All Tharp

Last night, Hotness and I attended the first ballet of this year's season of performances.
The night's program was titled "All Tharp" in reference to ballet and dance choreographer, Twyla Tharp, who had come up with two specially commisioned works for Pacific Northwest Ballet this year.

First up was: Opus 111
This was set to a piece of music for string quartet by Brahms, and was sort of a 'modern-classical' style. Lots of flowing movement amongst the dancers, and colorful simple costumes.
We both enjoyed this one for what it was; a simple display of grace and movement. There was no "story" behind this, so it was purely a visual treat to watch.

There was a brief intermission and then we had the next piece: Afternoon Ball
This was a complete contrast to the previous piece we just watched, in that the music was more driving and intense, the costumes were more current and the movements were very quirky and 'angular'.
Again, no real story behind this piece other than it was just a dance performed by 5 different people. However, watching it gave everyone a chance to interpret it in their own way.
As Hotness and I were talking about it afterwards, we had each percieved the performance from a different perspective.
We both really enjoyed this one and hope to see it again in future PNB seasons.

Both of these pieces were specially choreographed for Seattle's own ballet company, so nobody else in the world has seen them performed yet. They were quite a treat and highly recommended!



The last performance was one that PNB has done before: Nine Sinatra Songs
(technically, it was 8 Sinatra songs, since one of them was played twice... but who's counting, right?)
This is quite simply exactly what is sounds like. Different songs by the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra.
They were ballet interpretations of 50's era dance-styles, each to a different song.

This was very well received the last time the company did this (back in '06) and was rewarded with thunderous applause again this year.
It's a fun piece and very much worth going to see.

The "All Tharp" performance plays through Oct. 5th in Seattle at the McCaw Hall.

Local reviews: Seattle P-I, KUOW 94.9 FM, Seattle Times
_______________________________________________

Afterwards, we met up with Elwood and his wife at Pomodoro for late night nibbles and coffee.
We hadn't been since our last ballet for the previous season (back in June).
It was fun to see them and although it didn't seem like it, we were there for about 3 hours eating and talking and just having a really nice time.

Thanks again for meeting us there you two, and it's definitely our turn next time!