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Kylian + Pite


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PNB's upcoming November (8-9, 14-17) program features Jiri Kylian's "Petite Mort,"Sechs Tanze," and new-to-PNB "Forgotten Land," and Crystal Pite's "Emergence," originally created for National Ballet of Canada and performed by NBoC during its last Western tour.

From the press release:

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET PRESENTS

KYLIAN + PITE

Featuring PNB premieres of Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land and Crystal Pite’s Emergence,

plus the return of audience favorites Petite Mort and Sechs Tänze (Six Dances).

PNB welcomes two new dancers to the company with KYLIAN + PITE.

November 8 - 17, 2013

Marion Oliver McCaw Hall

321 Mercer Street, Seattle Center

Seattle, WA 98109

November 8-9 & 14-16 at 7:30 pm

November 9 at 2:00 pm

November 17 at 1:00 pm

SEATTLE, WA — Spellbinding premieres by Jiri Kylian and Crystal Pite join Kylian’s sensual Petite Mort and raucous Sechs Tänze (Six Dances) in KYLIAN + PITE, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s fascinating foursome of contemporary works. Emergence marks PNB’s debut excursion with sensational Canadian native Crystal Pite, founder and artistic director of Vancouver’s Kidd Pivot. A riveting ensemble piece, Emergence showcases Pite’s gift for provocative imagery as swarms of dancers ebb and flow against a towering hive backdrop. PNB expands its Kylian repertory with the soulful and kinetic Forgotten Land, set to Benjamin Britten’s haunting score. The evening is rounded out by audience favorites Petite Mort, a sexy, gold-washed duel for six couples and six fencing foils, and the joyfully charming Sechs Tänze, “an 18-century court gone delightfully mad.” (The Seattle Times) Kylian + Pite runs for seven performances only, November 8-17 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at $28 and may be purchased by calling 206.441.2424, online at pnb.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office, 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center.

Two dancers join PNB’s ranks with these performances of KYLIAN + PITE: New apprentice Christian Poppe was a Professional Division student with PNB School, and has recently returned from PNB’s exchange program with the Royal Danish Ballet. He has danced in many company productions and toured with the company to Las Vegas last fall to perform in the corps of George Balanchine’s Diamonds. Corps member Raphaël Bouchard comes to PNB from Les Ballets de Monte Carlo where he danced for the past nine years. Seattle audiences may remember him from last season when he stepped in at the last second to replace an injured dancer and perform Benvolio in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette. PNB congratulates and welcomes Christian and Raphaël.

The line-up for KYLIAN + PITE will include:

PETITE MORT

Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Piano Concerto in A Major [Adagio] KV 488, Piano Concerto in C Major [Andante] KV 467)

Choreography: Jiri Kylian

Staging: Roslyn Anderson

Premiere: August 23, 1991: Netherlands Dance Theater

PNB Premiere: November 5, 2009


SECHS TÄNZE (Six Dances)

Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Sechs Deutsche Tänze [six German Dances], KV 571, 1789)

Choreography: Jiri Kylian

Staging: Roslyn Anderson

Premiere: October 24, 1986; Netherlands Dance Theater

PNB Premiere: September 24, 2010

FORGOTTEN LAND - PNB Premiere

Music: Benjamin Britten (Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20, 1939)

Choreography: Jiri Kylian

Staging: Roslyn Anderson

Premiere: April 12, 1981; Stuttgart Ballet

Jiri Kylian, in comparison to composer Benjamin Britten, sees Sinfonia da Requiem as a work of more personal character than a political one—for it is always people who determine the political scene. It is always people and nature who turn the wheel of evolution a little further.

East Anglia, a coastline of England slowly submerging under the sea, is the birthplace of Benjamin Britten. The image of land taken over by the sea—together with a painting by Edvard Munch—became the primary inspiration for Kylian’s choreography of Forgotten Land: land—the basis and centre of human existence—is in itself always subject to the eternal metamorphosis and mutation; land, from ancient times bearing the imprints of generations; lands within the memories of human beings, that had to be forgotten because of political struggle; lands destroyed by nature or human negligence; wishful lands that have only emerged in our dreams; lands of promise and illusion. (Notes courtesy of the Kylian Foundation. Used by permission.)

Principal support for the Pacific Northwest Ballet premiere of Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land is generously provided by Patty Edwards.

EMERGENCE- [PNB Premiere
Music: Owen Belton (2009)
Choreography: Crystal Pite

Staging: Hope Muir

Premiere: March 4, 2009; National Ballet of Canada (Toronto)

Crystal Pite is known as one of the most innovative and exciting choreographers at work in Canada today. National Ballet of Canada commissioned Pite to create an original work for the National Ballet’s 2008-09 season as part of Innovation, a program of new work by Canadian choreographers. The result, Emergence, brought audiences to their feet after every performance and went on to win four Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Production, Outstanding New Choreography, Outstanding Performance and Outstanding Sound Design/Composition by Owen Belton.

A riveting dark-hued work that casts a swarming, scurrying group of dancers, insect-like, in an eerily subterranean universe, Emergence dramatizes through its mesmerizing choreographic attack the ways in which the instinct for creating social forms seems hard-wired into life itself. Pite’s inspiration for the work came from reading Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software by American popular science theorist Steven Johnson and considering parallels between the social organization of bees and the hierarchical nature of classical ballet companies.

Johnson’s statement that “simple agents following simple rules could generate amazingly complex structures” became a touchstone for the piece. Pite was interested in individual expression and in collective problem solving through movement, often favoring the visual and kinesthetic appeal of the eccentric over the mundane and the grotesque over the beautiful. Pite rarely works with dancers en pointe and was attracted not only to the dancers’ ease of movement but also to the potential for a creature-like effect. Sometimes fragmented and gestural, with traces of the isolation and popping techniques of hip hop, Pite’s choreographic method was a catalyst for change in the dancer’s bodies.

Key to Pite’s vision for Emergence was her collaboration with composer Owen Belton. Also from the west coast, Belton uses both acoustic and electronic instruments, often in combination with computer processing techniques such as granular synthesis, to arrive at atmospheric palettes of sound and tone. Pite and Belton have incorporated drone-like sounds of bees along with sounds of marching to signify the power and ominous presence of the body politic. (Excerpted notes courtesy of National Ballet of Canada.)

Principal support for the Pacific Northwest Ballet premiere of Crystal Pite’s Emergence is generously provided by Marcella McCAffray.

TICKET INFORMATION & DISCOUNT OFFERS

Tickets to KYLIAN + PITE ($28-$174) are available through the PNB Box Office:


  • Phone: 206.441.2424 (Mon.-Fri. 9am–6pm; Sat. 10am–5pm)


  • In person: 301 Mercer Street, Seattle (Mon.-Fri. 10am–6pm; Sat. 10am–5pm)


  • Online: pnb.org (24 hours a day, seven days a week)

Tickets are also available, subject to availability, 90 minutes prior to each performance at McCaw Hall, located at 321 Mercer Street.

$15 TICKETS FOR AGE 25 & UNDER

All Thursday and Friday performances: November 8, 14, 15 at 7:30 pm
One ticket for $15 and two for $25 for patrons 25 years and younger! To purchase tickets, contact the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424 or visit 301 Mercer Street. This offer is good for the November 8, 14 and 15 performances only. Offer is subject toavailability and not valid on previously purchased tickets. NOTE: Each attendee must present valid I.D. upon ticket retrieval.

TEEN TIX

PNB is a proud participant of Seattle Center’s Teen Tix program. Teen Tix members 13 to 19 years old can purchase tickets to PNB performances and other music, dance, theater and arts events for only $5. To join Teen Tix or view a list of participating organizations, visit teentix.org

GROUP SALES

Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. For group tickets, please call 206.441.2416, email juliej@pnb.org or visit pnb.org/Season/GroupTix.

STUDENT AND SENIOR RUSH TICKETS

Half-price rush tickets for students and senior citizens (65+) may be purchased in-person with ID, beginning 90 minutes prior to show time at the McCaw Hall box office. Subject to availability.

I've opened a thread for 2013-14 roster changes here:
http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/37916-dancers-coming-and-going-2013-14/

More details are available on the PNB site:

http://www.pnb.org/Season/13-14/KylianPite/

Info on special events related to this rep in the next post.

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From the press release:

SPECIAL EVENTS

FRIDAY PREVIEWS
Friday, November 1, 2013, 6:00 pm
The Phelps Center, 301 Mercer Street, Seattle
Join PNB for an hour-long dance preview led by Artistic Director Peter Boal and featuring PNB dancers rehearsing excerpts from KYLIAN + PITE. PNB Friday Previews offer an upbeat and up-close view of the Company preparing to put dance on stage. Tickets, $10 each, may be purchased through the PNB Box Office. (This event will sell out in advance.) Friday Previews are sponsored by U.S. Bank.

BALLET PREVIEW FREE
Tuesday, November 5, 2013, 12:00 pm
Central Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle
Join PNB for a free lunch-hour preview lecture at the Central Seattle Public Library. Education Programs Manager Doug Fullington will offer insights about KYLIAN + PITE, complete with video excerpts..

PNB LECTURE SERIES & DRESS REHEARSAL
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Lecture 6:00 pm, Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall
Dress Rehearsal 7:00 pm, McCaw Hall
Join PNB artistic director Peter Boal in conversation with choreographer Crystal Pite. Attend the lecture only or stay for the dress rehearsal. Tickets, $12 for the lecture or $30 for the lecture and dress rehearsal, may be purchased through the PNB Box Office.

PRE-PERFORMANCE LECTURES
Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall
Join Education Programs Manager Doug Fullington for a 30-minute introduction to each performance, including discussions of choreography, music, history, design and the process of bringing ballet to the stage. One hour before performances. FREE for ticketholders.

POST-PERFORMANCE Q&A
Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall
Skip the post-show traffic and enjoy a Q&A with Artistic Director Peter Boal and PNB dancers immediately following each performance. FREE for ticketholders.

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First weekend casting has been posted on the PNB website; as always, this is subject to change.

http://www.pnb.org/Season/13-14/KylianPite/#Casting

For first weekend, opening night, Friday, 8 November casting is identical to Saturday, 9 November evening casting, except that Sarah Ricard Orza and Kiyon Gaines perform one couple on Friday and Liora Neuville and Ezra Thomson dance the same roles on Saturday night. New company member Raphaël Bouchard makes his debut in a featured role with Jahna Franziskonis on Saturday afternoon in the same couple. If I remember "Emergence" correctly from when National Ballet of Canada brought it to Vancouver a couple of years ago, everyone and his cat will be cast in it, and Bouchard make be making his company debut on Friday night in that. (Of course it could be that NBoC danced it so big it looked like it had a cast of thousands.)

The Saturday matinee cast is completely different, and it should be exciting to see all of the dancers with so many featured roles. There are six couples each in "Petite Mort" and "Forgotten Land," eight dancers in "Sechs Tanze," and everything from featured solo roles to featured sextets in "Emergence." There will be lots of busy people, and these dancers have featured roles in all four ballets first weekend: Rachel Foster, Kiyon Gaines, Andrew Bartee, and William Lin-Yee. No Korbes or Renko, though, but Renko could be corps in "Emergence" and there's always hope for second weekend for them. I hoping the few other corps members who don't have featured roles are healthy and in the corps and featured second weekend.

There are some interesting partnerships: the "Prologue" in "Emergence" is cast with very tall men and shorter women, Rachel Foster with Charles Grant and Margaret Mullin with William Lin-Yee. Maria Chapman is paired Andrew Bartee in "Petite Mort" and Steven Lock as the Gray couple in "Forgotten Land." Most dancers switch partners from ballet to ballet, and that's always good to see.

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Casting is up for second weekend, as always, subject to change:

http://www.pnb.org/Season/13-14/KylianPite/#Casting

Sadly, no Korbes, Renko, Pasch, or Poppe in featured roles second weekend.

Taking on roles second weekend are:

"Petite Mort "Couple 3:

  • Kitchens/Hipolito Jr. on Friday, 15 November 7:30pm and Sunday, 17 November 1pm
  • Love Suddarth/Suddarth (role debuts) on Saturday, 16 November 7:30pm.

"Petite Mort" Couple 4:

  • Mullin/Porretta on Thursday, 14 November 7:30pm and Sunday 17 November 1pm

"Sech Tanze" third cast, all role debuts:

  • Adomaitis, Love Suddarth, Generosa, Anspach, Suddarth, Loch, Hipolito Jr., McCall on Thursday, 14 November 7:30pm and Sunday 17 November 1pm

"Forgotten Land" Pink (role debuts):

  • Biasucci/Griffiths on Friday, 15 November 7:30pm and Saturday 16 November 7:30pm

"Forgotten Land" White (role debuts):

  • Merchant/Grant on Friday, 15 November 7:30pm and Saturday 16 November 7:30pm


Here's a spreadsheet that can be downloaded by members when logged in:
Kylian + Pite.xlsx

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I was in the studio watching rehearsal last week, and when they were setting up for Petit Mort I saw one of the men carrying a foil with the point facing up out of the corner of my eye as they were rolling the ballgowns into position -- for a moment, I thought it was all radio-controlled.

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PNB released a short video of rehearsal footage for "Forgotten Land":

Featured are first cast dancers:

  • Adomaitis (lacy black leo/white skirt)/Bartee
  • Foster (khaki leo/black skirt)/J. Tisserand
  • Foster/Kylee Kitchens (ink halter leo/black skirt)/Imler (black leo/white skirt)
  • Dec (black and lavender leo/black skirt)/Cruz
  • Kitchens/Lin-Yee
  • Imler/Gaines

At 37" there's a quick glance at the other couple in the cast, Reid (red leo)/Thomson on the left.

If haven't always loved the big symphonic/choral ballets by Kylian -- Netherlands Dance Theater did them at the Met in the early '80's -- but, as a listener, I can't argue with his musical choices -- Janacek's "Sinfonietta", Martinu's Mass, Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" -- and the Britten will be worth the ticket alone.

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I read "Emergence" and then "Ender's Game" in succession a few weeks ago. I would love to see the ballet with those books fresh in my mind. Too bad.

Did anyone who saw the ballet read "Emergence" and can one comment on the relationship?

"Emergence", while in many ways enlightening, contains some intellectual dishonesty and inaccurate conclusions, which are not logically based, but rather seem a failed, insulting attempt at marketing and persuasion. The author starts by stating that one must saturate an initial market with a monopoly to succeed, but then argues that (everyone else?) must have no secrets or privacy (including, I guess, economic secrets with which to enter and conquer the market to be monopolized) with the always powerful argument of "get over it". Because of bee and ant colonies and their architecture.

I assume the ballet did not contain the same message. happy.png

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From the PNB website:

A riveting dark-hued work that casts a swarming, scurrying group of dancers, insect-like, in an eerily subterranean universe, Emergence dramatizes through its mesmerizing choreographic attack the ways in which the instinct for creating social forms seems hard-wired into life itself. Pite’s inspiration for the work came from reading Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software by American popular science theorist Steven Johnson and considering parallels between the social organization of bees and the hierarchical nature of classical ballet companies.

http://www.pnb.org/Season/13-14/KylianPite/#Details

Description of Johnson's book on amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Emergence-Connected-Brains-Cities-Software-ebook/dp/B008TRUBLY/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384105801&sr=1-2&keywords=emergence

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Some info from yesterday's post-performance Q&A's, both moderated by Peter Boal:

Matinee: Jahna Frantziskonis and Elle Macy. Frantziskonis and Raphael Bouchard made their role debuts as the first couple in "Petite Mort." She (Pink) and Macy (Cream) made their role debuts in "Forgotten Land."

Asked about Peter Boal as a teacher -- at which point he jumped in and jokingly said he could answer that question, that Boal's classes were fantastic [or a similar adjective]:

Macy said that his classes were challenging, and rather than being warmups, prepared the dancers for dancing the rep. Frantziskonis said they were challenging and fast. (Her training [before PNB] had been slower.)

Frantziskonis and Angelica Generosa applied and were accepted to do a joint piece of choreography for the Next Step program, in which PNB dancers create works for the Professional Division students; they are performed school graduation weekend.

Asked about working on the Kylian:

I don't remember who answered first, saying that she had heard so many good things about working with Roslyn Anderson [who had stated "Petite Mort" and "Sechs Tanze" previously for PNB], and everything her colleagues said was true. She described Anderson as someone who was very positive in the studio, and who could give a correction in a positive way to make it easy to accept and work on. One said she knows all of the details and never uses video in the studio. Also that she demands respect in a respectful way

Asked about working on the Pite:

I think it was Frantziskonis who said they were "obsessed" with Pite, her creativity and intelligence. It appears that Pite has many fan gurls and boyz in the company, which is good news, because Boal said she had a standing invitation to come back, and she will be doing a new work for Paris Opera Ballet.

Boal said that the dancers didn't know what kind of reactions they could expect from the Saturday matinee audience, because the Opening Night audience on Friday had applauded throughout, and the matinee audience was silent until the end. As it turned out, there was a huge ovation [and a Saturday matinee standing ovation, i.e., really slow, as it's an older audience and takes a while to mobilize.]

Someone always asks what the dancers' favorite roles are and what they look forward to doing in the future and will be doing in the next reps, which is more than awkward since Boal is sitting right there, but take-away was that aside from "Nutcracker" roles, either they haven't been assigned in detail, or this is still not-for-public-consumption. A few have leaked out, but mostly when they talked about Winter-Spring rep, they talked about roles they had done before and hoped to do again.

Evening: Kylee Kitchens. Kitchens was in the Opening Night cast and repeated her role debut in the White Couple in "Forgotten Land," and also danced in "Sechs Tanze."

Kitchens also lauded Roslyn Anderson and said that she was happy to learn that her role was the one created for Roslyn Anderson, who taught it to her. She said she realized this by watching a YouTube video, where, in the opening, as the dancers face upstage, one turns to face the back/audience, and the close-up showed it was Anderson. [ I'm not sure if more than one dancer turns around, but I do remember last night it was Carrie Imler, who was in the Red Couple. I wonder if a dancer is chosen for each staging, and whether the placement of the couples in the opening isn't set until staged.]

When asked about whether the "Emergence" choreography changed:

Boal said that there were changes: the quartet was re-choreographed, as was a lot of the duet [danced in the evening by Lindsi Dec and Batkhurel Bold and in the matinee by Carrie Imler and Jonathan Porretta.

When asked about "Emergence"

Kitchens said that they watched Pite demonstrate and tried to emulate the quality of movement. Boal said that one of his favorite moments in the studio was when Pite got down on the floor and was intense as an insect, and then her two-year old daughter would jump on her back.

More on "Emergence":

Boal said there was low-level miking to amplified the counting. When there were different groups doing different things, they all had their same counts. Kitchens said that in some parts, Imler was the group leader, and they'd follow her pace/counts.

Boal said that there are a lot of companies fighting for the same choreographers -- he called it an "arms race" -- and collected one from many choreographers, but that he wanted to choose other choreographers who weren't as well known and to create a collection of works by those choreographers. He hopes that Pite will be one of these. [Given that Pite has a small child and Seattle is so close to Vancouver, I'm hoping that this helps to give PNB a leg up.] Boal also said that Pite was very impressed by PNB's men.

On preparing for such different roles in one evening:

Kitchens said that before each ballet, she warms up her body and goes over the steps in her head and thinks about the intention of that particular work. After the ballet is over, she re-calibrates for the next work.

About the differences between first and later performances:

Kitchens said that she tends toward opening night nerves, and that she's more calm in the second performance. Later performances give her a chance to do things differently if something didn't go quite right, and that each performance is a clean slate.

About performing Kylian,

Kitchens said it was a pleasure to dance, because he's so musical and the movement fits on the body. She also said that the positions were more intermediate and relaxed.

About where her head was in performance -- in the moment, thinking ahead, etc.:

Kitchens said that it depends: sometimes she's thinking about something hard that's coming up ahead, but that the best feeling in dancing is listening to the music and having the body remember and respond.

sandik, please add what I missed/correct if I've misunderstood.

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I read "Emergence" and then "Ender's Game" in succession a few weeks ago. I would love to see the ballet with those books fresh in my mind. Too bad.

Did anyone who saw the ballet read "Emergence" and can one comment on the relationship?

"Emergence", while in many ways enlightening, contains some intellectual dishonesty and inaccurate conclusions, which are not logically based, but rather seem a failed, insulting attempt at marketing and persuasion. The author starts by stating that one must saturate an initial market with a monopoly to succeed, but then argues that (everyone else?) must have no secrets or privacy (including, I guess, economic secrets with which to enter and conquer the market to be monopolized) with the always powerful argument of "get over it". Because of bee and ant colonies and their architecture.

I assume the ballet did not contain the same message. happy.png

Apologies, I confused "Emergence" with "Breakpoint". Both seem to deal with insects and colonies and relationships.

Was the recent ballet similar in any way to "Metamorphoses"?

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Was the recent ballet similar in any way to "Metamorphoses"?

No. Pite has been quite clear what book influenced her work. The insect motif and creation/formation has a superficial resemblance to "The Cage" but it diverges greatly from that ballet, too. "Emergence" is not about the individual.

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When I got to the theater today, I thought I had gotten on the end of a ticket takers line, but it was the end of the ticket *buyers* line, which starts the equivalent of half a block away. It was great to see the theater fill in for this program. There are lots of young people here, some new audience, and a smattering of kids. And this is a rare sunny November afternoon in Seattle.

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