Daily Dance Break: Dance in the Wild – After the Rain

In terms of outdoor dance, this one is a doozy. We’ve got San Francisco Ballet Principals Damian Smith and Yuan Yuan Tan performing Christopher Wheeldon’s gorgeous After the Rain on the ocean at sunset. Does it get better? Shouldn’t every dance be performed on the ocean at sunset? Portland audiences may recognize this piece from […]

Daily Dance Break: Dance in the wild – Pina Bausch

This entire week, OBT is in Director Park in downtown Portland for OBT Exposed. The whole week is entirely free and open to the public. In honor of OBT Exposed, we are featuring a week of outdoor performance videos. It feels like the dancer in this Pina Bausch video is dancing at the end of […]

Daily Dance Break: Dance in the wild

This week OBT is breaking out of the studio walls and set up shop in the middle of downtown Portland for OBT Exposed. The whole week is entirely free and open to the public. OBT Exposed gives you the chance to see the daily lives of our company dancers – from class, to rehearsal to […]

Daily Dance Break: Christmas in July – Matthew Bourne’s “Waltz of the Flowers”

Remember how we talked about all the variety in different versions of the Nutcracker yesterday? Well there is a little more variety headed this way. Often the second act of The Nutcracker takes place in the land of sweets – and Matthew Bourne’s production goes one step further and drops the “Waltz of the Flowers” […]

Daily Dance Break: Christmas in July – Bolshoi Ballet

One of the best things about The Nutcracker is that it comes in all different forms. While the music (usually) stays the same, each region and culture adds their own special touch to the holiday classic. Today we have the Bolshoi Ballet performing what we call the “Arabian Coffee” solo in the George Balanchine Nutcracker. […]

Daily Dance Break: Christmas in July – “Nutcracker:The Motion Picture”

Here is a scene from Act I of Nutcracker: The Motion Picture, a film version of the ballet created by Kent Stowell (founder of Pacific Northwest Ballet and father of our own Artistic Director Christopher Stowell). The production was designed by the author and illustrator Maurice Sendak who is probably most famous for his children’s […]

Daily Dance Break: Christmas in July – Kirkland & Baryshnikov

We’re continuing our Christmas in July celebration in honor of OBT’s Korean summer tour to perform George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker in Seoul and Buson. Today we have Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland in the 1977 Nutcracker video which often plays on public television during the holidays. Has the grand pas de deux ever been more […]

Daily Dance Break: Christmas in July – Mark Morris’ “The Hard Nut”

What’s that you say? It’s too early for the holidays? Not at OBT! In just a few weeks, the dancers will leave for our second annual South Korean summer tour to perform George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker in Seoul and Buson. So when OBT takes over Director Park next week for OBT Exposed, the company will […]

Goodbye to Seoul

The last performance of our run here in Seoul was yesterday afternoon, so we are officially done with our engagment here and are about to head back home to Portland. What an incredible experience this has been. From the sights and sounds of a foreign city to the culture, food, currency and most importantly, the […]

Free Day and Back to Work

Monday was our day off here in Seoul, so in preparation a group of us went out dancing on Sunday night after the show to a club called “Noise Basement 2,” and that’s basically what it was. It was a fun night, but I got in around 4 am, so I chose to rest on […]