31 replies to this topic

[SandyMcKean]

bart said:

Are there other cities or venues other than Seattle where PNB might add regular performances and try to build a subscriber (and donor) base?

In my judgment: NO.

There are some population centers in western Washington that might make sense, but they make even more sense to simply drive from there (10-25 miles). There are a couple of populations centers on the east side of the state, but my guess is that audience members for anything beyond the Nutcracker would be few and far between over there.  Portland would be the place most likely to match the kind of arrangement you have in the Miami area, but of course that would just compete with OBT.  Strangely, perhaps the best bet would be Vancouver, BC, but perhaps there are legal issues doing that.

[Later edit.....I posted this before seeing sandik's post just above.]

[California]

sandik, on Mar 16 2010, 05:07 PM, said:

. . . Russell and Stowell pursued just about every local/regional touring opportunity they could think of during their tenure, only to have them fall through.  At one point or another, they were in negotiations with presenters or other groups in Bellingham, Spokane, the Tri-Cities, Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Boston and Houston, and those are just the ones I know.

They were insistent that the company travel as a unit -- if anyone went, they all went -- but they weren't able to craft any long-term relationships.  Boal is more flexible about that element, but hasn't to my knowledge pursued anything that would extend the regular programming.  They have been doing out of town gigs, but these aren't repeats of entire programs.

They'll perform two nights (July 31 & August 1) at the Vail Dance Festival this summer:
http://www.vaildance...t-a-glance.aspx
(Interestingly, MCB was there last summer.)

I wish PNB would perform at OCPAC. San Francisco Ballet was there two years ago and it seemed very successful. LA Ballet only performs in LA County (at least, so far) and OCPAC draws from northern San Diego as well as Orange Counties. OCPAC's dance series for 2010-11 has not yet been announced, so perhaps that's still a possibility.

[SandyMcKean]

Like most medium and large sized ballet companies, PNB does the occasional road trip to various cities around the country.  There are the trips to Vail each of the last several years as was mentioned; there was the recent trip to NYC's Joyce Theater.  But I think the original question was whether it is possible for PNB to perform its regularly scheduled programs (that is, every program it does in a season) in other northwest cities other than Seattle (as MCB does in Florida).

[sandik]

I think it was still in the 1980s (before the symphony had moved out of the Opera House and freed up those additional dates for the ballet and the opera) that the company was really motivated to find outside opportunities.  At one point they were going to take their Nutcracker to Minneapolis (Minnesota Dance Theater, which used to perform a very distinctive Nut by Loyce Holton, had recently folded) -- if I remember correctly they got as far as having a replica of their Sendak set built that would fit in Northup Auditorium.  I cannot remember what squashed that idea.  Then, even more interestingly, they were going to enter into a consortium with Boston Ballet and Houston Ballet, to circulate between the three cities.  This is closer to the Miami City Ballet model, except that each city already had a ballet company, and they would all tour amongst each other.  The project was the brainchild of Jane Andrews, who used to work in the administration here at PNB, and was called Ballet America.

Pragmatically, it was a doomed idea to start with, local dance politics being what it is, but I was thrilled at the time -- to get a chance to see other companies without having to schlep myself across the country...

[Helene]

The company also experimented with added an outside company to the subscription season.  NYCB came before I moved to Seattle, but my very first subscription performance at PNB was Australian Ballet in "La Fille Mal Gardee".

[sandik]

And there was an experiment swapping with San Francisco as well -- again, can't remember the exact date, but SFB came up here with some Lew Christensen and Balanchine.  At the time the exchange felt a little out of balance -- SFB was older and much more established -- but that's no longer an issue really.

[Helene]

Francia Russell said in a Q&A that SFB and PNB were trying to co-present "Vienna Waltzes" by having the company split the expenses, and, if I remember correctly, perform it jointly, since it needed so many dancers.

[Helene]

PNB just issued a press release to announce that PNB would be adding "Giselle" to the 2010-11 season:

Quote

SEATTLE, WA -- Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal has announced a major addition to the company’s 2010-2011 line-up.  The final performances of the season will unveil a world premiere staging of the classic Giselle.  This production marks the first time an American company has revived ballet’s great tragedy based on original material researched by Stepanov dance notation expert, Doug Fullington, in collaboration with leading Giselle scholar Marian Smith.  Since its premiere in 1841, Giselle has become one of the most popular ballets of all time and is considered a masterpiece of the Romantic era.   (The placement of Giselle in the final slot of the season has necessitated moving Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH to the fourth slot, where it will replace the previously-announced Ancient Airs and Dances.)

A Fullington/Smith collaboration:  this sounds fantastic!!!!!

Here's the updated season (**change to original schedule):

Rep 1 – DIRECTOR’S CHOICE
September 24 – October 3, 2010

Six Dances – PNB Premiere
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Choreography: Jiri Kylian
Staging: Roslyn Anderson

Petite Mort
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Choreography: Jiri Kylian
Staging: Roslyn Anderson

Jardí Tancat
Music: Maria del Mar Bonet
Choreography: Nacho Duato
Staging: Hilde Koch

Glass Pieces – PNB Premiere
Music: Philip Glass
Choreography: Jerome Robbins

Rep 2 – ALL THARP
November 5 – 14, 2010

Opus 111
Music: Johannes Brahms
Choreography: Twyla Tharp

Afternoon Ball
Music: Vladimir Martynov
Choreography: Twyla Tharp

Waterbaby Bagatelles
Music: 20th-century bagatelles (Anton Webern, Kevin Volans, John Lurie, David Lang, Astor Piazzolla, Mickey Hart, John Adams)
Choreography: Twyla Tharp
Staging: Shelley Washington

Rep 3 – CINDERELLA
February 4 – 13, 2011

Music: Sergei Prokofiev
Choreography: Kent Stowell
Staging: Kent Stowell and Francia Russell

Rep 4 – CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS
March 18 – 27, 2011

Concerto DSCH – PNB Premiere**
Music: Dmitri Shostakovich
Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky

World Premiere
Choreography: Marco Goecke

Pacific
Music: Lou Harrison
Choreography: Mark Morris
Staging: Tina Fehlandt

The Piano Dance
Music: John Cage, Frederic Chopin, Alberto Ginastera, Bela Bartok, Gyorgy Ligeti
Choreography: Paul Gibson

Rep 5 – A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
April 8 - 17, 2011

Music: Felix Mendelssohn
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust
Staging: Francia Russell

REP 6 – GISELLE – World Premiere Staging**
June 3 – 12, 2011                                                        

Libretto: Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier
Music: Adolphe Adam
Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa
Staging: Peter Boal
Choreography Reconstruction: Doug Fullington
Historical Adviser: Marian Smith

[sandik]

This is a big deal -- there's a wealth of material about Giselle in archives that is not really reflected in current productions.  

Let casting speculation begin!

[Helene]

I've been thinking about this since I found out.  There are soooo many possibilities for Peasant Pas and Myrtha, probably more than for Giselle.  I'd love to see a Giselle cast against type.  I have my own hope for maybe not the most obvious Albrecht.

[Hans]

When I first saw PNB would be performing Giselle, my first though was, "WHY?!"  It seems totally wrong for the company, whose aesthetic doesn't appear to have anything to do with the Romantic era.  However, as Fullington is involved, I think this is a production the ballet world needs very much.

[SandyMcKean]

Hans said:

It seems totally wrong for the company, whose aesthetic doesn't appear to have anything to do with the Romantic era.

Perhaps in these difficult times, it has more to do with the aesthetic of a segment of PNB's traditional audience that have been luke warm or even hostile about the direction Boal has taken the company.  (In the interests of full disclosure.....I am most definitely not one of those audience members.)

[sandik]

I've been mulling this over lately, since the addition of Giselle to the repertory surprised me as well, but I'm thinking that I missed a connection.  In this case, I think it's less about the distinction between Classical and Romantic as it is between ballet and modern/contemporary/jazz.  Boal has mentioned over and over again how excited he is at the breadth of potential he thinks his performers have, and how he wants audiences to recognize everything they can do (emphasis mine, mostly).  Yes, the Romantic style is not that familiar to the company, but neither was English/Russian Classical style when they first came to learn Sleeping Beauty, and I was gobsmacked at how hard they worked at it, and how well they did.  I have big faith in Doug Fullington's skills with this kind of reconstruction, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it all works.

[sandik]

Helene, on 17 March 2010 - 09:26 AM, said:

Francia Russell said in a Q&A that SFB and PNB were trying to co-present "Vienna Waltzes" by having the company split the expenses, and, if I remember correctly, perform it jointly, since it needed so many dancers.

Re-reading this thread after seeing Coppelia (new sets/costumes co-commissioned with San Francisco) perhaps lightning might strike twice, and we could get Vienna Waltzes too!

[Helene]

sandik, on 10 July 2010 - 03:39 PM, said:

Helene, on 17 March 2010 - 09:26 AM, said:

Francia Russell said in a Q&A that SFB and PNB were trying to co-present "Vienna Waltzes" by having the company split the expenses, and, if I remember correctly, perform it jointly, since it needed so many dancers.

Re-reading this thread after seeing Coppelia (new sets/costumes co-commissioned with San Francisco) perhaps lightning might strike twice, and we could get Vienna Waltzes too!

I'm not sure it would be cost effective to make costumes for the 12-year-olds they'd have to recruit to fill out the corps.