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It wasn't always so, but galas are becoming fashionable in Seattle.
For decades, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra did a dinner dance coupled with a fashion show, underwritten by Frederick & Nelson. When the Seattle retail institution changed owners, then died, the annual benefit -- regarded as the opening of the fall social season -- went with it.
For the opening of Benaroya Hall in 1998, a new gala format was born: a performance everyone could attend, along with a post-concert, black-tie dinner/dance, for considerably more money. With lighter-than-air concert fare and famous soloists, the event became a huge hit and has raised considerable money for the orchestra. The season's gala on Saturday night is expected to raise $245,000 gross. The regular subscription season opens Sept. 28.
Since the opening of McCaw Hall in 2003, Pacific Northwest Ballet has followed suit. Its galas have become a hit with audiences as well. They also come with two options: the performance only or performance and post-performance dinner/dance for considerably more money. Like the symphony, the gala raises substantial sums for the ballet, with about $220,000 gross anticipated for its gala on Saturday night. The company's regular subscription season opens Thursday night.
From the standpoint of Peter Boal, entering his second season as PNB artistic director, galas offer audiences "an overview of the season from the front end." He likens them to the company's "Eight Encores," which closed last season in June, a retrospective of his first year in Seattle.
The ballet's opening gala looks at nearly every program the company will be doing in the 2006-07 season. Some works will be danced in full and others in excerpted form. Two are already familiar to PNB audiences. Kent Stowell's "Swan Lake," PNB's calling card for the opening of McCaw Hall, will be performed in February. On Saturday night, some of the most famous bits from the ballet will be danced, among them the White Swan Pas de Deux from Act 2 and the Black Swan Pas de Deux from Act 3. Balanchine's "Theme and Variations," on the company's mixed bill in September, will be performed in its entirety.
There also are glimpses of what will be performed in March, April and May/June. New to the company's already rich repository of ballets of George Balanchine is his "La Sonnambula," first performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in New York in 1946. Originally known as "The Night Shadow," the ballet is based on themes from operas by Vincenzo Bellini, including "La Sonnambula," "I Puritani," "Norma" and "I Capuletti ed i Montecchi." The complete ballet will be danced in March.
For the April evening of mixed repertory, Boal conceived a Celebrate Seattle Festival, offering works of the most famous sons and daughters of the Northwest, including Mark Morris, Robert Joffrey, Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown, as well as others with a local connection. For the gala, several works to be performed at the festival will be danced, including Paul Gibson's "World Premiere," set to music of Philip Glass. Gibson, who came to PNB from San Francisco Ballet, is the company's ballet master, with a natural gift for choreography.
Since the Joffrey Ballet stopped coming to Seattle, the work of the company's founder is almost never seen here. "Remembrances," a pas de deux choreographed in 1973, will be danced. Richard Wagner's "Traume," on which the ballet is set, will be sung by soprano Jane Eaglen. The last work on the program is Robbins' "Circus Polka," a Seattle premiere. It is about four minutes long, set to Igor Stravinsky's "Circus Polka," originally commissioned by the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1942 for a ballet by Balanchine titled "The Ballet of the Elephants."
"I am very pleased about last year and looking forward to the challenges of this year," Boal said. "And I am proud of how willing our audience has been to see new work and accept it and discuss it and sometimes be thrilled by it. Jacob's Pillow (the celebrated festival in Western Massachusetts where the company made its debut in late summer) was a terrific experience. People said our program was the best thing they had seen all year at the Pillow."
The company returns to the East Coast next month for the Fall for Dance Festival at City Center in New York, joining established companies such as Dutch National Ballet, Trisha Brown, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, New York City and American Ballet Theatre along with lesser-known ensembles. PNB will bring a handful of dancers to do Paul Gibson's "Piano Dance." Boal, then a principal at City Ballet, appeared during the festival's inaugural year in a solo.
While connoisseurs may scoff at the Seattle Symphony program Saturday night, the performance is nearly sold out. The program begins with that perennial favorite, the Overture to Rossini's opera "William Tell." In addition, there will be the Triumphal March and Ballet from Verdi's "Aida" and Respighi's "The Pines of the Rome." The soloist for the night is the Chinese pianist Lang Lang in Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini."
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