Pacific Northwest Ballet opens season with four works by Christopher Wheeldon
Published 12:01 am Friday, September 23, 2011
Precocious and prolific, the British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, at 38, is world renowned. Many on the ballet scene believe he’s the one who will assume George Ballanchine’s mantel and lead ballet well into this century.
It’s no surprise then that Pacific Northwest Ballet’s artistic director, Peter Boal, opens the new season with four of Wheeldon’s works presented in “All Wheeldon.“
None of the works is new to Seattle audiences, but it’s the first time the company has produced a program made up exclusively of Wheeldon’s work.
“Carousel” opens the program. Featuring music by Richard Rogers, the dance pays tribute to the carnival atmosphere of the Broadway musical. Dancers recreate a carousel on stage and a tragic romance is played out in a pas de deux.
Estonian composer Arvo Part’s “Spiegel im Spiegel” is the score for “After the Rain,” a pas de deux featuring a ballerina in pink and her bare-chested partner.
Wheeldon calls his “Polyphonia” romantic with comic twists. The dance is set to 10 piano pieces by Gyorgy Ligeti that seem to progress organically. This is the most well-known work by the choreographer and was the first to be included in PNB’s repertory.
“Variations Serieuses,” based on music by Felix Mendelssohn, tells the story of a young ballerina’s fateful opportunity to take a starring role. The sets are designed by Ian Falconer, the author and illustrator of the “Olivia” series.
Wheeldon recently returned to London’s Royal Ballet, the school he first attended at age 8, to be part of a senior artistic team. He had been artist in residence at the New York City Ballet, but left to start his own company, Morphoses. Wheeldon left that group last year to focus on his choreography.
The program opens at 7:30 tonight and repeats at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, and 1 p.m. Oct. 2, McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle.
Tickets are $28 to $168 and can be bought at 206-441-2424 or www.pnb.org.
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3447; jholtz@heraldnet.com.
