Doug Fullington on Reconstructing Giselle

Giselle
World Premiere, June 3-12, 2011

Peter Boal’s World Premiere staging of Giselle marks the first time an American ballet company has revived a classic based on original material researched by Stepanov notation expert Doug Fullington in collaboration with leading Giselle scholar Marian Smith.



Doug Fullington consults with Marian Smith during
Giselle studio rehearsal. © Angela Sterling.


Our work on Giselle continued in early January with a week of rehearsals in preparation for a demonstration in New York as part of the Guggenheim Museum’s Works and Process series. We gave three successful presentations to sold-out houses, one of which was offered on the internet as a live-feed (available for viewing on the PNB website). Peter Boal, Marian Smith, and I were joined by dancers Carrie Imler, Carla Körbes, James Moore, and Seth Orza, along with Interim Music Director and Conductor Allan Dameron as pianist, Costume Shop Manager Larae Hascall as wardrobe mistress, and Production Stage Manager Sandra Barrack. Our presentation explained our collaborative method of reviving Giselle, utilizing various sources from the 19th and early-20th centuries, and included excerpts from the ballet that featured both dancing and pantomime. Our presentation were well-received and generated a lot of buzz about PNB’s new Giselle.

Principal dancers Carla Körbes and Seth Orza
perform during PNB’s Giselle demonstration
at the Guggenheim Museum’s Works and
Process series in New York City. © Jesson Mata.

We resumed an intensive schedule of rehearsals the week of February 21, with Marian Smith again joining us from her home base in Eugene, where she is a professor at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance. We made tremendous progress, setting key narrative scenes for Giselle, Albrecht, Albrecht’s squire Wilfrid, and the gamekeeper Hilarion. These included Albrecht’s first entrances in both acts of the ballet; the dramatic highpoint of the first act, when Hilarion reveals Albrecht’s duplicity, triggering Giselle’s descent into madness; Giselle and Albrecht’s first meeting and pas de deux in the second act, after Giselle has been transformed into a ghostly Wili; and the ballet’s final scenes, during which Albrecht bids a final farewell to his beloved and faces the life he must lead without her. We also had the exciting opportunity to revive two scenes from the second act of Giselle that are now rarely performed: Hilarion and his hunters’ fright in the forest at midnight and a group of peasants saved from the Wilis by a wise old man.

Artistic Director Peter Boal at work on Giselle
with principal dancer Carrie Imler. © Angela Sterling.

Excitement about PNB’s new Giselle continues to grow outside the studio as well. Peter, Marian, and I were recently interviewed by radio host Marta Zekan for Seattle’s Arts Channel (watch for a link on the PNB website), we have interview requests from publications as far afield Danze e Danze, the leading Italian dance magazine, and Marian and I will write a preview of Giselle for the May issue of London’s Dancing Times. Looking ahead to our performances in June, we’ll be happily welcoming the Dance Critics Association, the national organization of dance critics, to Seattle for its annual conference, Scheduled in conjunction with PNB’s Giselle premiere, the conference theme this year will very appropriately be dance reconstruction.

Three months and counting until we unveil our new Giselle!

World Premiere by Mopey Choreographer Marco Goecke

Pacific Northwest Ballet unveils two new works with CONTEMPORARY 4, a cutting-edge mixed bill premiering acclaimed choreographer Alexi Ratmansky's Concerto DSCH, "passages of breathtaking dance brilliance" (New York Times), plus a World Premiere from Germany's "enfant terrible", Marco Goecke that is sure to generate lively debate. Joining PNB's double debuts are prized works from Seattle's renowned Mark Morris and the Company's own Paul Gibson.

PNB Facebook fans and Twitter followers will have access to behind-the-scenes webcasts, images, and artist bios for these four captivating artists over the next few weeks, beginning with with Marco Goecke.

Choreographer Marco Goecke
Photo © Marcia Breuer

Marco Goecke was born in Wuppertal, Germany. He began his ballet training in 1988 and danced with the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and the Theater Hagen Ballet. He created his first choreographic work, Loch, for the Theater Hagen Ballet. Loch was subsequently performed at the International Choreography Competition in Hannover, Germany. In 2001, Mr. Goecke created Chicks, his first work for the Stuttgart Ballet. In 2002, Mr. Goecke was invited by the Choreographic Institute of New York, an affiliate of New York City Ballet, to choreograph a work for NYCB’s Diamond Project. He subsequently created Mopey for Peter Boal and Company. Mopey has been performed at the Jacob´s Pillow Festival, at the Biennale in Venice and at the 2004 Pina Bausch Festival in Wuppertal. Mr. Goecke has also worked in opera, creating a solo for Die verkaufte Braut for the Staatstheatre Stuttgart Opera in 2003. Also in 2003, he entered the Prix Dom Perignon choreographic competition in Hamburg, where he was awarded First Prize for Blushing, a piece for eight dancers. Blushing has since entered the repertory of the Stuttgart Ballet and John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet. In 2005, he created Sweet Sweet Sweet for the Stuttgart Ballet, and the work has since been acquired by the Staatsballet Hannover. Also in 2005, he created Beautiful Freak for the Hamburg Ballet and won the art prize of the Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg 2005. At the beginning of the 2005-2006 season, Mr. Goecke was appointed resident choreographer of Stuttgart Ballet.

CONTEMPORARY 4
March 18-27, 2011
McCaw Hall
Tickets start at $27!206.441.2424 or PNB.org

Cinderella Program Notes from Artistic Director Peter Boal

PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal.
Photo © Angela Sterling

Grace Kelly, Kate Middleton, and Cinderella! Every little girl’s dream? Well, these days little girls have more options for prominence and power. I suspect today’s more ambitious little dreamers aspire to be Secretary of State, CEO of Hewlett Packard, have their OWN television network, or become President. The Princess thing is a real long shot, but a girl can dream, right? We all enjoy a little fantasy in our lives. Cinderella would have played the lottery if she had the chance.


With no megaball jackpot, she’s resigned to waltzing with the broom and imagining the interior of a faraway castle. Privilege and opportunity seem reserved to her comely siblings. Enter one good fairy, elegant couture, a horse-drawn carriage, handsome crown prince, and a ticking clock, and we are in the middle of a dramatic tale of love and triumph.

There are moments of Kent Stowell’s Cinderella that I so enjoy, like the charming choreography for the tiny “bugs.” I love the Jester's questioning glance towards the Prince after seeing the stepsisters sickled feet, which seems to say, “Really, them?” When the Prince gallantly spreads his cloak for Cinderella’s fitting of the slipper, I watch for the quiet sense of justice felt by the dear, powerless father.

Kent pulled together an A-list team for this production. Costume designs by Martin Pakledinaz dazzle. Reds like we’ve never seen them before fall between decadence and blush, swirling around a white-clad Cinderella as she navigates her first ball. Even designs for the children boast an elegance and festivity that runs throughout the production. We’ve all enjoyed the talents of Rico Chiarelli’s lighting designs for many years. He creates the subtlest of moods with an artist’s hand-helping to bring so many works in our repertory to vibrant life. Tony Straiges designed sets that are simple but not sparse. A hearth and a hutch create a home. A chandelier, elegant balustrade, and graceful steps allow us to envision fantastic images of the interior of a palace ballroom. The Palace exterior is the stuff of postcards. Grand stone archways, though untouchable, take a permanent place in our memories.

Prokofiev’s score is one of my favorites. We were largely deprived of Prokofiev at the New York City Ballet. Apparently, he and Balanchine locked horns during the creation of Prodigal Son in 1929. That was that—no more Prokofiev in the house of Balanchine. The music moves with its own sense of grandeur and impromptu, rich with suggestion. It is also a favorite of our orchestra. We welcome our new Music Director, Emil de Cou, for these performances.

Cinderella has not been performed for nine years and has never been performed in McCaw Hall. Its lavish scale is perfectly suited to our theater. We are all looking forward to these performances with great excitement. Enjoy the fantasy. Tonight that old Subaru is your horse-drawn carriage! Watch the clock, be home by midnight, and be careful if you lose a shoe on the grand staircase as you leave...anything’s possible, you just have to dream. - Peter Boal