Ballet Northwest’s “Pas De Deux”

Originally published on social media on February 24th, 2024

As I sit here trying to find the words to express everything (still in my heels and dress), I feel speechless in the most peaceful way…delightfully enchanted.

There were six principal dancers from the Pacific Northwest Ballet who so generously came to Seattle, and I am so very glad I got to see @jameskirbyrogers again because he is genuinely the most talented dancer I’ve ever seen.

The performance was split in two acts, each with three pas de deux from famous ballets. A pas de deux is my favorite part of a ballet because the intimacy, vulnerability, dare I say romance, is felt. From my understanding, the choreography in a pas de deux is designed to make it appear as if the dancers are revealing the deepest part of their souls to one another. With that said, I think ballet dancers deserve more credit and recognition than they get. What they can do with their bodies is amazing, but I think their acting capabilities can be equally incredible. A ballet dancer’s facial expression can convey so much, and I’m genuinely impressed by the dancers who know how to harness this emotional intelligence. So much more goes into ballet than meets the eye, and the dancers did an amazing job making everything look natural and easy.

One other amazing thing about ballet dancers: their ability to perform through their own mistakes or things out of their control. At one point, random jazz music cut into one of the pas de deux, and it was clearly a technical error. The dancers were flawless through all of it …. I was impressed, I certainly would have gotten flustered or distracted.

Seeing pas de deux from Giselle, Swan Lake, and Don Quixote was medicine to my soul, and equally wonderful was being introduced to ballets I had never heard of before.

After the performance there was a Q & A with some of the dancers, and I was eager to ask my favorite dancer a question. The funny part was…I had no idea what to ask. Finally, I came up with something and used my 20 seconds of insane courage to ask the question: “what keeps you going on bad days?” Not only did I appreciate the ballet dancers answers, but I appreciated how honest and kind they were.

Humanity is beautiful.