EDMONDS — Audiences who attend Olympic Ballet Theatre’s Spring Program on March 28 will see the company’s top ballerinas in performance along with talented dancers from Pacific Northwest Ballet and Spectrum Dance Theater.
“Much work goes into our productions and all of our students are very serious,” said director Mara Sachiko Vinson. “The Spring Program is not a ballet recital for recreational dancers.”
Indeed.
Olympic Ballet Theatre, like PNB, has a ballet school, but it has become a professional-level mainstay of performing arts in Snohomish County, with previous programs at the Everett Performing Arts Center and Arlington’s Byrnes Performing Arts Center, as well as the Edmonds Center for the Arts, where the company performs most often.
Vinson and her fellow director Oleg Gorboulev, both former PNB dancers, have students who travel from as far away as Bellingham each day to dance with Olympic Ballet. The Edmonds-based school is producing alumni now employed in professional companies across the country.
Gorboulev and Vinson regularly invite professionals to perform with Olympic. The teenage corps de ballet dance in professional costumes and against professional sets, often accompanied by a live orchestra.
The mixed repertoire program Saturday, offered in matinee and evening performances in Edmonds, includes two Olympic Ballet premieres, one classical and one contemporary. As Vinson says, there is something for everyone to enjoy.
The new modern work, “Nyman,” is choreographed by Gorboulev. It honors the minimalist composer Michael Nyman. The ballet has five energetic acts.
Soloists are Madelyn Koch and Alex Cozier from Spectrum. The dancers most recently were seen in the 5th Avenue Theatre production of “Carousel.” Koch played Louise and Cozier was the carnival boy.
“Paquita grand pas classique,” choreographed by the great Marius Petipa with lively music by Ludwig Minkus, is a traditional classical ballet. Minkus’ music is an integral part of the ballet repertoire, said Vinson, who directs the “Paquita.”
Soloists in the production are Elizabeth Murphy and Batkhurel Bold from PNB. He is a principal with the company and she is a soloist, and they have danced together before.
It shows.
At a rehearsal earlier this month at the Olympic Ballet Theatre studio, Murphy and Bold ran through their parts with the Olympic ballerinas.
With only a cursory knowledge of the choreography at that point, the soloists were spectacular and it seemed to some of the Olympic dancers that Murphy and Bold just pulled it out of their hats.
“It’s really wonderful to have other artists come to dance with us,” said Olympic student Jennifer Chin, 16, of Lynnwood. “Their expertise, flexibility and talent are so fantastic.”
The Olympic studio, while light-filled with views of the Olympic Mountains, is not nearly wide enough for the likes of Bold’s big leaps or lifts. Murphy’s hands almost hit some ceiling beams as she rode on Bold’s shoulders.
Chin said she can’t wait to see the duo in action on stage at the Edmonds Center for the Arts on Saturday.
Gorboulev and Vinson aren’t dancing in this program, but they continue to perform and inspire their students.
“We had great training,” said Vinson, who, for example, studied the Vaganova method with Kirov Ballet superstar Alla Sizova, the preferred dancer partner of the legendary Rudolf Nureyev. “It would be a shame not to pass that on.”
Chin said she is grateful for her training at Olympic Ballet School, where she has studied since age 7.
“Mara is a mentor and a role model,” Chin said.
Vinson said she and Gorboulev try to stay encouraging in class and in rehearsal.
“We have grown close with our students and have taken some of them to international ballet competitions,” she said. “Our programs give our dancers and our audiences a glimpse of the world of professional ballet.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
Olympic Ballet Theatre’s Spring Program, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 Fourth Ave. N., Edmonds. Tickets: Go to www.olympicballet.com/online-ticketing or call 425-774-7570. Prices are $22.50 for children, $32.50 for adults and $27.50 for seniors and students with valid ID.
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