Pacific Northwest Ballet’s box office opens for 2009-2010 season on Monday, July 20 and for one week they are offering a special sale: NO SERVICE FEES for in person and online sales at www.pnb.org from July 20 through midnight, July 27! (Service fees apply for phone orders)
2009-2010 highlights include a world premiere by Val Caniparoli, PNB premieres by Jiri Kylian and Ulysses Dove, a new production of George Balanchine’s Coppélia, and the return of audience-favorites Roméo et Juliette, Mopey, Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty.
Roméo et Juliette: September 24 – October 4, 2009
Packed houses and glowing reviews followed PNB’s West Coast premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette. Praised as “seamlessly fusing the vocabularies of ballet and modern dance…an astonishing and absorbing view of an old world with all the impetus of the new” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), the ballet’s stylized movement and avant-garde design narrow focus to the core of Shakespeare’s tragedy with intensity that equals Sergei Prokofiev’s passionate score.
Director’s Choice: November 5 – 15, 2009
Petite Mort (PNB Premiere), Mopey, The Seasons (World Premiere) and West Side Story Suite.
Petite Mort fully validates Jiri Kylian’s reputation as one of the most inventive and daring choreographers in the world. Six men (with fencing foils) and six women suspend time and dimension in a two-part wonder of precision, grace, and sensuality. Mopey’s 15-minute solo blitzkrieg through adolescence had audiences leaping from their seats in 2005. A newly commissioned work by Val Caniparoli (Lambarena and The Bridge) set to Alexander Glazunov’s The Seasons makes its world premiere, and the program is topped off by the happy return of Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite: “An intense, ever-pulsing half-hour. Magical…transcendent” (Seattle Times).
Nutcracker (Stowell/Sendak): November 27 – December 30, 2009
“Forget the Space Needle, forget the Ring Cycle, forget Mt. Rainier – this Nutcracker alone is worth a trip to Seattle” (Newsweek). With the possible exception of Santa’s one-night gift delivery service, PNB’s cherished Stowell/Sendak Nutcracker is the Northwest’s favorite holiday tradition and the most festive event of the season.
The Sleeping Beauty: February 4 – 14, 2010
Like savoring the work of an old master, The Sleeping Beauty fills one’s senses with majestic grace and tradition, consistently rewarding ballet novice and connoisseur alike. Intrinsically coupled with Tchaikovsky’s beloved score and with over 30 leading roles, Beauty’s grand-scale staging represents a caliber of excellence reserved for the world’s finest ballet companies and orchestras. This enduring classic promises to enchant the entire family.
3 by Dove (+1): March 18 – 28, 2010
Vespers, Red Angels, Suspension of Disbelief and Serious Pleasures (PNB Premiere)
Ulysses Dove (1947-1996) documented life in the language of dance and left a legacy that speaks with energy, drive, and open desire. Performed to an electric-violin score, Red Angels’ four dancers confront the audience in a series of scorching solos and duets and then walk away into a fiery landscape, arms raised like wings. Vespers’ six women draw on Dove’s memories of his grandmother’s congregation, their strength in harmony, and their determined struggle to reach the light. In Serious Pleasures, Dove uses light to create doorways and pathways to the social turmoil of the 80’s, where isolation, alienation, and intersection are portrayed with stunning clarity and athleticism. Suspension of Disbelief rounds out this contemporary program – “The energy was loose and twisty…a sped-up chain of unexpected movements, seemed impossibly fluid…The audience roared approval.” (The Seattle Times).
Hansel & Gretel: March 21 and 27, 2010
Pacific Northwest Ballet School faculty member Bruce Wells, who staged a delightful Pinocchio for young audiences this past spring, is back with his version of the adventures of young Hansel and Gretel, which was a huge hit for family audiences when PNB last presented it in the spring of 2007. The ballet will feature students from PNB School and PNB principal dancer Ariana Lallone.
All Balanchine: April 15 – 25, 2010
Serenade, Square Dance, The Four Temperaments.
PNB pays tribute to the greatest choreographer of the last century with all balanchine, an homage to the man who revolutionized the art form in ways that have changed it forever. Balanchine’s first American ballet, Serenade (1934), was choreographed for his students. Its transcendent purity endures as a testament to the choreographer’s genius. Square Dance (1957) knits classical ballet with the patterns and partnerings of 17th-century court and American folk dance for a buoyant, intricate work, notable for its celebrated male solo. The Four Temperaments (1946), a quintessential “black and white” Balanchine ballet, is an early experiment in spare abstraction based on mythological belief in four personality types.
Choreographers Showcase: April 21, 2010
Pacific Northwest Ballet continues its tradition of innovation and commitment to nurturing and presenting new choreography with the seventh annual Choreographers’ Showcase, featuring premieres of new pieces created by PNB Company dancers for PNB Company dancers.
Coppélia (PNB Premiere): June 3 – 13, 2010
PNB closes its season with a magnificent all-new production of George Balanchine’s classic Coppélia (1974), featuring sets and costumes by award-winning designer Roberta Guidi de Bagno. Based on Balanchine’s memories of the Russian production, and staged in close collaboration with the great dancer Alexandra Danilova, Coppélia has been called one of the happiest ballets in existence.
PNB’s 2009-2010 Season runs September 2009 – June 2010 at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer Street at Seattle Center. For ticket information, visit www.pnb.org.
