PNB at Bumbershoot 2009

[Helene]

PNB has published the following press release, which includes casting, which I've highlighted in bold. (Kari Brunson is listed in "Vespers", which, if the release is up-to-date, means she will be making her first post retirement performance )

One Day Only!

Labor Day Monday, September 7, 2009, 1:00 pm

Bagley Wright Theatre

155 Mercer St., Seattle Center

SEATTLE, WA — Following its performances at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Pacific Northwest

Ballet returns home to Seattle and to Bumbershoot: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival, where it has performed for standing-room-only audiences for the past three years. PNB will once again present one performance at the Labor Day weekend festival, on Monday, September 7. Artistic Director Peter Boal recently announced the casting for the performance, which will feature a selection of works, including the balcony scene from Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette, Ulysses Dove’s Vespers, Ultimatum by company member Olivier Wevers, and Marco Goecke’s cult-hit Mopey.

Single day-specific and three-day Festival passes to Bumbershoot are available now at bumbershoot.org, Ticketmaster outlets, and without a service fee at Destee Nation Shirt Company in Fremont. Single dayspecific tickets are $35 through August 21, and $50 thereafter. Three-day passes are $80 through Friday, August 21 and $120 thereafter. For further information, visit bumbershoot.org.

Mopey

Choreography: Marco Goecke

Music: C.P.E. Bach and The Cramps

Mopey’s 15-minute solo blitzkrieg through adolescence had audiences leaping from their seats when PNB premiered it in 2005. “Beautiful, label defying…masterfully embodies the chameleonic nature of teens” (The Seattle Times). The New York Times called it “a tour de force…a touching piece of alienation,” while New York Magazine praised Mopey as “riveting in a portrait of madness so eloquent it looked like Shakespeare without words.” Mopey will be performed by PNB principal dancer Jonathan Porretta.

Roméo et Juliette – Balcony pas de deux

Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot

Music: Sergei Prokofiev

Glowing reviews and packed houses followed PNB’s 2008 West Coast premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot’s contemporary Roméo et Juliette. Praised as “seamlessly fusing the vocabularies of ballet and modern dance…an astonishing and absorbing view of an old world with the impetus of the new (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), the ballet’s stylized movement and avant-garde design narrow the focus to the core of Shakespeare’s tragedy with an intensity that equals Prokofiev’s passionate score. The Balcony pas de deux from Roméo et Juliette will be performed by principal dancers Carla Körbes and Lucien Postlewaite.

Vespers

Choreography: Ulysses Dove

Music: Mikel Rouse

Vespers was inspired by memories of Dove’s grandmother, her energy, and the small wooden building where she met with other women to worship. An insistent percussion score by Mikel Rouse evokes both urgency and restraint as six women in black dresses assemble and reassemble themselves vigorously about wooden chairs. Vespers will be danced by PNB company members Kari Brunson, Maria Chapman, Chalnessa Eames, Carrie Imler, Kylee Kitchens and Lesley Rausch.

Ultimatum

Choreography: Olivier Wevers

Music: Murcof

Ultimatum, by company member and rising choreographer Olivier Wevers, is a powerful male duet set to music by Murcof. Two men step into pools of light and begin a playful joust. As they dance, their movements shift from fluid and controlled, to crisp and sharp. The men play off each other’s movement and their combined energies amplify the power until they separate and once again find themselves in their original pools of light. This performance is a special preview for Bumbershoot audiences: Ultimatum was chosen to be presented at On the Boards as part of the Joyce Theater Foundation’s A.W.A.R.D. Show! competition, December 10-13. Ultimatum will be performed by PNB principal dancers Jonathan Porretta and Lucien Postlewaite.