A message from
the Artistic Directors

We’re so grateful to have you here. rep one was a meaningful and successful beginning, and it’s because of your presence and support that we’re able to continue forward. DTS is growing, and that comes from a community like this one that shows up, engages, and believes in what we’re creating.

This evolution is reflected in rep two which leans toward minimalism. Toward finding self, embracing simplicity, and allowing the pull of new adventures and blind leaps of faith.

We begin with BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS, a work created for digital release during the isolation of the COVID pandemic. BYT explores the tension between individuality and structure, and how a singular voice can still emerge within uniformity. The score, composed by former Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer William Lin-Yee, carries a pulse that feels like a battle cry.

Coping Mechanisms is a conversation with Balanchine’s Black & White ballets of the mid to late 20th century. These works formed my early understanding of dance as I returned to them often. There was a kind of relief in their clarity: no character to construct, no narrative to fulfill, only the body, the music, and the demand to be exact and present. Set to Paganini, the score resists stillness. It drives, fractures and plays. Precision while never settling into predictability.

We close with lowleveljoy, where the boundaries between dream and waking begin to soften. Movement and sound interlace and pull apart, tracing a path through disorientation toward something quieter, more resolved. Not an answer, perhaps, but a way of seeing through. Featuring music by Röyksopp and Cigarettes After Sex, lowleveljoy is a journey of finding the simplicity to see through the difficulty.

Thank you again for being here and for supporting Dance Theatre Seattle. We’re excited for what’s ahead as we continue to build, explore, and create space for new work. We hope to see you again at our gala and A Nutcracker later this year, and for rep three in Spring 2027.

For now, enjoy the performance
Joshua Grant and Chrissy Montoya