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Jay Gower Taylor

Fall for Dance Festival 2023: Program 1

October 2, 2023

Ballet BC, the Canadian-based modern ballet company, began the program with 'The Statement," Crystal Pite’s witty take on a boardroom meeting, a corporate boardroom meeting full of intrigue and tension. Jay Gower Taylor’s slick set made the ballet with its chic, but spare conference table over which hung an ominous large, chimney-like structure, all lit with sharpness by Tom Visser. There wasn’t much of a musical score, just some rumblings by Owen Belton, over which a mini-play by Jonathon Young, pitting two couples against each other—one in business casual and the other more formally attired (costumes by Pite and Joke Visser)—became the sound score to which the dancers moved. The actors speaking the lines were Meg Roe, Colleen Wheeler, Andrew Wheeler and Jonathon Young, himself.  The stylish, nimble dancers were Patrick Kilbane, Sarah Pippin, Vivian Ruiz and Rae Srivastava. [more]

Pacific Northwest Ballet 2022

June 25, 2022

For the company’s director, Peter Boal, this short season was a homecoming of sorts.  He was a principal dancer in the New York City Ballet which calls the David H. Koch its artistic home.  He left seventeen years ago and, since 2005, has been the PNB’s artistic director. Boal should have put more thought into the ballets he brought, at least those on Program A.  Only one of three had heart and emotional depth and was gimmick-free.  All three works by established choreographers showed off different facets of the skilled dancers.  [more]