Noelani Pantastico
Noelani Pantastico (born May 4, 1980) is a ballet dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. She was born on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
Biography
Noelani Pantastico was born to John and Marylou Pantastico. Her family moved from Hawaii to Colorado, then New Hampshire and eventually settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she began her formal ballet training at the age of eleven at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet founded by Marcia Dale Weary. At the age of sixteen, she was hired as an apprentice at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. One year later (1998), she was promoted to corps de ballet and then to soloist in 2001. In 2004, she was promoted to principal dancer.[1]
In 2008, Pantastico announced that she would leave Pacific Northwest Ballet to accept a position at Les Ballets de Monte Carlo in Monaco after the end of the 2007-2008 season.[2]
In 2015 Pantastico returned to Pacific Northwest Ballet as a principle dancer.[3]:{{{3}}}
Appearances
Pantastico was invited to dance at the annual Aoyama Festival in Japan in 1998 with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. In 1999, she was featured in the BBC's film version of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, filmed at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London. Then, in 2004, she performed the second movement of Balanchine’s Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet as a guest artist for the New York City Ballet's Balanchine Centennial. Ms. Pantastico was also featured on the cover of Dance Spirit Magazine's December 2005 issue Vol. 9 Number 10. In early 2007, she had a small role in the indie film, The Trouble with Cali, directed by Paul Sorvino and starring Mira Sorvino.
Awards
- 1996 Regional Dance America/Northeast Scholarship winner
- 1997 Regional Dance America/Northeast Scholarship winner
