“People Like a Little Glamour”

  Lifelong musical theatre geek Claire Willett interviews Christopher Stowell about her all-time favorite work in the OBT rep: Stowell’s sparkling, sexy, witty Cole Porter ballet Eyes On You. Christopher Stowell. Photo by Joni Kabana. What inspired Eyes On You?  How did you come up with the idea? Well, the practical reason was doing something […]

Gargouillade and Entrechat: the Filigree Footwork of Square Dance

by Linda Besant“More steps per minute than any other show in town,” said dance writer Nancy Reynolds of Square Dance. For fifty years, audiences have been wowed by this non-stop ballet: “Tempos that could only be called lickety-split.” (Manchester, 1958)  “Filigree footwork that requires the most astonishing technical dexterity.” (Kaplan, 1988) “The speed of the […]

Your Daily Dance Break: Yo Yo Ma and Lil Buck

It seems we are not the only ones creating a little classical/hip hop fusion. Check out this extraordinary video of famed cellist Yo Yo Ma collaborating with hip hop dance artist Lil Buck on a brief improvised performance piece. We present this in honor of our sister organization Portland Center Stage’s opening night performance of […]

Why Do We Do What We Do?

Thanks so much to everyone who helped to make Saturday Night’s Moveable Feast Gala such a success! If you weren’t able to join us, take a moment to check out this short video sharing why we do what we do… If you would like to contribute to OBT’s Education and Outreach opportunities, please contact Emily […]

Yoga and Ballet: Finding the flow in Left Unsaid

By OBT Historian Linda Besant Are Locusts and Downward Facing Dogs a regular part of your life? If so, then you won’t want to miss seeing Left Unsaid in OBT’s “Song and Dance” program that opens April 21st. Choreographer Nicolo Fonte is a devoted practitioner of Iyengar yoga, and his ballet is rich with artistically […]

Nicolo Fonte Discusses Left Unsaid with Dance Magazine

(Anne Mueller, Artur Sultanov, Brian Simcoe and Steven Houser in Nicolo Fonte’s Left Unsaid. Photo by Blaine Truitt Covert) Wendy Perrin from Dance Magazine recently sat down with choreographer Nicolo Fonte to discuss his approach to choreography and his current most popular work, Left Unsaid, which will be presented as part of our spring program, […]

Daily Dance Break: Sand Painting

Your Daily Dance Break: In honor of Anne’s “sand ninja” blog post, a mesmerizing sand painting performance. The way the artist shapes the sand to music is like watching a choreographed dance… don’t you think?

The Life and times of Anne Mueller Part Five: “It Was like Being a Ninja”

OBT staff members Linda Besant and Claire Willett sat down with Principal Dancer Anne Mueller (who retires from the stage and transitions to our artistic staff in May) to interview her about her life and career. Over the next few days we’ll be sharing with you some of her stories and anecdotes – from her […]

Daily Dance Break: A Different Kind of Street Dance Battle

Here’s a little taste of the kind of street dance battles that are referenced in Trey McIntyre’s Speak, which is part of our Song & Dance program opening April 20th.

Six Degrees of Cole Porter

By Claire Willett Cole Porter “Six Degrees of Separation” is a statistical theory model which suggests that every human being on earth is connected to every other human being on earth through no more than six other people. That is beyond the scope of this undertaking, so we’re going to stick with its far-less-weighty spinoff, […]