PNB season to feature array of premiere works

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 23, 2006

Pacific Northwest Ballet has announced its 2006-07 season, featuring nearly 30 ballets.

The season, the second under artistic director Peter Boal, includes world premieres by Victor Quijada and Paul Gibson and PNB premieres of works by Jerome Robbins, Ulysses Dove, Peter Martins, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Wheeldon, George Balanchine, Mark Morris, Robert Joffrey, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Christopher Stowell, John Alleyne, Toni Pimble, Molissa Fenley, Donald Byrd and Mary Sheldon Scott.

The season also features PNB’s Celebrate Seattle Festival, featuring Northwest choreographers, plus the return of Kent Stowell’s “Swan Lake.”

The season-opening gala will be Sept. 16, with a performance featuring Jerome Robbins’ “Circus Polka” and George Balanchine’s “Theme &Variations,” along with excerpts from “Swan Lake,” “La Sonnambula” and Paul Gibson’s “World Premiere.”

An array of dining options and an onstage dance party follow the performance. Tickets for PNB’s gala preview performance are $55 and $75 and include a champagne reception at intermission. Performance tickets paired with a post-performance party range from $120 to $1,500. For further information, e-mail: events@pnb.org.

The season:

Rep I: Director’s Choice – Sept. 21-23, 28-30 and Oct. 1-2:

For the launch of PNB’s current season, Boal selected works by Balanchine, Robbins and William Forsythe to mark his debut as artistic director. He has again chosen ballets by the three to open the 2006-07 season. The program includes one of Balanchine’s greatest masterpieces, “Theme &Variations,” arranged to the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 in G major; Forsythe’s riveting “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated,” set to Thom Willem’s explosive electronic score; and the PNB premiere of Robbins’ “Fancy Free,” set to the music of Leonard Bernstein.

Rep II: All Premiere – Nov. 2-4 and 9-12:

November’s mixed repertory program features a new work by Victor Quijada along with three PNB premieres. Quijada’s “World Premiere” will be his first work for PNB.

“Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven” (subtitled “Odes to Love and Loss”) is the second work by Ulysses Dove to be taken into PNB’s repertory. It was choreographed in 1993 for the Royal Swedish Ballet. The musical score is Arvo Prt’s “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.”

Peter Martins’ brooding “Valse Triste” “abounds with images of lost love” (Dance Insider). Martins chose the “Valse Triste” as well as music from the “Scene with Cranes” from a score composed by Jean Sibelius for the play “Kuolema,” by the composer’s brother-in-law Arvid Jrnefelt. In Scandinavian culture, the crane symbolizes death, and this idea figures prominently in this passionate duet. “Valse Triste,” choreographed in 1985 for New York City Ballet, will be staged by Peter Boal for PNB’s production.

In Twyla Tharp’s “Waterbaby Bagatelles,” created in 1994 for Boston Ballet, a pristinely surfaced stage is overhung and lighted by rows of stark, fluorescent light bulbs, like those that might illuminate an aquarium. The mostly bare-chested men and the sometimes bathing-capped women reinforce the dance’s water connection. Taking inspiration from a musical range that goes from 12-tone innovator Anton Webern through the tango rhythms of Astor Piazzolla, Tharp’s dance curves over the stage as if the dancers were schools of fish. Shelley Washington, who staged the PNB premiere of Tharp’s “Nine Sinatra Songs” in February, returns to stage “Waterbaby Bagatelles.”

“Nutcracker” – Nov. 24-Dec. 28:

PNB’s “Nutcracker” dazzles Northwest audiences each holiday season. The production’s brilliant blend of costumes, sets, and choreography is unique to Seattle and creates a magical world. Kent Stowell collaborated with illustrator Maurice Sendak to create “Nutcracker” in 1983. The entire company of professional dancers and nearly 200 students from PNB School will dance in 41 performances of “Nutcracker” during the holiday season.

Rep III: “Swan Lake” – Feb. 1-4 and 8-11:

In September 2003, Pacific Northwest Ballet made its historic grand entrance into Marion Oliver McCaw Hall with a breathtakingly beautiful new production of Kent Stowell’s “Swan Lake.” Set to Tchaikovsky’s music, performed by the acclaimed PNB Orchestra, with exquisite sets and costumes by Tony-winning scenic designer Ming Cho Lee and renowned costume designer Paul Tazewell, the production superbly showcases the virtuosity of PNB’s brilliant dancers.

Rep IV: “Wheeldon, Duato &Balanchine” – March 15-17 and 22-25, 2007:

“Polyphonia,” the first ballet by Christopher Wheeldon to be taken into PNB’s repertory, was first performed in 2001 by New York City Ballet. Described by the choreographer as “romantic with comic twists,” “Polyphonia” (meaning “many voices”) is set to 10 eclectic piano pieces by Gyorgy Ligeti. Overhead horizontal lifts, rolls and pushes off the floor contrast with classical ballet steps.

With “Rassemblement” (“The Gathering”), Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato, whose “Jardi Tancat” is a favorite of PNB audiences, turns to Haiti and the songs of Haitian artist and human rights activist Toto Bissainthe for this work of eight interpretive dances. “Rassemblement,” premiered by Sweden’s Cullberg Ballet in 1990, was first performed by PNB in 1998.

Peter Boal continues to expand PNB’s extensive Balanchine repertoire with “La Sonnambula.” Set to music by Vittorio Rieti (based on themes from operas by Bellini), “La Sonnambula” reveals Balanchine at his most mystical and operatic.

Rep V: Celebrate Seattle Festival – April 5-22, 2007:

Weeks 1 and 2:

The first two weeks of the three-week festival feature the PNB premiere of “Pacific,” the first work by Seattle native and world-renowned choreographer Mark Morris to enter PNB’s repertory, and the return of Stowell’s blockbuster, “Carmina Burana.”

Celebrate Seattle Festival – Week 3 – April 17-22, 2007

Program A (April 17, 19 and 22, 2007):

Program A features three PNB premieres – Seattle native Robert Joffrey’s “Remembrances” pas de deux (1973), set to songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra by Richard Wagner; Centralia native Merce Cunningham’s “Inlets 2” (1983), set to music by John Cage and inspired by the climate and landscape of the Northwest; and a ballet that will be selected from works that have been created by Pacific Northwest Ballet Company dancers for PNB’s annual “Choreographers’ Showcase.” The program closes with Renton native Val Caniparoli’s “Torque” (created in 2001 for PNB), set to a dense, energetic orchestral score by Michael Torke.

Program B (April 18 and April 21):

Of the four works in Program B, three are PNB premieres, including John Alleyne’s ensemble work, “Schubert” (2000), choreographed in honor of Franz Schubert and performed by Ballet British Columbia; Donald Byrd’s high-octane “Bhangra Fever” (2004), set to music from East Indian dance clubs and performed by Spectrum Dance Theatre; and Toni Pimble’s “Two’s Company” (1992), set to Antonin Dvorak’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, “The American,” (2nd movement). The fourth work is Sonia Dawkins’ “Ripple Mechanics,” set to music by Nina Simone, Jacqueline Fuentes and Matthew Segal.

Program C (April 20, 21 and 22):

Program C features “World Premiere” by PNB ballet master and former principal dancer Paul Gibson, set to music by Philip Glass, and three PNB premieres – “Groove and Countermove” (2000), the final section in Trisha Brown’s jazz trilogy, set to a score by Dave Douglas; Christopher Stowell’s “Adin” (2004), set to music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, performed by Oregon Ballet Theatre; and a “PNB Premiere” by Mary Sheldon Scott, performed by members of Mary Sheldon Scott/Jarrad Powell Performance.

Rep VI: Stravinsky 125 – May 31-June 2 and June 8-10, 2007:

Pacific Northwest Ballet celebrates the 125th birthday of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) with PNB premieres by Molissa Fenley and Jerome Robbins and two ballets by George Balanchine.

Robbins’ “Circus Polka,” set to Stravinsky’s raucous “Circus Polka for Wind Symphony,” was choreographed in 1972.

Fenley’s intensely dynamic solo, “State of Darkness,” is set to Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” Commissioned by The American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C., in 1988, “State of Darkness” was performed by Fenley herself, who received a New York Dance and Performance Award (The Bessies) in choreography for her work. Peter Boal received a 2000 Bessie performance award for his revival performance of “State of Darkness.”

“Rubies,” set to Stravinsky’s “Capriccio” for piano and orchestra, is the central ballet of Balanchine’s full-length “Jewels,” which enters PNB’s repertory at the end of the current season. Choreographed in 1967 for Patricia McBride and Edward Villella, plus a supporting female lead and a corps of 12, “Rubies” effuses glam wit and jazzy chic. PNB first performed “Rubies” in 1988.

Vibrant, startling and athletic, Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements” premiered on opening night of NYCB’s 1972 Stravinsky Festival. The work received its PNB premiere in 2005 on the company’s first repertory program under the direction of Peter Boal. Called “the most raw and unleashed ballet Balanchine has done” and “one of the most exciting works in the international repertory,” this large ensemble ballet devours the stage with jazz-flavored movements and bursts of choreographic ferocity that mirror Stravinsky’s impressions of World War II that are the basis for the score.

Season subscriptions are available now and range in price from $108 to $2,370. Discounted senior/student/child rates are available. Single tickets range in price from $18 to $145. Single tickets for all 2006-07 season performances, including the Celebrate Seattle Festival and “Nutcracker,” go on sale to the general public July 17. For more information, call the PNB box office at 206-441-2424, visit the box office at 301 Mercer St. in Seattle (10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday), or go to www.pnb.org. Programs are subject to change.

Angela Sterling photo

Patricia Barker in the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 2003 production of “Swan Lake.” The Kent Stowall ballet returns to the PNB in the 2006-07 season.