Ballet has a reputation to contend with. Often regarded as expensive, esoteric, and effeminate, ballet has seldom appealed to the masses. But to Christopher Stowell, artistic director of the Oregon Ballet Theatre, ballet needs to be more than a “cultural” experience (a way to feel sophisticated and ease your guilt over the amount of reality television you consume.) That isn’t what ballet is to him, and so it isn’t what he brings to the Oregon Ballet Theatre stage.
The new season at OBT is alive with fairy tales, humor, sexuality, modern music fusion and astonishing athletics. Stowell has planned a season that touches on both traditional performances and modern inspirations. “[We intend] to show ballet’s huge range as an art form. The Holiday Revue, to popular Christmas music, and Lambarena, a blend of African dance and ballet, are miles away from the classical works like Giselle and The Nutcracker.”
Christopher Stowell danced for 16 years with the San Francisco ballet, appearing on stages the world over. Stowell has taught and coached in San Francisco, New York, Japan and Europe, and created works for San Francisco Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Diablo Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet, as well as the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute. He became Oregon Ballet Theatre’s second artistic director in 2003. He took the position intending to meet many goals for the theatre.
Stowell says, “We strive to be in the top tier of ballet companies in the nation. Ballet is a 500-year-old art. We want to honor and sustain the great works of its past, while extending its vitality by commissioning new ballet from the most creative choreographers working today. To do this means we also attract and employ top-tier dancers.”
Stowell adds that these top-tier dancers are Oregon’s own. “OBT is not people from somewhere else passing through to perform for you. OBT is artists in their 20s and 30s, at the peak of their prowess, who live and work in Oregon.”
No particular education level, taste, or background is needed to feel the power of ballet, only an appreciation of the human form and what it can do. According to Stowell, “To be able to enjoy a ballet performance, a person needs to be able to appreciate the inborn beauty of the human body in motion. Dancers, artist/athletes who have trained for years to perfect this beauty, can make your heart leap when they pour out their best effort in service to great music.”
As for being expensive, it all depends on where you sit. Tickets for a Friday night performance, depending on seating, ranges from $16 to $126. Additionally, every show will have a limited number of $10 box seats reserved just for students and military personnel.
“Oregon Ballet Theatre is not TV or the Internet. It is live people performing right in front of you. When someone does really hard things, right there, what you see is what you get. It can’t be edited or photo-shopped.”
For tickets and more information about Oregon Ballet Theatre, go to www.obt.org or call 1-888-922-5538.
