Louise Nadeau Leaves on a Very High Note

Published June 11, 2009 at 11:30 p.m.

Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer Louise Nadeau in Emeralds, part of George Balanchine's Jewels™, 2009. Photo © Angela Sterling. Photograph from Emeralds, Choreography by George Balanchine, © 1967 The George Balanchine Trust. Last Sunday night ballerina Louise Nadeau said goodbye to her PNB audiences, and the echoes of the event have shown up in the London Financial Times:

The Seattle dance community filled McCaw Hall on June 7 for the farewell performance of Louise Nadeau, principal at Pacific Northwest Ballet for 17 years. The two-and-a-half-hour programme featured 10 excerpts of Nadeau’s favourite roles, plus William Forsythe’s Urlicht, acquired especially for this occasion.

We have come late to the Nadeau appreciation society--after 17 years, that bandwagon has left the station and steamed from the harbor--but it struck us that there was something extraordinary in a 45-year-old ballerina pulling Forsythe's Urlicht out of the hat for a retirement program.

Forsythe used the fourth movement of Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony (sung beautifully here by mezzo soprano Melissa Plagemann)--solemn, sacred music for woodwinds and brass that gives you chills.

Olivier Wevers joined Nadeau, and their pairing proved to be the night's climax. Taut as steel cable, Nadeau transformed herself into a serene architecture--an arched, stayed bridge, with Wevers as the midstream support. He braced his left arm at her back's bend, then slowly added his right--and then incredibly Nadeau offered him an arm, and she was supported solely by that. The audience jack-in-the-boxed out of their seats for the standing ovation.

Much of what is fascinating about ballet to us has to do with the seeming inexhaustible beauty of physical units of trust and relationship; but for that, you need a seemingly inexhaustible artist, which is how Nadeau will remain in our mind's eye. It's encouraging.

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