Pacific Northwest Ballet’s RELEVÈ program helps young dancers rise up

For nearly 55 years, the Pacific Northwest Ballet has been enriching lives in the Pacific Northwest (and all over the world) with their tremendous mixed repertory ballet and dance performances. If you’ve been lucky enough to experience a show at McCaw Hall in Seattle, or on tour, you know that PNB is truly a gem, with its dancers consistently setting new standards for artistic excellence, innovation, and creativity.

But behind the curtain, PNB is also a cornerstone of Seattle’s arts and culture community, creating a space that educates, engages, and brings together dancers with a variety of backgrounds. As a classical arts organization, they are an industry leader in embracing and embodying inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility as core organizational principles. As Executive Director Ellen Walker puts it, "PNB has impact as a destination in which to enjoy dance and music and the company of family, friends, and other dance fans. These places of connection are so important in creating social cohesion and affirming and celebrating the cultural soul of a city."

That mission comes to life in their RELEVÉ initiative. Launched in 2023, RELEVÉ is designed to engage students and youth dancers ages 10-26 through new and existing programs that allow them to learn, create, and experience new dance works and develop their choreographic skills. The initiative connects several programs through three core ideas: Learn, Create, and Experience, blending classes, mentorships, and performance opportunities. RELEVÉ (fittingly, also a ballet term meaning ‘to rise’) connects youth creators with opportunities and with each other, giving them space to develop their own artistic voices and start their journey.

“Art is at its best when it speaks directly to individuals within a community. Each person may draw different conclusions from their experience, but the opportunity for connection needs to exist,” stated Peter Boal, Artistic Director at PNB. And RELEVÉ opens up that opportunity for everyone.

In the first six months, the program engaged over 100 artists through things like REACH, an intensive 10-week dance workshop for students ages 10-14; Next Step, PNB’s annual choreographic workshop where dancers have the opportunity to create original works for the PNB School’s Professional Division students; pop-up performance events; and Community Stages, an initiative that invites visiting youth and regional performing arts organizations to share the stage; which resulted in 27 showcases.

The initiative is not only giving young people opportunities to learn how choreography is made and create and perform their own work; it’s also creating a community where they get to experience and support the work of their cohorts as audience members. As Walker notes, "We know that both participating in dance and enjoying dance as an audience member create important benefits around mental well-being and social connection."

And they’re not slowing down. We spoke with Sarah Kolat, Institutional Giving Officer at PNB, and she gave us a rundown of just how busy this program really is: “Something is happening all season long with RELEVÉ, whether it’s weekly classes, rehearsals, or performance. For example, Next Step was in full swing in May and June, with [over] 20 hours of rehearsals daily, split between multiple choreographers, leading up to performances. New Voices [PNB School’s all-female choreography program] was preparing for School Performance and to share new works with audiences through Pop-Up Dances in the McCaw Hall lobby. PNB School celebrated its 45th annual School Performance celebrated its 45 annual School Performance in for June, with many works accompanied by Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is part of Community Stages.”

The near-term calendar is packed (with plans to expand programs in the new season), but the real ambition of RELEVÉ is bigger: a genuine choreographic pipeline that shapes the future of dance and gives young artists a supportive community where they can rise.

Allen Family Philanthropies is proud to support the Pacific Northwest Ballet as part of a cohort of grantees serving youth across the Seattle Center campus. Other grantees in this cohort include: KEXP, MoPOP, National Film Festival for Talented Youth (SIFF), Pacific Science Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre & Seattle Children's Theatre, TeenTix, and The Vera Project.