By Kai Curry
Northwest Asian Weekly
Angelica Generosa dancing with Dylan Wald in a prior performance of Carmina Burana. (Image courtesy of PNB)
The 2022/2023 season marks Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB)’s 50th year on stage in Seattle. The Weekly spoke with co-founders and former artistic directors, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, as well as principal dancer, Angelica Generosa, about the season opener, “Carmina Burana,” and its famous set designer, Ming Cho Lee.
PNB started in 1972 as part of the Seattle Opera. Stowell and Russell, a married couple, separated the Ballet from the Opera—although there continues to be tight collaboration—and in 1993, PNB moved to Seattle Center and McCaw Hall.
The first production in the new building was “Carmina Burana.” At that time, PNB faced a lot of pressure after years spent building the new facility.
“What is this going to do for the ballet? Are you going to do better performances? What do you say to that?” Stowell recalled people asking.
“What we said was that the visibility of the new building…is a symbol of acceptance and appreciation.”
They knew they needed to have one heck of a season and so Stowell decided on “Carmina” and “Cinderella,” two crowd-pleasing, elaborate, and difficult productions.
PNB co-founders and prior artistic directors, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell (Photo by Elaine Thompson/AP)
“It was all about money, money, money, which it had to be, and Kent said, ‘When we get back in there, we’ve got to make everybody turn around and look at the stage and watch the dancers,’” elaborated Russell, who danced in New York City with George Balanchine for 50 years. “‘Carmina’ is one of those pieces of music…that many choreographers try to tackle and oftentimes they take bits and pieces from it, mostly modern choreographers, and I thought, this is a big, lusty piece of bravura music and I’ve got to make it big and spectacular,” said Stowell. His choreography of ‘Carmina’ became well-known, along with its set by Lee. It was a way to bring more people in to see the ballet, by attracting the opera and musical worlds as well.
“After COVID, people coming back to the theater want communication,” Russell commented. PNB’s rendition of Carmina is unique for its joining of symphony, opera, and ballet, and how they are combined. Thanks to Lee’s audacious design, the choir hangs above the dancers, as does a giant ‘wheel of fortune’ designed by Lee, who Russell called the “Dean of American Theatrical Design.”
“Kent and Ming did five…full-length ballets together,” Russell recalled.
“It was a great collaboration, personally as well, and certainly professionally.” Kent continued, “Part of our hopeful profile was not just presenting great ballets but great art on the stage…The ballets that Ming did were all beautiful sets, all wonderfully conceived, and spectacular to look at.”
Born in Shanghai, Lee came to the United States in 1949, and was a professor at Yale. He won a Tony Award in 1983 and a lifetime achievement Tony in 2013. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts. His sets appeared on Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, and around the country.
“[His designs] are unique. They’re not like anyone else,” Russell said.
“Each ballet…they don’t look like the same designer. They’re so different. He listens to the music and he talks to the choreographer and it comes out gradually as a completely unique whole.”
Stowell and Francia remembered Lee, who passed in 2020, as being “quiet and gentle” with “no histrionics,” but also “very sure of what he thought.”
When Lee, who worked closely with his wife, Betsy, suggested the wheel for “Carmina,” it required a giant pole to be erected in the center of the stage.
Stowell thought, “Oh my gosh, how do I choreograph a 50-minute ballet around this pole?” With the help of a stagehand, PNB figured out how to raise and tilt the wheel, and now, it is one of the most striking aspects of the ballet, along with the unforgettable music by Carl Orff and bold choreography, which the dancers imbue with spirit and bravado.
Carmina Burana as presented by the Pacific Northwest Ballet (Image from PNB)
“Carmina” is one of three pieces being performed together for this season opener, from Sept. 23 through Oct. 2. Also on the stage is a world premiere by Alexei Ratmansky in support of Ukraine, called “Wartime Elegy,” and a PNB and Balanchine standard, “Allegro Brillante,” featuring dancers Jonathon Batista and Angelica Generosa.
PNB under Stowell and Russell, and up to today, has made a point of supporting diversity in its hiring practices. Russell worked with the Shanghai Ballet and brought two dancers back with her at that time. Also, Li Hengda, who now has his own school in Bellevue, was a major PNB dancer. Generosa, originally from New Jersey, was recruited by current artistic director, Peter Boal, after her graduation from American School of Ballet—where she happened to dance “Allegro Brillante” as her graduation piece. “It’s kind of a full circle for me,” she shared.
PNB principal dancer Angelica Generosa (Image from PNB)
Generosa remembered that finding a job on the East Coast wasn’t easy—and it was due to her ethnicity. Her parents came from the Philippines.
“I’ve had my fair share of [discrimination]. At a young age, I didn’t know. I knew my parents knew of it, but of course when you love something so much in the arts, you think that a lot of things are already accepting,” but this was not the case. “The main reason why I didn’t get hired was because of my appearance. They said, I just ‘didn’t blend in’ or they had their quota of how many [people of color] they needed.”
Generosa tried to deal with it on her own, but it made her question herself and it was hurtful. “Where should I be? What should I do? For me at least, and a lot of ballet dancers, we tend to fix things right away, that’s what our careers are…I took those things that were being said and I was like, ‘How do I fix that?’ And then I realized I can’t fix ‘this.’ This is me.”
Generosa experienced a fulfilling sense of being part of a family of dancers when she came to PNB. “I didn’t realize how huge that feeling was of being accepted and appreciated.” Generosa’s love of her craft shows. On stage, her movements are full of élan. She is poised as a butterfly delicately touching down on the ripples of a pond one after the other. The entire production from start to finish goes down without a hitch, with dancers, singers, and musicians giving their all.
When Generosa first danced in “Carmina,” it was as an apprentice at PNB 11 years ago. “To see a choir above the dancers and to hear opera singers alongside the dancing, and this amazing score … I was like, ‘What is this? This is so cool. I’ve never seen anything like this before.’ … It felt like a community. … There’s so much power in that. It’s amazing.”
“Carmina” runs through Oct. 2. For tickets and information about PNB’s 2022-2023 season, visit pnb.org/season.
Kai can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.