall, choreographer and artistic director Alonzo King collaborated with slam poet and linguistic advocate Bob Holman to present his latest pièce de résistance, Figures of Speech. The LINES Ballet explored the power behind lost languages, guiding the audience on a touching trek through the sound, movement, and shape of aboriginal languages.

While it may be controversial to begin the Christmas season so early, I began mine the evening of November 23rd, opening night of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s The Nutcracker. The result of which was a distinct and familiar feeling of jovial warmth—a near impossible emotion to leave McCaw Hall without.

Various candy-inspired photo booths and guests dressed in formalities, ranging from hipster-dressy to black tie, paraded the lobby anticipating the show. The show is inherently a family event, as evidenced by the many children wandering about. It is certainly the least intimidating ballet for new viewers due to its palatable familial storyline; an excellent way to scratch the surface of what can often feel like an inaccessible art form.

As all you old school TeenTixers know, Pacific Northwest Ballet's wildly popular Nutcracker ballet is the ONLY PNB show ALL YEAR that is NOT TeenTix eligible.

HOWEVER, because they love us so much, PNB always puts aside a little stash of TeenTix tickets for one day of Nutcracker each year. It is an AMAZING, annual tradition that draws teens from far and wide. YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS IT!!

I used to be a dancer. When I danced, however, I never felt closely connected with what I was asked to perform. Sure, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty were classics, but their stories didn’t represent my identity. I didn’t feel that my dancing reflected who I was.

At Whim W’Him’s Choreographic Shindig IV, however, the company could choose pieces and choreographers that reflected them. For the Choreographic Shindig IV, the dancers chose three choreographers—Alice Klock, Brendan Duggan, and Omar Román de Jesús. These artists, using the dancers’ input, created three 20-minute pieces: "Before After," "Stephanie Knows Some Great People," and "Welcome to Barrio Ataxia." Klock’s piece, "Before After," dealt with the death of one world and the birth of the next. It began with the end: a spotlight illuminated a soloist clad in grey, slowly rubbing his hands together. He then moved about the space, clearly suffering. When he was spent, he collapsed to the ground. His death sharply contrasted with what came next. Two dancers, wearing green, created life through fluid extensions and expansive gestures, their movements reminiscent of youthful deer running across a field.

Hey, PNB fans!

We know you love getting a deal at Pacific Northwest Ballet. Previously, you've been able to get 2 tickets for $5 each on Sundays, but going forward, this is the new policy:

See the newest installation of this Whim W'Him staple: Choreographic Shindig is back and better than ever!

TeenTix Members are encouraged to reserve up to 4 tickets for you and all your friends for this event (a rare chance to snag seats in advance with your TeenTix pass!) so don't delay - fill out this form now to see the show on one of the following dates:

When Pacific Northwest Ballet premiered William Forsythe's One Flat Thing Reproduced in 2008 it caused quite a stir, polarizing audiences and prompting questions about what defines "ballet." In early versions of the Press Corps, teen reviewers tackled the debut of One Flat Thing. Read these impressions from 10 years ago, then go see it for yourself! The piece has been remounted this weekend in PNB's Director's Choice program! "Calculated Chaos" By Greta R.

A dancer's leg kicks upward at the exact moment that an adjacent dancer's arm shoots outward and hand clenches; the two are divinely connected for this second, before their bodies twist in different directions. Every limb of every dancer is on a pivot, malleable and boneless as the dancers navigate a grid of 20 metal tables that they themselves pushed onto the stage in a charging herd. A pelvis juts and a skin turns itself inside out as numerous bodies malfunction like broken toys rewired with a mistaken circuit. This calculated chaos is contained in the sounds of a long-forgotten arcade game, one that hums and whirs and occasionally remembers how to simulate a booming crash.

One of our community partners, Foundry10, is hosting a hip hop dance competition later this month!

As all you old school TeenTixers know, Pacific Northwest Ballet's wildly popular Nutcracker ballet is the only PNB show all year that is not TeenTix eligible. However, because they love us so much, PNB always puts aside a little stash of TeenTix tickets for one Nutcracker performance each year. It is an amazing, annual tradition that draws teens from far and wide. You won't want to miss it.

And this year, there's a new Nutcracker in town. PNB’s production of George Balanchine's Nutcracker features all new sets and costumes designed by children’s author and illustrator Ian Falconer (Olivia the Pig). This year's TeenTix-able Nutcracker show is Sunday, December 27th, 2015 at 5:30 PM.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to go to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Emergence. The program featured four contrasting pieces, each of which were incredibly unique, and brought a different tonality to the theater.

To begin the program, the curtain opened up to a piece titled Sum Stravinsky choreographed by Kiyon Gaines, that made its world premiere in 2012. I found it to be an excellent way to introduce the program. It is exactly what one imagines when they think of ballet–while the following pieces were extraordinarily unique and contemporary. The set and costumes are composed of shades of blue, and have a sort of delicacy to them. The dancers movements feel newly classic and youthful. I got a sense of innocence and nostalgia watching this piece.

A classic work of art, Swan Lake is heartrending and technically complex, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet is well up to the challenge of this amazing performance. With music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who also composed The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, as well as complementary choreography by Kent Stowell, this is a masterful, well-choreographed, and well-rehearsed performance.

Carla Körbes is stunning in the dual role of Odette, the swan’s princess, and Odile, the daughter of the villainous Baron von Rothbart. This is also one of her last performances with PNB, as she is retiring at the end of the season. Körbes' lines and control of her body are sensual and breathtaking. She makes holding an on-pointe arabesque for more than 15 seconds look like the easiest thing in the world. She makes even the hardest moves look easy.

Splurge Land sets an unfortunately familiar scene: a contemporary house party. It could be a no-parents-home situation, a typical Friday night in college, or just some young adults trying to have a good time. There’s smoking, drinking, body-flaunting, Instagramming, a bag of chips, loud electronic music, and—of course—dancing.

Kate Wallich/The YC dance through the late-night narrative of the post-net generation, one whose good times appear all the better because there are hashtagged photos to prove it. Yet, there’s an ominous feeling to Splurge Land that never quite goes away. The supposed fun never surpasses the bleak means of trying for it.

Is the cold winter weather getting you down? Well, Pacific Northwest Ballet has provided the perfect solution. Take a trip to warm, sunny Barcelona with PNB’s Don Quixote. The production, choreographed by world-famous choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, captures the passion of Spain with an undertone of Russian classicism.

Based on Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s literary masterpiece Don Quixote, the ballet is an energetic spectacle that draws out laughter from the very beginning. Although entitled Don Quixote, the Don (and his portly sidekick Sancho Panza) plays a minimal part in the action aside from his journey to find his true love, Dulcinea. The majority of the plot follows the escapades of Kitri, a feisty Spanish girl, and Basilio, her lover, around Barcelona in escape from Kitri’s father, who wants her to marry the ridiculous, but wealthy, Gamache.

What better way to celebrate the holiday season than to see Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of Sendak and Stowell’s Nutcracker? It is truly a one-of-a-kind show that the entire family can enjoy.

The classic is brought to life with vivid backdrops and bright ruffled dresses that transport the audience straight to Nuremburg to find festivities in full swing on Christmas Eve in the Stahlbaum home.

The show starts off with a bang — or rather, with a timpani. With the glittering curtain still down, the sound of Tchaikovsky soars from the orchestra pit and fills the concert hall. Then the curtain lifts and more then a dozen dancers come into view. As they leap and twirl across the stage, the dancers, dressed in sparkly bodices and flowing green skirts, truly become jewels.

Jewels at Pacific Northwest Ballet doesn’t set out to tell a story. When it premiered in 1967, George Balanchine’s Jewels became the first full-length plotless ballet and its three parts — “Emeralds,” “Rubies,” and “Diamonds” — are linked only by their jewel-toned costumes.

If a magical fairy came up and dumped fairy dust TNT on your favorite childhood storybooks, you’d have Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of Giselle. With swirling romance, fierce jealousy, and stage effects to make every person “Ooh” and “Ahh,” you’ll be wondering how PNB pulled off this magical classic.

The story of Giselle is short and sweet: Rich guy likes girl. They fall in love. She finds out he’s rich. She dies from shock and becomes a ballerina zombie. And a bunch of sad stuff happens. PNB manages to turn this simple story into an elegant and captivating performance worthy of the word “beautiful” in every sense.

The story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is complex. There are kings and queens, fairies, multiple love stories, magic spells, and a character whose head is replaced with that of a donkey’s. As if reading Shakespeare’s own original work wasn’t difficult enough, Pacific Northwest Ballet has taken on the fanciful tale in an even more challenging way: wordlessly. With music by Felix Mendelssohn and choreography by George Balanchine, the PNB company manages to share the Bard’s mystical comedy through ballet.

Act one begins in a forest of dreams. The elaborate set of this production is astounding. At times the forest is full is luscious pink roses and ballerinas portraying fairies and butterflies dance below them. A giant green tree frog watches over the forest dwellers. Of course, a magic flower, which causes anyone sprinkled with its pollen to fall in love with the next person they see, grows in a world like this.

The most common excuses my friends give me when I ask them to accompany me to the ballet are the following: “It’s too long!” “I never understand what’s going on!” “It’s boring!”

But Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Pinocchio is the perfect beginner’s performance to gain an appreciation for ballet. Only running a little over an hour, it eliminates the inevitable fidgeting that often accompanies long periods of sitting. Pinocchio opens with a colorful set and costumes transporting you to a circus-like atmosphere in which you quickly forget you are indeed at the ballet. Pinocchio tells the classic childhood fairytale with upbeat music, humor and, of course, energetic and remarkable dancing (which is the real treat of coming to the ballet).

Picture a stage. Picture a baroque-inspired set with tall pillars and marble sets. Purple, blue, and green lighting illuminates purple, blue, and green-dressed dancers as the curtain rises, giving everything a slightly ethereal look. The music swells. The dance begins.

So starts Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of Tchaikovsky's iconic The Sleeping Beauty. A three-act ballet (with an additional prologue) based on the famous fairy tale, The Sleeping Beauty is a paragon of ballet.

The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute welcomes breakers from across the Northwest Region to battle in a unique competition. Each b-boy/b-girl will be randomly paired with a partner the day of the event and then have to dance with that partner to proceed through the rounds. Each dancer will be given a cash amount for participating that they'll then wager in their battles, with bets eventually adding up to their prize for winning.

​The Northwest Royale 2014: 2-on-2 Breaking Tournament Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute February 8, 5 - 10 p.m.