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Director's Choice-March 18-19, March 24-27


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From the Press Release:

Director's Choice

March 18 - 19 at 7:30 pm
March 19 at 2:00 pm
March 24 - 26 at 7:30 pm
March 27 at 1:00 pm


SEATTLE, WA – For the fourth program of its 44th season, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s artistic director Peter Boal selects three contemporary ballet works:

PNB’s Paul Gibson wears several hats: an essential ballet master, scheduler, and teacher. In his spare time, he’s an impressive choreographer, too. Rush premiered in the Mercer Arts Arena in 2003 and through we don’t want to revisit the venue, the ballet deserves another look. Reworked for this program, Gibson’s electrifying Rush kicks off a trio of works featuring PNB premieres by two rising stars in the world of dance – Alejandro Cerrudo’s Little mortal jump and Justin Peck’s trailblazing Year of the Rabbit. Cerrudo is Resident Choreographer for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Peck is New York City Ballet’s resident choreographer. This trio of contemporary works offers an energetic mix of speed, sculpture, and fresh musical offerings.

DIRECTOR’S CHOICE runs for seven performances only, March 18 through 27 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at $30. For more information, contact the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424, in person at 301 Mercer Street, or online at PNB.org.

The line-up for DIRECTOR’S CHOICE will include:

Rush

Music: Bohuslav Martinu (Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Tympani, H.271, 1938)
Choreography: Paul Gibson
Costume Design: Mark Zappone
Lighting Design: Lisa Pinkham

Running Time: 24 minutes

Premiere: November 7, 2002 (Mercer Arts Arena); re-staged March 18, 2016 (McCaw Hall); Pacific Northwest Ballet


Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) wrote his Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Tympani in troubled times, and the moods of anger and despair that pervade this piece reflect his concern for the future of his homeland. The work was finished on September 29, 1938, a day before Czechoslovakia was signed away to Nazi Germany as a result of the Munich Agreement. Choreographer Paul Gibson knew nothing of the concerto’s historical significance when he first heard a recording recommended to him by then PNB conductor Stewart Kershaw. Instead, he was swept away by the dark force and dense textures of the score, one that began almost immediately to inspire dance imagery. Rush was Gibson’s second ballet for PNB and his most ambitious offering to date. A work in three movements, it requires an ensemble of nine couples: a pair of principal dancers, four demi-soloists, and a corps de ballet of twelve. Plotless and free of any literal statements, this abstract neo-classical ballet explores a course that Martinu’s tense and turgid music has inspired. [Notes by Leland Windreich; edited by Doug Fullington, 2015.]

Little mortal jump (PNB Premiere)

Music: Beirut (“A Call to Arms” and “La Banlieue”), Andrew Bird’s Bowl
of Fire (“Beware”), Alexandre Desplat (“See How They Fall—Dans Les Champs De Ble” and “A Self-made Hero—Theme de Heroes”), Philip Glass (“Glassworks/Analog: Orange Mountain Music Archive: Closing”), Max Richter (“The Haunted Ocean 5” and “November”), Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan (“Fawn”)
Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo
Staging: Pablo Piantino
Scenic Design: Alejandro Cerrudo
Costume Design: Branimira Ivanova
Lighting Design: Michael Korsch

Running Time: 26 minutes

Premiere: March 15, 2012; Hubbard Street Dance Chicago


Little mortal jump, resident choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo’s tenth piece for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, is a bubbling blend of different styles and genres that distills into a fluid, cohesive whole. As a dance, it fuses the technicality of movement, the theatricality of the stage, and the dark humor inherent in relationships. As an experience, Cerrudo aims to transport his audience—to “make them forget what they did today, and what they will do tomorrow,” he says. From cubes that serve as frames and obstructions to diversely characterized couples to vastly contrasting music, Little mortal jump is layered with unexpected twists and turns. This work is a step in the evolution of Cerrudo’s choreographic style, of which he says, “I challenge myself to create more complex works and to do things that I haven’t done before.” [Notes courtesy of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.]

Year of the Rabbit (PNB Premiere)

Music: Sufjan Stevens (Enjoy Your Rabbit, 2002), orchestration by Michael P. Atkinson
Choreography: Justin Peck
Staging: Craig Hall and Janie Taylor
Costume Design: Justin Peck
Lighting Design: Brandon Stirling Baker

Running Time: 30 minutes

Premiere: October 5, 2012; New York City Ballet


Justin Peck’s acclaimed Year of the Rabbit is a collaboration with American singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens and is set to Stevens’ Enjoy Your Rabbit, an electronica album and song cycle based on the Chinese zodiac. The ballet features a new orchestration of the score by Michael Atkinson that was created specifically for the ballet. Year of the Rabbit is an elaboration of Peck’s Tales of a Chinese Zodiac, which was created in 2010 for the New York Choreographic Institute. [Notes courtesy of New York City Ballet.]

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SPECIAL EVENTS

FRIDAY PREVIEW
Friday, March 11, 6:00 pm

The Phelps Center, 301 Mercer St., Seattle

PNB’s popular Friday Previews are hour-long studio rehearsals hosted by Artistic Director Peter Boal and PNB artistic staff, featuring Company dancers rehearsing excerpts from upcoming ballets. Tickets are $12. (Note: These events usually sell out in advance.) Friday Previews are sponsored by U.S. Bank.


BALLET PREVIEW — FREE
Tuesday, March 15, 12:00 noon

Microsoft Auditorium, Central Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle

Join PNB for a FREE lunch-hour preview lecture at the Central Seattle Public Library. Audience Education Manager Doug Fullington will offer insights about DIRECTOR’S CHOICE, complete with video excerpts. FREE of charge.


LECTURE SERIES & DRESS REHEARSAL
Thursday, March 17

Lecture 6:00 pm, Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall
Dress Rehearsal 7:00 pm, McCaw Hall

Join Artistic Director Peter Boal in conversation with Year of the Rabbit choreographer Justin Peck during the hour preceding the dress rehearsal, discussing the creative process involved in the development of a new ballet. Attend the lecture only or stay for the rehearsal. Tickets are $12 for the lecture, or $30 for the lecture and dress rehearsal. Tickets may be purchased through the PNB Box Office.


PRE-PERFORMANCE LECTURES
Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall

Join Audience Education 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.


YOUNG PATRONS CIRCLE NIGHT
Friday, March 25


Join members of PNB’s Young Patrons Circle (YPC) in an exclusive lounge for complimentary wine and coffee before the show and at intermission. YPC is PNB’s social and educational group for ballet patrons ages 21 through 39. YPC members save up to 40% off their tickets. For more information, visit PNB.org and search for “YPC.”

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I kept waiting for the casting link to show up, only to find that PNB hsa done a jiggle with the website, and casting is now displayed at the bottom of the program's main page:

https://www.pnb.org/season/15-16/directors-choice/

For first weekend, there are two principal couples for Paul Gibson's "Rush", with the second couples the same for all three performances, one cast for Cerrudo's "little mortal jump" and two casts for most of the principal roles for Peck's "Year of the Rabbit," with one role danced by three different men: Renko, Suddarth, and Davis.

Here is the spreadsheet:

Directors Choice Wk 1 12 Mar.xlsx

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The website change really threw me as well -- there's less stuff nested behind other things, but it's a lot of scrolling around.

There's a video excerpt from the Hubbard Street production of Little mortal jump, if you're curious about the work.

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Hmmmm...it's pretty quiet on the DC thread.

I will stir the pot: went to a couple studio rehearsals last week. Didn't know much about any of the three pieces before, but excited for the program now. Rush has a lot going on and a lot more dancers than the casting shows. I want to say nine couples? LMJ looks to be multiple vignettes. Looks like Cerrudo's work but this time with humor, charm and wit. I loved it. Rabbit was so much more than the tidbits I found online. Very creative use of corps and I loved Angelica Generosa in her role (made on her in SAB days she mentioned at an aftertalk last year) and I look forward to seeing Leta Biasucci in it second weekend.

I received an email that the Saturday matinee will be part of KUOW's Front Row Center series, hosted/moderated by Marcie Sillman.

Second weekend casting is posted, lots of changes for LMJ.

Hope you all make it to this rep!

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I'm very curious to see how Rush looks in comparison to what I remember of it (or rather, how well my memory works!) And really looking forward to seeing the Peck (especially with Generosa)

Cerrudo seems to work best in the vignette format. I watched a lot of rehearsal for the last piece, but have to come into this one cold.

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I forgot to mention that Matt Renko totally wowed me in Rabbit. I don't know what section it was, but I believe he started off solo then the corp joined but he continued solo-type choreography. He is a really powerful dancer who dances far beyond his own skin. I look forward to seeing Price Suddarth and Kyle Davis in that role as well.

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I forgot to mention that Matt Renko totally wowed me in Rabbit. I don't know what section it was, but I believe he started off solo then the corp joined but he continued solo-type choreography. He is a really powerful dancer who dances far beyond his own skin. I look forward to seeing Price Suddarth and Kyle Davis in that role as well.

Fiddlesticks -- I'm not seeing him this weekend (going to see Kidd Pivot on Friday). Glad to hear good things, though.

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In Justin Peck's "Year of the Rabbit," which closed the program, Sarah Ricard Orza was stellar.

The corps is the star of the ballet interns of inventive response to the excellent score, and among the terrific dancers, Nicole Rizzitano and Matthew Renko were especially vibrant.

Price Suddarth had a great afternoon, and it was a pleasure to see Benjamin Griffiths' seamless, expert partnering.

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I forgot to mention that Matt Renko totally wowed me in Rabbit. I don't know what section it was, but I believe he started off solo then the corp joined but he continued solo-type choreography. He is a really powerful dancer who dances far beyond his own skin. I look forward to seeing Price Suddarth and Kyle Davis in that role as well.

I couldn't get to opening night (seeing Kidd Pivot) and was so sorry not to see Renko's performance in the Peck.

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I saw all three performances (Friday and Saturday) of the Director's Choice program. I don't see this company regularly and don't follow individual dancers, but the choreography was intriguing and led me to decide this would be a worthwhile visit. This company treats their audience very well - with pre- and post- discussions with company directors, choreographers, and dancers. I wish others would follow their lead.

I was mainly interested in seeing Doug Fullington's reconstruction from the Stepanov notation of the first three acts of Le Corsaire for the PNB School. I really hope he reconstructs the entire ballet for the regular company. I would love to see his analysis of how this original version differs from the various adaptations that we see at places like ABT. I'm always interested in seeing how different companies and countries get young kids interested in ballet, and this was a superb choice. Lots of little audience members were wearing their pirate costumes and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the show. A special treat: the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra in the pit provided live music - and were very professional. A pirate with a booming voice provided narration for much of it, which I'm sure helped the very young kids appreciate their first ballet.

As for the company's program, I was mostly interested in seeing Justin Peck's Year of the Rabbit, which I had not seen before. I saw his Rodeo last spring (sorry - I hate those gimmicky accent marks) and was so impressed that I decided I needed to start catching up on his other work. His use of the ensemble to create moving sculptures and shapes is truly astonishing and fresh, never gimmicky. I often found myself watching those and forgetting about a principal solo going on at the same time. Easy to understand why he is in such demand.

Alejandro Cerrudo's Little mortal jump was mesmerizing. After several very clever and funny sections (I won't spoil the surprise elements), to a wide-ranging collage of music, the final PdD is astonishingly engaging and intricate. The whole thing is more interesting with each viewing and I'd recommend it.

Rush was choreographed by Paul Gibson, a PNB ballet master, originally in 2002 and reworked for this season. The music was Martinu's Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Tympani. Although this expressed the composer's despair over the encroaching Nazism in his homeland of Czechoslovakia, Gibson apparently knew nothing about that history when he choreographed this piece. I kept hearing and seeing glimmers of Symphony in 3 Movements, Stravinsky's expression of despair at the devastation in Europe at the end of WWII - not in the sense of simplistic copying, but in the similarities of programmatic music despairing of the same cataclysmic events. Gibson's use of arms straight up and straight to the side recalled the final moments of Symphony for me. Has anybody ever put together a program of music and ballets that grew out of the influence of WWII? I'm thinking, e.g., of Tudor's Echoing of Trumpets, also to Martinu, about the massacre of the Czech town of Lidice. English National Ballet put together an amazing commemoration of WWI a couple of years ago with Lest We Forget - WWII has also inspired music and dance worth seeing.

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I much prefer "Rush" from the Second Tier: the first and last sections are like watching through a kaleidoscope.

I've long loved this Martinu score. It's got a kinship with "The Four Temperaments."

More Cecilia Iliesiu, please.

The two works that bookend this program are by choreographers well-steeped in the neoclassical tradition.

I chose tonight because 2/3 of the cast of "little mortal jump" were supposed to move to different roles, with four new dancers joining them, but according to the cast list, last weekend's cast will be performing.

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It's such a different perspective from up here. If I had stayed closer, I would not have known how in "little mortal jump" Elle Macy and Jerome Tisserand project to the rafters.

Close up and far away, Chelsea Adomaitis and Price Suddarth are muy compatico in their pas de deux.

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Matthew Renko really shines in "Year of the Rabbit."

It was great to see the corps work from a distance. Three viewings, and still more to see each time. I hope this comes back so I can give getting my eyes around it a try.

What a great range of music in this program!

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Both the choreography and the level of dancing overall tonight (Saturday, 3/26) was so uniformly good that it's hard to single out things for appreciation.

I liked Gibson's Rush as much as I like Possokhov's Classical Symphony: superb command of the classical vocabulary and its possible combinations. My eye never tired of the pure movement, and my eye tires of that easily. (Tisserand looked great; Rausch looked more at ease than I've ever seen her...this has been a season of growth for her).

It was interesting to contrast Rush with Year of the Rabbit, which had a far less sophisticated ballet vocabulary and less nuanced articulation, but was more lovable for its punchier, asymmetrical formations, non-balletic movement, and mimed gestures. (Both had excellent lighting and stage effects.)

[Gibson was such an intelligent stage presence that the absence of characterization (which seems deliberate) in Rush feels odd to me. It skewed my expectations a bit.]

I never saw Rabbit at NYCB, so it was amusing to see certain recognizable Bouderisms, Reichlenisms, and Taylorisms on the women (and a few that could perhaps be hinted more: Bouder's interplay with the corps, Reichlen's strategically averted eyes). Pantastico was explosive in Year of the Dragon...better than Taylor, I suspect.

I thoroughly enjoyed little mortal jump: everyone looked absolutely marvelous!

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(... Rausch looked more at ease than I've ever seen her...this has been a season of growth for her).

Didn't she, though -- she just seems much more comfortable in her skin than in years past. It's a treat to see that change.

It was interesting to contrast Rush with Year of the Rabbit, which had a far less sophisticated ballet vocabulary and less nuanced articulation, but was more lovable for its punchier, asymmetrical formations, non-balletic movement, and mimed gestures. (Both had excellent lighting and stage effects.)

Oh, you really put your finger on it here. I don't know that I'd call the vocabulary in Rabbit less sophisticated so much as it is more inclusive -- there are all kinds of references to non-ballet movement -- but it did open possibilities that I'm thrilled to think about.

[Gibson was such an intelligent stage presence that the absence of characterization (which seems deliberate) in Rush feels odd to me. It skewed my expectations a bit.]

Will have to think about this. I'm not sure that his more recent "Mozart Dances" had more characterization in it per se, but it did certainly offer an opportunity for performers to add that element -- I particularly remember Kaori Nakamura in it.

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