Pacific Northwest Ballet struts its Jerome Robbins stuff

Not only do we get Robbins' droll send-up of the behavior of "high art" types, but also their imaginary lives, inspired and let loose by the music. This leads to some wonderful and bizarre sequences with dancers carried on and off stage as so much baggage, the husband seeking murderous revenge on his wife only to see it backfire, a corps de ballet with someone always out of synch, and the cigar chomper, now turned into a butterfly like some 19th century Romantic-era ballerina with her little wings, leading everyone in a whacked out big ballet war horse ending.

Everything flies by quickly, some things no more than brief and inspired stage crossings by a performer or two. The PNB dancers seem to be having a ball with it all.

What's blissful about The Concert is that we can see all of Robbins under one roof - musical theater genius, master of ballet, lover of natural movement, vaudevillian, and modernist. Perhaps the most stunning segment of all has groupings and regroupings of dancers under umbrellas moving around the stage until all are crowded under the one remaining open bumbershoot. Simple, inspired, and poignant, this is elegant choreography without need for dance technique, one facet of the genius that was Robbins.

The third work on this all-Robbins evening was In the Night set to Chopin nocturnes. Choreographed in 1970, it was made early in Robbins' last stage of creative activity when he retired from musical theater and returned to work exclusively for New York City Ballet. In the Night has three couples depicting various stages of romantic love. Most notable for their performance were Arianna Lallone and Stanko Milov. Austere, elegant, fully engaged, and costumed in beautiful shades of gold and brown, they artfully evoked the late autumn of years spent together.

It is welcome news that PNB plans to premiere two more Jerome Robbins works next season, Dances at a Gathering, and West Side Story Suite, a re-staging of Robbins' dances from that epic musical. How nice to think that in place of one of their post-concert discussions, PNB might treat their audiences to a lesson in the mambo.

"All Robbins" continues at Pacific Northwest Ballet through June 8.