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In case you missed it, here is the link to Artistic Director Christopher Stowell’s profile article in Sunday’s Oregonian.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Why all the Balanchine and Robbins works in OBT’s repertoire?” Stowell says. “I think that these choreographers did so much to define and advance ballet in America that any company that aspires to a high level must perform their greatest works as central to the canon of this art form. Audiences deserve to see them, in the same way that classical music audiences deserve to hear Beethoven and Mozart.”

Still, OBT is anything but a museum company. Stowell has created eight world premieres for the company, and he’s commissioned new work from in-demand choreographers like Nicolo Fonte, Yuri Possokhov and Christopher Wheeldon, arguably the most sought-after dance maker in the world.

West says Stowell should be commended for taking risks with young and sometimes inexperienced choreographers, and that his background and relationships have helped him improve the programming at OBT.

“I think it needs to be said that Stowell has been able to program stuff Canfield couldn’t because of the connections he developed during his long career as a dancer with San Francisco Opera Ballet and his pedigree,” West says. “Kent and Francia were both in the New York City Ballet and directed Pacific Northwest Ballet for close to three decades. This gave (Stowell) contacts that enabled him to program three Robbins ballets, Paul Taylor’s ‘Company B,’ three works by Christopher Wheeldon, who is a friend, even an Ashton ballet and a ton of Balanchine.”

Read the whole article here.