Catching up with Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal

Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal commented on "Caught" in an e-mail interview from Salt Lake City, where he's staging Ulysses Dove's "Red Angels" for Ballet West:

Q: What drew you to bring "Caught" to PNB?

A: "Caught" is thrilling for an audience and challenging for a dancer. It also defies preconceived notions about ballet, making it perfect for PNB now.

Q: How many other companies have staged it? Otto Neubert mentioned that its creator, David Parsons, is "possessive" about the piece.

A: Otto is right. Very few companies are given permission to do "Caught." Jaime [former associate artistic director of Parsons Dance Company Jaime Martinez] says that he knows of about four others.

Q : It almost feels like Houdini sharing the secrets of his trade for Parsons to reveal how "Caught" is done to other dance companies. The dancers did mention that the way they get their strobe-light cues onstage is "a secret." Can I assume you won't let me in on it? The dancers wouldn't.

A: Who knew our dancers could keep a secret? Well ... I'm not going to be the first to tell.

Michael Upchurch,

Seattle Times staff reporter