BOUNDLESS: March 17-28, March 23-26; Streaming March 30-April 6

[Helene]

Pacific Northwest Ballet continues its 50th Anniversary Season with premieres aplenty from Penny Saunders, Alejandro Cerrudo, and Jessica Lang.

 

 

Seven Performances: March 17 – 26, 2023

March 17 at 7:30 PM

March 18 at 2:00 and 7:30 PM

March 23 – 25 at 7:30 PM

March 26 at 1:00 PM

Marion Oliver McCaw Hall

321 Mercer Street at Seattle Center

Seattle, Washington

 

Streaming Digitally March 30 – April 3

 

SEATTLE, WA – On the third anniversary of the March 2020 closure, Pacific Northwest Ballet welcomes back three of its favorite pandemic-era collaborators to return to the McCaw Hall stage, this time with a live audience. Alejandro Cerrudo, Jessica Lang, and Penny Saunders consistently challenge and push the boundaries of dance and theatrical conventions. BOUNDLESS continues PNB’s celebration of its 50th Anniversary Season with Saunders’ theatre-roving Wonderland, and world premieres from Cerrudo and Lang. BOUNDLESS runs for seven performances, March 17 through 26 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at just $37. The program will also stream digitally from March 30 through April 3. Tickets for the digital access are $35. For tickets and additional information, contact the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424, in person at 301 Mercer Street, or online 24/7 at PNB.org. 

The program line-up includes:

Wonderland

Original Music and Adaptations: Michael Wall

Additional Music: Jean-Philippe Goude, Hugues Le Bars, Erik Satie, Camille Saint-Saëns, Stephen Foster

Choreography: Penny Saunders

Assistant to the Choreographer: Pablo Piantino

Sound Design: Penny Saunders

Costume Design: Melanie Burgess

Lighting Design: Trad A Burns

Premiere: November 12, 2020 (PNB Digital Season)

 

PNB’s 2020 world premiere of Penny Saunders’ Wonderland is principally supported by the Jane Lang Davis New Works Fund and Glenn Kawasaki, with additional support by T.R. Ko.

Wonderland pays homage to the marvel and magic of live theater – a love letter to the immense power and delight one finds within those walls. This work was originally made for film during the height of the pandemic. Now we happily inhabit this beautiful space again with a renewed sense of gratitude for the shared experience of live performance. [Program note by Penny Saunders.]

Penny Saunders was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. After graduating from the Harid Conservatory in 1995, she enjoyed a 20-year performing career with American Repertory Ballet, Ballet Arizona, MOMIX Dance Theater, Cedar Lake Ensemble, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. As a choreographer, Saunders has collaborated with Hubbard Street, Cincinnati Ballet, Whim W’Him, Pacific Northwest Ballet, BalletX, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Ballet Idaho, Seattle Dance Collective, and Grand Rapids Ballet, where she is currently Resident Choreographer. Saunders won the Princess Grace Award in 2016, and is an Artist in Residence at USC Kaufman School of Dance.

 New Cerrudo (World Premiere)

Music: M. Ward (More Rain, “More Rain”), Parra for Cuva (Mood in C, “Mood in A”), Hidden Orchestra (East London Street, “East London Street- Drums Only Version”), Natalia Tsupryk (Mariupol, “Mariupol”), Brambles (Charcoal, “Unsayable”), Ben Crosland (The Turn, “The Hourglass”), Timber Timbre (Timber Timbre, “Demon Host”)

Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo

Scenic and Costume Design: Karen Young

Lighting Design: Michael Korsch

PNB’s 2023 world premiere of Alejandro Cerrudo’s yet-to-be-titled new work is principally supported by Aimee Truchard, with additional support from T.R.Ko.

Alejandro Cerrudo was born in Madrid, Spain. His professional career includes work with Stuttgart Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 2, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC). Cerrudo was HSDCʼs Resident Choreographer from 2008 to 2018. In 2020, Peter Boal named Cerrudo the first Resident Choreographer of Pacific Northwest Ballet, a post he will hold for three seasons. Cerrudo’s body of work has been performed by more than 20 professional dance companies around the world. His collaborations include Wendy Whelan on her program Restless Creature, Daniil Simkin for the Guggenheim Rotunda, and Sleeping Beauty for Ballet Theater Basel. In 2022 he became the Artistic Director of Charlotte Ballet.

Let Me Mingle Tears With Thee (World Premiere)

Music: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Choreography: Jessica Lang

Scenic & Costume Design: Jillian Lewis

Lighting Design: Carolyn Wong

Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, written in 1736 when he was only 26 years old, is one of his most celebrated sacred works and composed in the final weeks of his life. The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Latin hymn which portrays Mary standing at the foot of the cross mourning the loss of her Son. Over centuries, the text has been a popular subject for many composers including Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Haydn, Schubert, Verdi, Dvořák, and Arvo Pärt. Featuring two voices, Pergolesi’s score is 12 movements, divided in two parts. The first half is in third person, with the text providing a bit of narrative storytelling while the second half is in first person becoming a universal prayer. [Program note by Jessica Lang.]

The premiere of Jessica Lang’s Let Me Mingle Tears With Thee is principally supported by Deidra Wager, with additional support by Joshua Lieberman and Braiden Rex-Johnson & Spencer Johnson

A celebrated choreographer of her generation, Jessica Lang has created over 100 original works on companies worldwide including ABT, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, PNB, and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance. Lang was Artistic Director of Jessica Lang Dance from 2011-2019. The company performed in over 85 cities presented by venues including Lincoln Center, LA Music Center, The Kennedy Center, Tel Aviv Opera, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and Helikon Opera. She is the recipient of a Martha Hill Mid-Career Award, an Arison Award and a Bessie Award, and fellowships at NY City Center and NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts. jessicalangchoreographer.com

 

UPCOMING SPECIAL EVENTS 

PNB CONVERSATIONS & DRESS REHEARSAL

Thursday, March 16, 5:30 pm

Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall

Join arts and culture reporter Marcie Sillman, in conversation with choreographers Alejandro Cerrudo, Jessica Lang, and Penny Saunders. PNB Conversations offers in-depth interviews with artists involved in putting our repertory on stage. Attend the Conversations event only or stay for the dress rehearsal of BOUNDLESS. Tickets ($30) may be purchased through the PNB Box Office. 

BALLET TALK

Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall

Join dance historian 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. 

MEET THE ARTIST

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. (There will be no Meet the Artist event following the 3/18 matinee.)

[Helene]

Casting is up for both weekends, with two casts each for Wonderland (Penny Saunders) and Let Me Mingle Tears with Thee (Jessica Lang), and one cast for the Alejandro Cerrudo World Premiere:

https://www.pnb.org/season/boundless/

Here's the link to the downloadable Excel file:

Boundless 2023_03_13.xlsx

As always, casting is subject to change.

[Gargouillade]

As a grateful digital subscriber, I'd love to hear from the people who saw one of the live performances. For that matter, I'd love to hear the thoughts of other digital viewers.  This program seems to have elicited less comment than most.

[pirouetta27]

I'm curious, too! Can we please give a round of virtual applause to the tech crew for this one? Between the amount of fly work, lighting cues, costume changes, etc. they must have been extremely busy. Kudos too to the stage manager who called all of it.

[Grace8]

Late in replying -- saw the 1st Saturday evening performance and the digital performance. Wonderland (Saunders): I preferred the initial digital performance from earlier in the pandemic, since it was meant to use different viewpoints in the theater. I also wonder how well people could see the dancers in the boxes (Lucien Postlewaite and Mark Cuddihee) from different areas of the theater.

Unfortunately there was a problem with the automated strobe lighting for the first section of Black on Black on Black (Cerrudo), so they only performed the last 2 sections. I would need to see it again in-person after watching the digital streaming version to better understand it.

I liked Let Me Tears Mingle with Thee (Lang) the most. Particularly enjoyed the different "pictures" made using the long piece of fabric in the earlier sections. Appreciated seeing two different casts between the in-person and digital performances; looking forward to seeing more of Audrey Malek's dancing.

[Helene]

I only saw the digital stream, and I also thought Malek was a standout in the Lang.

I love the Pergolesi, but I preferred Oliver Wevers' work for Whim W'him to the same music.  

While I loved seeing Postlewaite, I was sad to miss most of what Cuddihee was dancing in the opposite box, since the camera had to make a choice for the close-ups.

[sandik]

On 4/18/2023 at 12:46 PM, Helene said:

I love the Pergolesi, but I preferred Oliver Wevers' work for Whim W'him to the same music.  

And lucky you -- they're performing it later this month.