Biography

Noelani Pantastico was born in Oahu, Hawaii, trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and attended summer courses at Pacific Northwest Ballet School (PNB) from 1994 to 1996. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 1997 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 1998, soloist in 2001, and principal in 2004. In 2008, she joined Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo as a soloist and was promoted to first soloist in 2009. In 2015, Ms. Pantastico returned to PNB as a Principal Dancer. In addition to her PNB repertory, Ms. Pantastico danced leading roles at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Altro Canto, La Belle, Cendrillon, Choré, Faust, Men’s Dance for Women, Opus 40, Roméo et Juliette, Scheherazade, Le Songe, and Vers un Pays Sage; Marie Chouinard’s Body Remix; Alexander Eckman’s Rondo; Nicolo Fonte’s Quiet Bang; William Forsythe’s New Sleep; Emio Greco and Peter Scholten’s Le Corps du Ballet; Natalia Horeçna’s Tales Absurd, Fatalistic Visions Predominate; Johan Inger’s In Exact; Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort; Pontus Lidberg’s Summer’s Winter Shadow; Matjash Mrozewski’s Pavillon d’Armide; and Jeroen Verbruggen’s Kill Bambi. She originated roles in Maillot’s Casse-Noisette Compagnie and Lac. Ms. Pantastico was also featured in the BBC’s 1999 film version of PNB’s production of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2004, she performed the second movement of Balanchine’s Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet as a guest artist for New York City Ballet’s Balanchine Centennial. In 2017, Ms. Pantastico choreographed Picnic for Sculptured Dance, a collaboration between Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Art Museum presented at Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park. In 2019, Ms. Pantastico formed the company Seattle Dance Collective, in an effort to provide space to nurture collaboration between artists and choreographers, providing thought-provoking work and high-caliber art to all. She continues to assist SDC as an artistic advisor.
In February 2022, Ms. Pantastico retired from dancing on the main stage at Pacific Northwest Ballet to focus on teaching. In May 2022, she joined the prestigious faculty at CPYB, was promoted to Director of Pre-Professional Division in August 2022, and then elevated to Artistic Director in May 2023.
Currently, Ms. Pantastico is a freelance teacher and coach for aspiring dancers nationwide.