Sometimes, you’re watching a ballet you’ve seen before and suddenly see it with new eyes — because a dancer seizes an unexpected moment. At Friday’s Pacific Northwest Ballet season opener at McCaw Hall, young corps dancer Larry Lancaster was a late substitute for injured principal Jonathan Batista in Edwaard Liang’s “The Veil Between Worlds.” Lancaster, only just promoted from apprenticeship last year, hadn't previously gotten much time in the opening-night spotlight, and his beaming energy seemed to explode from the stage, with soaring leaps hanging casually in the air as if time had briefly stopped.
It was a lovely reminder of how ballet seems to have a never-ending line of young dancers, each learning from those who came before but bringing to a familiar work their own unique artistry. The program, “The Times Are Racing” (named for the Justin Peck ballet that closed the evening), consisted of three contemporary ballets, each with its own distinctive mood. “The Veil Between Worlds” was on PNB’s stage fairly recently, but it’s always a welcome sight; that glorious opening sequence, with Dammiel Cruz-Garrido lifting a beautifully arched Leah Terada on his shoulders as she holds an enormous silk streamer behind them, always takes my breath away.
The two later performed a pas de deux as delicate as breath, befitting Oliver Davis’ plaintive music, with a particularly lovely moment where Terada pauses in a perfectly vertical arabesque, her head resting.