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Originally published June 7, 2009 at 12:00 AM | Page modified June 7, 2009 at 12:05 AM

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Louise Nadeau takes a final bow with PNB

Louise Nadeau is feted at Pacific Northwest Ballet — one last dance before retirement from the company.

Seattle Times arts writer

Dance preview

"A Celebration of Louise Nadeau"

6:30 p.m. today, Pacific Northwest Ballet, McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle; $30-$200 (206-441-2424 or www.pnb.org).

Louise Nadeau highlights

A career marked by grace, lyricism and drama comes to an end at Pacific Northwest Ballet tonight, as principal dancer Louise Nadeau takes the stage for the last time in her 19 years with the company.

A petite, beautifully proportioned ballerina who appears deceptively delicate (an impression that melts away as soon as she starts moving — you realize she has limbs of steel), Nadeau has long been an audience favorite. Her performances feel like the joyous sharing of a gift; as if we collaborate in creating the moment.

Nobody who saw her Odette/Odile in "Swan Lake" will forget the dance — the white swan's delicate preening, the black swan's gleeful, razor-sharp limbs, the contrast between them so marked many may have thought they were seeing two difference dancers. In "La Valse's" dramatic final moments, as the white-clad girl dances with Death, she seemed to shrink before our eyes, being pulled into darkness.

Her comic gifts and happy lightness were shown off in "The Concert" and "Variations Sérieuses"; her remarkable flexibility and control in "Agon" and "Symphony in C"; her ability to tell a story without words in "In the Night."

Tonight she will perform excerpts from "La Valse," "West Side Story Suite" (yes, she sings, too), "Swan Lake" and William Forsythe's "Urlicht," a pas de deux newly acquired for this performance. Her PNB colleagues will dance excerpts from other ballets that Nadeau has made her own: "Emeralds," "Serenade," "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "La Sonnambula," among others.

It should be an emotional farewell to an artist who'll be greatly missed. Time brings all ballerinas, eventually, to one last dance; tonight will be a tribute to one who, on many evenings, was able to make time stand still.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

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Comments (2)
I'm bringing plenty of tissues for tonight. We all cried Friday when she danced the After the Rain pas de deux. I'm going to miss her...  Posted on June 7, 2009 at 10:38 AM by viv. Jump to comment
Oh my goodness, she's just magical on stage. It will be a fabulous, but sad, evening.  Posted on June 7, 2009 at 9:13 AM by susan423. Jump to comment

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