It has recently been announced that Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre dancers Gabrielle Thurlow and Joseph Parr will dance their final shows with the company during The Nutcracker season. Thurlow, who has been on maternity leave for the past few months, will retire as an Auntie in the Party Scene during the December 23 matinee performance while Parr as the Nephew/Nutcracker on December 28 at 2:00pm..
2 Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Dancers to Retire
Gabrielle Thurlow has been a member of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre for 17 years. Growing up in Buffalo, NY, she studied ballet at Neglia Conservatory before joining Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School Graduate Program in 2005. In 2007, she joined PBT in the corps de ballet. She was promoted to soloist in 2014.
“While I have enjoyed the rush of performing, I think what I’ll miss most is daily studio life at PBT,” said Thurlow. “It’s such a unique experience that fosters dedication, a roller coaster of emotions, and some truly beautiful relationships.”
Some of the many ballets Thurlow has performed in her career with PBT include performing as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Marie and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and Kitri in Don Quixote.
She also performed in The Concert by Jerome Robbins; In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated by William Forsythe; In the Upper Room by Twyla Tharp; Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère and Le Corsaire; Peter Pan by Jordan Morris; Petite Mort and Sinfonietta by Jiří Kylián and George Balanchine’s Serenade and Western Symphony.
Joseph Parr joined Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 2008 in the corps de ballet. He was a football player growing up in Wooster, Ohio and when he was 15, a friend convinced him to attend her ballet class. He enjoyed the challenge and knew that ballet would also help him improve as a football player. When he attended PBT School the next summer, he fell in love with ballet and knew that was the career that he wanted.
Parr studied ballet at Wayne Center for the Arts and the University of Akron Dance Program before joining Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School.
“I’m so honored and privileged to have spent all of my nearly 16-year career as a ballet dancer with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre,” said Parr. “I’ve been blessed with numerous opportunities to perform a wide array of classical, neoclassical and contemporary works by world-renowned choreographers of both past and present. A huge thank you to God, my parents, family, friends, directors, teachers, co-workers, donors, patrons and my wife Diana for their support, trust and love.”
Parr’s favorite roles include the role of Toulouse-Latrec in Moulin Rouge: The Ballet, Dr. Coppelius in Coppelia, Renfield in Dracula, Riff in West Side Story Suite, Jester in Swan Lake, Stepsister in Cinderella, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet and Nephew/Nutcracker in The Nutcracker.
He has also performed in Dwight Rhoden’s Step Touch; Jerome Robbins’ In the Night; Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room; Mark Morris’s Maelstrom and Drink to Me With Thine Eyes; James Kudelka’s The Man in Black; John Neumeier’s A Streetcar Named Desire and Stephen Mills’ Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project.
Featured Photo of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre dancers Gabrielle Thurlow and William Moore in William Forsythe’s Somewhere in the Middle, Somewhat Elevated. Photo by Rich Sofranko.
