Brian's Grand Allegro

I may have "retired" from performing with OBT, but not from blogging!

Several people have asked for video clips of us in class. I never seemed to get it together to actually shoot any, until the perfect opportunity arose about a week and a half ago during one of my very last company classes. Brian Simcoe has one of the most beautiful grand jetes I've ever seen a man do, and when Lisa asked him to do the grand allegro one more time (for our viewing pleasure), the oohs and ahhs of delight were audible. Check it out for yourself!

OBT loves Cirque!

OBT was recently invited behind the scenes of Cirque de Soleil's KOOZA. You may have seen the massive tent driving over the Ross Island bridge. Adam Miller is the artistic director of this Cirque show, and is also a former principal dancer with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and a friend to both Christopher Stowell and our ballet master Lisa Kipp.

On Wednesday we cancelled our afternoon rehearsals for a field trip to the circus. Upon arrival we met up with Adam and Mike, the main dancer of Kooza, who's been taking company class with us each morning. We took a tour of the grounds where we learned that this particular Cirque show packs up into 60 trucks and hits the road for months at a time. After three more weeks in Portland they will be hitting the road for Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary and then onto Miami. We loved the behind the scenes tour of the tent and enjoyed attending the show this past Wednesday night.

Here are some photos of our field trip. I had to include all of them.

OBT loves Cirque. See if you can catch them while they're still in town.

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/kooza/tickets/portland.aspx

The Celebration of Gavin Larsen

I snagged a photo of Gavin's final curtain call this afternoon. It was beautiful to be a part of. The principal women honored Gavin with a hand-crafted tiara and the men each presented her with a rose, along with countless bouquets, hugs and kisses from the whole company. Flowers flooded the stage from the box seats and the whole house rose to honor this gem of OBT.

OBT Pastry Cart

In honor of Gavin's last class at OBT's SE studios, Alison had the idea to have a pastry cart rolled around class in between barre and center. It's always been an idea of Gavin's to have one in the OBT building, and those croissants certainly did raise spirits and give us the extra energy to get through the rest of class.

Here Gavin serves fellow dancers much needed mid-class sustenance:

The pastry cart was only the first part of the celebration. The celebration of Gavin and her illustrious career continues this afternoon at the Newmark Theater with her farewell performances in Tolstoy's Waltz and Duo Concertant. It has been nothing short of an honor to dance with Gavin over the years, and I look forward to doing so again this afternoon in Tolstoy.

See you at the theater.