PNB 2010-2011 Season and Reduction of One Performance per Run

[Helene]

Renewal packages must have gone out, because renewals are being encouraged on the PNB website, with the following details on the website:

http://www.pnb.org/Season/Subscriptions/Renew/Overview.aspx

* The PNB premiere of Jiri Kylian's Six Dances and the return of this season’s smash hit,

Petite Mort

.

* An all Twyla Tharp retrospective.

* The long-anticipated revival of Kent Stowell's full-length

Cinderella

.

* World and PNB premieres.

* Subscriber favorites,

Lambarena

and

Jardí Tancat

.

* A new-to-PNB Jerome Robbins work,

Glass Pieces

with music by Philip Glass.

for "Afternoon Ball" and "Waterbaby Bagatelles" with "Nine Sinatra Songs", but that might be too greedy.

"Glass Pieces" -- and

[sandik]

* The PNB premiere of Jiri Kylian's Six Dances and the return of this season’s smash hit, Petite Mort.

* An all Twyla Tharp retrospective.

* The long-anticipated revival of Kent Stowell's full-length Cinderella.

* World and PNB premieres.

* Subscriber favorites, Lambarena and Jardí Tancat.

* A new-to-PNB Jerome Robbins work, Glass Pieces with music by Philip Glass.[/indent]

for "Afternoon Ball" and "Waterbaby Bagatelles" with "Nine Sinatra Songs", but that might be too greedy.

"Glass Pieces" -- and

I'd ask for Dances at a Gathering again. Or something with Chopin -- it's his birth anniversary next year.

At the Sleeping Beauty seminar last week, Larae Haskell said that the Jardi costumes have been lent out to a company in the Midwest for a few months -- it looks like they'll have to come hom.

[Helene]

I'd ask for Dances at a Gathering again. Or something with Chopin -- it's his birth anniversary next year.

That would be great! (As would an All Robbins program that didn't include WSSS.)

[sandik]

I'd ask for Dances at a Gathering again. Or something with Chopin -- it's his birth anniversary next year.

That would be great! (As would an All Robbins program that didn't include WSSS.)

I would even agree to WSSS again if it was on the same program with Dances at a Gathering.

[Helene]

I would even agree to WSSS again if it was on the same program with Dances at a Gathering.

The things we do for love.

[Helene]

PNB has announced the 2010-11 season, as well as the reduction of standard rep runs from 8 performances to 7: Opening Night will move from first Thursday to first Friday, with the first Thursday performance eliminated.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thea...6987_pnb11.html

The season consists of:

All Tharp: "Opus 111", "Afternoon Ball" (), and "Waterbaby Bagatelles" ()

Kent Stowell's "Cinderella"

Three other mixed bills consisting of a new work by Marco ("Mopey") Goecke, "Petite Mort", Kylian's "Six Dances", Jerome Robbins' "Glass Pieces (), Ratmansky's "Concerto DSCH" (), "Jardi Tancat", Paul Gibson's "The Piano Dance" (), Morris' "Pacific", Tanner's "Ancient Airs and Dances", and a TBA. (I've never seen the Morris.)

Season Ender:( See below) "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

[SandyMcKean]

WOW

What's going to happen to the opening night subscribers?? Or if they move those folks to Friday, what will happen to the Friday subscribers (yikes, I'm one of those!)

I'm very glad to see Piano Dances come back.

I don't know what to make of this season. Frankly, on first glance, it looks "revenue" driven .

[California]

. . . The season consists of:

Three other mixed bills consisting of . . . Jerome Robbins' "Glass Pieces (), . . .

It looks like the press release is still listing Robbins' Glass Pieces. But it seems to have been removed from the PNB web site. I printed out the 2010-11 subscription information on 1/29/2010. They were still showing an A series on Thursday nights. They were also listing Glass Pieces on the repertory page for 2010-11, but it has now disappeared. Any information on what happened? Does anyone know if it's still planned?

http://www.pnb.org/Season/Subscriptions/Renew/Overview.aspx

[sandik]

Hmmm, this is a big, big shift. If they open on Friday night, it's quite possible that they won't get a print review from the Seattle Times until the Monday edition (they'd have to turn something around overnight for the Saturday edition, which is tricky timing, and the Sunday arts section is printed earlier in the week) I wonder why they would drop the first Thursday and not the second, though there may be union issues involved.

I'll see what I can find out tomorrow morning, and post what I learn...

[SandyMcKean]

I just got off the phone with the box office. I got some of the logistical information, but "the other end of the phone" person didn't know much about the reasons for anything (hopefully sandik you will get some info on that).

As I understood the phone call:

1. PNB is smashing series A (Thurs night - was opening night) and series B (the next day, Friday) subscribers together.

2. You have to re-subscribe without any guarantee of seats to "get on the list".

3. You must pay for your subscription when you renew.

4. Subscribers who will lose their seats will get a phone call to discuss what's available.

5. Priority in terms of "who gets the seats they want" is almost certainly going to be determined by how much you contribute to PBN beyond ticket costs (BTW, this is what PNB did when they moved into the re-built opera house -- basically money counted for everything, loyality almost nothing -- it was my understanding at the time of that move that they arranged subscribers 1st by how much money you gave; if there was a tie, for example you and I both gave exactly $50,000 , then and only then, was number of years as a subscriber taken into account. (My advise is to give $50,001 instead of $50,000 )

6. If you choose to not accept the offered new seats, your full payment will be refunded (a special policy just put in place to handle this unfortuate overall situation).

[GTucker]

Hi, Helene -

The Seattle Times didn't quite get the line-up right and I haven't had the time to ask them to correct it online: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is not closing the season, but will be the second-to-last program. The sixth and final offering of the season willl be Alexei Ratmansky's "Concerto DSCH" and a title to be announced.

Of course, as I always like to say, "Subject to change"! Cheers,

--Gary

[sandik]

Glad to see Gary here -- he's been working extra time on all of this hullabaloo.

Here's the release that came out today

Pacific Northwest Ballet announces 2010-2011 season line-up.

--Plus--

Reduction in performances per program. Thank you, economy!

PNB 2010-2011 Season Line-Up

Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal has unveiled his proposed line-up for the company’s 2010-2011 season. Highlights include the return of Jiri Kylian’s Petite Mort paired with the PNB premiere of Six Dances, both from Kylian’s “Black and White” series; company premieres of works by Jerome Robbins and Alexei Ratmansky, an all-Tharp program; a world premiere by Mopey choreographer Marco Goecke; Kent Stowell’s magical Cinderella; and the return of PNB’s renowned production of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

2010-2011 SUBSCRIPTION SEASON LINE-UP*

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

Scenic Design: Tony Straiges

Costume Design: Martin Pakledinaz

Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli

Rep 4 – ANCIENT AIRS/MODERN DANCES

March 18 – 27, 2011

Ancient Airs and Dances

Music: Ottorino Respighi

Choreography: Richard Tanner

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

Scenic and Costume Design: Martin Pakledinaz

Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli

REP 6

June 3 – 12, 2011                            

A ballet to be announced, and

Concerto DSCH – PNB Premiere

Music: Dmitri Shostakovich

Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky

And don’t forget:

Stowell/Sendak NUTCRACKER

November 26 – December 27, 2010

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Choreography: Kent Stowell

Scenic & Costume Design: Maurice Sendak

Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli

*Schedule and All Programming Subject to Change.

AND NOW, SOME NEWS ABOUT BELT-TIGHTENING

As you know, the performing arts community has been hit hard by the recent economic recession. While our loyal patrons continue to attend Pacific Northwest Ballet performances, ticket sales and donations have suffered significantly during this downturn. In response, we have already enacted numerous measures to lessen the impact of the downturn – administrative staff furloughs, careful reduction in expenses, contract renegotiations with artists, among others. When exploring ways to save, we always look first at what will not have an impact on the artistic integrity of our performances and school. That’s why we continue to perform to live music, commission new works, and retain the highest quality of dancers. In addition to implementing the aforementioned measures to continue to present outstanding ballet performances with fewer resources, PNB has concluded that we need to reduce the number of subscriber performances per program from eight to seven, beginning with the first program in the 2010-2011 Season. Starting in September, we will eliminate the first Thursday performance and move opening night to Friday.

The first Thursday performance is one of our least-subscribed series, with the highest number of no-shows and exchange-outs, so the fewest subscribers possible are impacted by this decision. PNB generally sells more tickets during the second week of a production, so it was important to retain the second Thursday in order to maximize ticket sales, and the second Thursday performance has good availability into which we can move first-Thursday subscribers.

For our subscribers currently attending Thursday or Friday of opening week, we are offering several options, including moving dates, seats, or switching to another series. In all scenarios, our box office staff will make every effort to place them in their same seats, or as close as possible to the seating location of their choice. Affected subscribers should call the PNB box office at 206.441.2424.

We deeply appreciate the loyalty of our PNB subscribers. We strive to make their experience with us as rewarding as possible, and we will make every effort to continue to present the standard of excellence that our audiences have come to expect from their ballet company.

---------------------

My understanding is that the dancers and the musicians agreed to keep their same pay rates for next season, and since they had forgone a raise for this year as well that's an extra notch in the belt.

[Helene]

I just read that Colorado Ballet is cutting a program from next season. I happy that PNB is able to take a different approach.

This isn't the first time PNB has reduced the number of performances in a season and messed with subscriptions. When I first subscribed in the 1994-5 season, I had a Thursday subscription. I don't remember if the ballet opened on Tuesday -- although at that point I think they might still have shared the Opera House with the Seattle Symphony, which played Mondays or Tuesday -- or if they performed over three weeks, and opened the week/weekend before, but when my night became Opening Night, I got the "The Opening Night subscribers have first dibs on seating for your night, prepare to move" letter. I believe the solution was to move my entire group to second Thursday, which didn't work for me, because I wanted to know early if I wanted to see something again.

I assumed it was because the Opening Night people were the big donors, not that they said "The people in row H, seats 101-2 in subscription A give more money than the people in the same seats for subscription B" -- I wouldn't want to deal with those logistics -- but that the whole subscriber night was given precedence, at least from what I remember of the notification. That doesn't mean that PNB is handling it the same way this time, but they have taken this approach at cost savings before, and they've faced the same dilemma.

[bart]

I empathize with what you all must be feeling about this change. However, you in Seattle remain fortunate in being offered 6 distinct programs.

I find myself thinking that the cost per program must be high with so few performances of each. Miami performs in 4 different cities in south Florida. This does of course involve traveling costs. But it also allows them to give 12-14 performances for each of their four programs. (I'm not counting Nutcrackers, which travel as well.) I'd love to have more programs, of course, but there are benefits to being able to focus on additional performances: not only economies of scale, but also the chance to give different casts more chances to perform. Miami is sometimes able to give stage time to 4-5 different casts and to do a remarkable amount of role-switching. They can also tap into a distinct donor populations based in the 3 cities outside Miami. With FOUR "opening nights," they increase their access to the fashionable, the party goers, and those who can right big checks.

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

[sandik]

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

Oh, you have no idea how ticklish this question is!

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.

[SandyMcKean]

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]

. . . 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.org/vaildance/info/sc...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:

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.