YOU'RE INVITED TO OUR CLASSICAL COCKTAIL HOUR SERIES

Casual Cocktail Conversations for Serious Music Lovers
Featuring All Classical host Edmund Stone!

Classical Cocktail Hour for American Music Festival will be held at 6:30pm prior to the performance on Friday, April 26th at 7:30pm

Enjoy signature cocktails themed to the night’s composer and dive into the stories behind the music that inspired this season’s ballets at our new Classical Cocktail Hour series.

Find out how Matthew Neenan's At the border gets at the "tiger inside"

"It's pretty aerobic. Twenty sections in sixteen minutes…two lead couples, other couples and trios flying in and out. It's a marathon, non-stop dance, dance, dance." What a great finale for OBT's upcoming American Music Festival. - Read more and see photos from rehearsal

Photo Right: Company Artist Grace Shibley in rehearsal for Matthew Neenan's At the border. Photo by Blaine Truitt Covert.

Learn about Pontus Lidberg's "gentle" process creating his world premiere, Stream

"The first time I see New York-based choreographer Pontus Lidberg, he’s sitting cross-legged on a chair in Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Studio 1, watching his dancers.  He sits completely still, in perfect meditative posture, not speaking.  The dancers are moving in fluid, twirling patterns across the expanse of floor, like ripples in a bubbling brook or leaves gently blown around by the wind.  Sometimes they are woven together in a quilt of clasped wrists and intertwined arms, twisting torsos and delicately balanced limbs, arched backs subtly connecting and then rolling off on their own again." - Read more and see photos from rehearsal

Photo Right: Pontus Lidberg and Soloist Candace Bouchard in rehearsal for the world premiere of Stream. Photo by Blaine Truitt Covert.

Delve into the creation of Trey McIntyre's Robust American Love

In 1998, for one of her first assignments at OBT, Linda Besant wrote, “When we’re in the presence of brilliance, we know it... Born for his art, devoting his life to perfecting it. Trey McIntyre is just such a luminary among makers of dance.” Read Linda's interview wtih Trey McIntyre and discover how Trey chose the music of the Fleet Foxes for this commission, how he named his world premiere, which OBT dancer Trey gave her first major role to in 1997, plus, see a costume rendering

Photo Right: Principal Dancer Alison Roper and Soloist Lucas Threefoot in rehearsal for the world premiere of Trey McIntyre's Robust American Love. Photo by Blaine Truitt Covert.

The connection of indie music to classical ballet

Trey McIntyre's new work, Robust American Love, is choreographed to seven songs by NW Indie Folk band, Fleet Foxes. These lyrics are from the song Helplessness Blues off their most recent record: "I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machine." The peak of ballet is to see a company that exists and acts in unison. Each dancer plays a part in this as they listen, contribute, and respond to the energy around them. - Read more

You can make a night of it at Ruth's Chris Steak House

Looking for a great meal before or after your performance? Make a night of it at Ruth's Chris Steak House.

Dance review: 'American Music Festival' sweeps musical gamut -- and premieres two ballets
"Tightly-paced and musically eclectic, Oregon Ballet Theatre's'American Music Festival' program at the Newmark Theatre sweeps from shimmering instrumentalism to folksy Americana to postmodern piano syncopations. Two world premieres, 'Stream,' a mesmeric pure-dance ballet by Swedish choreographer Pontus Lidberg and 'Robust American Love,' a witty return by former OBT choreographer-in-residence Trey McIntyre, are contemplative and playful by turns. Matthew Neenan's 2009 'At the Border' turns up the volume." - The Oregonian Review, 4/20/13

American song, American violence: OBT’s dance for troubled times Two world premieres and a company premiere reveal the dancers' range
"Pontus Lidberg’s 'Stream,' Trey McIntyre’s'Robust American Love,' and Matthew Neenan’s 'At the border' were made well before the horrific events of recent months: the Newtown school shootings, the Boston bombings, and the weak-kneed failure a few days ago of the United States Senate to pass minimal gun control legislation. Yet each piece, as unveiled Thursday night at the Newmark Theatre in Oregon Ballet Theatre’s American Music Festival, spoke in subtle and not so subtle ways to the country’s current emotional climate – for many of us a roller coaster of grief and fear, hope and helplessness, resignation and resilience. All are quite different, stylistically, musically, and in point of view, but each speaks to the human condition, in this time and in this place." - The Oregon Arts Watch Review, 4/21/13

Oregon Ballet Theatre turns its annual Newmark Theatre visit into an 'American Music Festival'
"With a title like 'American Music Festival,' the spring program from Oregon Ballet Theatre could go in any number of directions: Robert Johnson, Louis Armstrong, Aaron Copland, Hank Williams and all their progeny. There’s no way to cover such a vast territory in a single evening of dance, of course, but there is a fitting variety to the choices OBT and its collaborators have made." - The Oregonian Preview, 4/12/13

ALISON ROPER

ALISON ROPER

MARTINA CHAVEZ

LUCAS THREEFOOT

LUCAS THREEFOOT

XUAN CHENG

JULIA ROWE

XUAN CHENG

ANSA DEGUCHI

JORDAN KINDELL

MICHAEL LINSMEIER

MAKINO HAYASHI

CANDACE BOUCHARD

JAVIER UBELL

ADAM HARTLEY

BRIAN SIMCOE

OLGA KROCHIK

OLGA KROCHIK

YE LI

ADAM HARTLEY

MICHAEL LINSMEIER

MAKINO HAYASHI

CHAUNCEY PARSONS

CHAUNCEY PARSONS

JULIA ROWE

GRACE SHIBLEY

JAVIER UBELL

HAIYAN WU

YANG ZOU

BRETT BAUER

BRETT BAUER

BRETT BAUER

MARTINA CHAVEZ

MARTINA CHAVEZ

MARTINA CHAVEZ

XUAN CHENG

XUAN CHENG

XUAN CHENG

ANSA DEGUCHI

ANSA DEGUCHI

ANSA DEGUCHI

MAKINO HAYASHI

MAKINO HAYASHI

MAKINO HAYASHI

ADAM HARTLEY

ADAM HARTLEY

ADAM HARTLEY

ASHLEY DAWN

OLGA KROCHIK

OLGA KROCHIK

YE LI

YE LI

YE LI

JORDAN KINDELL

MICHAEL LINSMEIER

MICHAEL LINSMEIER

CHAUNCEY PARSONS

CHAUNCEY PARSONS

CHAUNCEY PARSONS

JULIA ROWE

JULIA ROWE

JULIA ROWE

GRACE SHIBLEY

GRACE SHIBLEY

GRACE SHIBLEY

JAVIER UBELL

JAVIER UBELL

JAVIER UBELL

HAIYAN WU

HAIYAN WU

HAIYAN WU