Pacific Northwest Ballet Deconstructs Balanchine (Faster Times)

Peter Boal and six dancers came to Works and Process, as they have a few times over the last year or so, bringing an illuminating lecture-demonstration on Balanchine’s tweaks to his own ballets. Here’s a link to my piece for The Faster Times.

And a short excerpt:

“One of the most effective devices used by Boal at the lect-dem was that of having two dancers, side by side, performing the same phrases of music, in two slightly different versions. That way, one could truly see—in the starkest terms—the shifts in emphasis, nuance, or in overall feel. The most striking transformation, at least to my eye, was in the “Melancholic” male solo from The Four Temperaments, danced here by Benjamin Griffiths (old version) and Matthew Renko (newer version).”