One legacy of Balanchine is evidenced in the major ballet companies headed by former Balanchine dancers. These include: the New York City Ballet with founders Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine, and then Peter Martins, Jonathan Stafford, Wendy Whelan; San Francisco Ballet, with the Christenson brothers at the helm (Lew Christenson had joined George Balanchine’s new company, American Ballet, in 1935; the company was later headed by Helgi Tómasson); Joffrey Ballet (Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey had studied under Balanchine at the School of American Ballet); and, the Pacific Northwest Ballet (co-founded and -directed by Francia Russell and Kent Stowell, and later, Peter Boal).

Peter Boal is almost 20 years into the artistic directorship of PNB, and with the challenging and innovative programs he’s created, many dancers have had great success. The kind of dancing on the all-Balanchine November program exemplifies the pristeen style, strong physicality, and telling emotion we’re used to seeing from the company.

The high-spirited Square Dance is a marriage of classical moves and folk motifs that demands a lot of power. Leta Biasucci and Kyle Davis dazzle in the role of lead couple, literally (at times) pulling in the other spry couples. The piece is characterized by pirouettes that open into expansive arabesque, intricate folk-like footwork, a lot of pointe, and sumptuous turns. Both Biasucci and Davis are musical, dancing a little behind the beat as if to tease the audience, graciously making all the work look so easy—a tangle of Balanchine arms, a deliberate adagio. Biasucci danced with meticulous developé on pointe. Davis’s lifts show her to be floating, her limbs, weightless, beautifully placed.

Balanchine’s 1929 Prodigal Son is one of his oldest ballets to survive (after Apollo in 1928). It’s wildly creative, and full of possibility, emotional and unpredictable, erotic, symbolic. It’s the ballet that catapulted Edward Villella into stardom, and gave Baryshnikov a role worthy of the dramatic characters of which he was capable. In the November program, Lucien Postlewaite brilliantly played the Prodigal Son, with Elle Macy, his edgy Siren, to soaring, emotive music. Postlewaite’s high kicks are spectacular, as is the melodrama he creates. Macy is like an imposing goddess—precise with her feet, enchanting with her upper body.  Postlewaite and Macy are singularly impressive, throwing themselves into the hedonistic tale.

Stravinsky Violin Concerto was created as part of the 1972 Stravinsky Festival, and even today, it represents one of the largest challenges—both physical and cerebral—in the Balanchine repertory. And yet, it’s precisely that challenge that is inviting. Francia Russell is known to have referred to it as “one of the Balanchine works [dancers] would kill to be in.”

Couples Christopher D’Ariano and Elle Macy, and Angelica Generosa and Dylan Wald showed immense skill. Macy is gripping, seeming to dance over the movement and with unwavering focus. D’Ariano is captivating, telling a story like few can. Nothing is random or gratuitous in his moves. Generosa is a huge presence, mastering every movement, small and large, while Wald is enthralling in everything he does, a powerhouse. Other couplings of note were Luther DeMyer and Amanda Morgan, and Jonathan Batista and Clara Ruf Maldonado. Shout out, too, to violin soloists on this program: Michael Jinsoo Lim, Jennifer Caine Provine, Rita Lee, Emilie Choi.