Seattle arts picks: Water and dance

It's Friday, and that time of the week when we take a breath for a moment to consider arts and culture events around Puget Sound. Today, KUOW’s Kim Malcolm reached out to an old friend for recommendations. Marcie Sillman is an arts journalist and the co-host of the podcast DoubleXposure.

Seattle Art Museum’s Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water

As it sounds, the show features an array of artworks drawn from the museum's collection and from a few local collectors that look at the human interaction with water, human impact on water, and just water in general.

A couple of years back, the curators realized that they couldn't necessarily count on getting artwork from other countries or even other museums around the country, so they looked within. The exhibit has everything from ancient Asian etchings to 19th-century romantic paintings to brand new work and video installations.

Our Blue Planet runs through May 30.

Plot Points at Pacific Northwest Ballet

This is a program of contemporary work featuring four dances. One is brand new, a duet by Robyn Mineko Williams called Before I Was. It’s about adults thinking back on who they were before they were who they are.

One is new to us in the Northwest. It’s a “sneaker” ballet, a ballet done in sneakers, by New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck. Peck may be better known for choreographing the Steven Spielberg version of West Side Story. It's called The Times are Racing. It's a big dance. I've seen video of it. They recorded it in New York, part of it in the subway. I'm curious to see what it's going to be like on the stage. I'm told that it's super high energy and lots of fun.

One is a solo called Caught, by choreographer David Parsons. They haven't presented it in a while. It's a technological tour de force, which makes it look as if a dancer is suspended in air for the entire seven minutes of the dance. You really have to see it.

Then there is the return of Vancouver Island choreographer Crystal Pite’s Plot Points, which is based on Alfred Hitchcock movies. It’s eerie. Half the dancers are cloaked in these white, robotic-looking costumes, and there's a murder. There's somebody chasing a murderer. It's lots of fun.

Plot Points runs through March 27.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.