In 2006, Christopher Stowell had been at the helm of OBT for only three seasons, but he felt the time was already right. Portlanders were eagerly watching as their resident ballet company swiftly grew in scale and scope, and saw its artistic focus shift. Stowell knew it was the perfect moment to define OBT’s role… Read More

Dancers know from the very beginning that they will have two lives: the first comprises the highly focused—some call it tunnel vision— years of training and performing, and then comes Part 2, which begins the day after the curtain falls on their final performance. The closure of the first mega-chapter of a dancer’s life brings… Read More

“I love problems. Love them!” says Lauren Lovette. “The more the better. I’m kind of always in a state of curiosity. I love pushing my brain into new ideas. That’s just my personality and how I like to live.” Lauren’s emergence as a leading force in the dance world has been powered, in part, by… Read More

Frank Andersen estimates that he’s staged and produced La Sylphide more than 20 times around the globe, from Europe to North America and South America to Asia. And yet for him, the process is far from routine. “The steps are the same, the mime is the same, the story is the same. But the process… Read More

Oregon Ballet Theatre’s beloved principal dancer Xuan Cheng will make her farewell performances as Sylphide with long time partner Brian Simcoe in the role of James. After 10 years, she departs for Hong Kong Ballet where she will take the dual role of principal dancer and ballet mistress. Xuan joined OBT in 2011 under then… Read More