NEXT STEP -- Update #2

Every year at this time, there is such a rush of energy felt around the PNB studios. There is a performance season in full swing, the school is starting rehearsals for our June performance, and the youngest and newest choreographers are quietly anxious, as they begin to feel the stress of what to do next in preparation for NEXT STEP on June 18. In particular, Price Suddarth and Ezra Thomson. These are two Company members who are not only adjusting very well to their new lives as professional dancers, but also experiencing their first taste of the chaotic schedule and planning that go along with creating a new work for PNB’s NEXT STEP program.

Choreographer Price Suddarth works with
Professional Division student Elle Macy on a
 new work for NEXT STEP. Photo by Lindsay Thomas.

Price has made full use of his time with his dancers and is a thoughtful planner. Yet, finding time in his full schedule as a first year Company dancer is proving to be quite a task. He is calm and quietly confident about knowing he’ll finish his first new work by June 18th, but at the same time restless to get into the studio and work with the Professional Division students he has chosen. His piece is starting to take shape, and looks quite a bit like Price’s dancing— musical and clear, with angles that are precise and tastefully artistic.

Choreographer Price Suddarth works with
Professional Division students Jennifer Christie and
Harrison Monaco on a new work for NEXT STEP.
Photo by Kylee Kitchens.

Ezra is realizing just what a huge responsibility he’s taken on. Not only has he decided to choreograph, but this second year dancer has also (at the wise suggestion of Peter Boal) gone ahead and composed his own music for this year’s NEXT STEP! It is already difficult to choreograph under the constraints of performing, taking class, and rehearsing as a PNB Company member. To also compose, play, and record original music in your spare time is quite an undertaking. How does he do it? Ezra is the quintessential workhorse, though laidback enough to not stress out too much. He knows he’ll get everything done, but is always thinking of what needs to come next.


I’ve included a clip of Ezra’s original composition for this year’s performance so that you can get a sneak peak as to what is in store for everyone. I hope you enjoy it, and stay tuned for more updates and insight as to what is to be expected June 18th. It’s getting closer! Also, don’t forget about TEEN NIGHT on May 4. From 6-8 pm teens are invited to step in side Studio C with Company dancers and be the first to see the works being created for NEXT STEP.  I hope to see you there! - Nicholas Ade, NEXT STEP Coordinator

CONTEMPORARY 4: Opening Night Notes from Artistic Director Peter Boal

Peter Boal, PNB Artistic Director
Photo © Angela Sterling

I love a world premiere. During my twenty-two years as a dancer with New York City Ballet, I was a part of thirty-three premieres, working with the likes of Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Ulysses Dove, and Christopher Wheeldon. Every time I spotted my name on a rehearsal schedule for a new work, I wondered whether this work might be the next Agon. Well, it wasn’t. Every now and then, something exciting was born, though more often than not we had a clunker on our hands. Nonetheless, I savored the process—finding the step, adding the phrasing, working out the details with a partner, collaborating, or just being the paint on the artist’s brush. Recently, I watched Marco Goecke craft phrases for Ezra Thomson, and it occurred to me that this moment of creation is perhaps the apex of our profession. It is also the constant, highlighting a connective chain of creation linking Ezra and Marco’s work on Place a Chill to 1841, when ballerina Carlotta Grisi first entered a studio with choreographer Jules Perrot to begin work on a ballet called Giselle. We continue to create new work. We must. It is how our profession grows, advances, and thrives.

All four works on the program are relatively recent creations. The veteran work, Pacific, hasn’t reached its sixteenth birthday yet. Created by Mark Morris for San Francisco Ballet in 1995 as part of the UNited We Dance Festival, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter, the work resonates with a quiet power. Restaged beautifully for us by Tina Fehlandt, it is a work that I like to see several times, as each viewing offers more dimension. Images of waves flow from liquid limbs, vibrant skirts, and flowing musical passages. Mark’s respect for musical composition is evident in everything he creates.

Paul Gibson is a hero behind the scenes at Pacific Northwest Ballet. He is one of the best ballet masters I’ve worked with, able to offer both clarity and insight. He does it without ego or emotion. He is a favorite teacher and manages to successfully sort through the enigma that is our daily rehearsal schedule. As if that’s not enough, he also has a gift for choreography. Before I took this job, I saw The Piano Dance and thought it beautifully crafted and a perfect showcase for dancers. Paul has a new creation scheduled for our School Performance this June.

I commissioned a work from Marco Goecke for Peter Boal and Company in 2004. I remember Marco asking if the dancer could drag a running chain saw across the stage. I said no. Marco’s work had not been seen in this country at the time and I didn’t know if the chainsaw would help with the introduction. Mopey made quite a splash at the premiere, even without a tree-cutting device. Some loved it, some didn’t. Everyone had an opinion. Since then, Marco’s career as a choreographer has exploded, having choreographed for Norwegian National Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Hamburg Ballet, and Stuttgart Ballet, where he currently serves as resident choreographer. Marco’s genius comes from detail. Movements flutter so quickly that they appear to be random, and yet each is intricately scripted. Drawing inspiration for Place a Chill from the brilliant musicianship of cellist Jacqueline du Pre, Marco offers his signature upper body work to the Camille Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1.

New York City Ballet has been a champion of commissioning choreography since its inception. George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins led the charge, with equal devotion to the cause from current Artistic Director Peter Martins. Commissioned in 2008, Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH is one of the finest neoclassical premieres of the last decade. With simple, effective costumes designed by Holly Hines and a robust score by Dmitri Shostakovich, this work is pure abstract dance laced with humor and pathos. Dancers are allowed to show off technique and reveal artistry. Alexei’s work is everywhere, having recently created a new production of The Nutcracker for American Ballet Theatre, where he currently serves as resident choreographer. A spectacular production of Don Quixote for the Dutch National Ballet premiered last year, with stunning sets and costumes by Jerome Kaplan (Roméo et Juliette). Watch for this exciting work on our stage next year.

I want to offer a word of appreciation for two of our costume designers. Martin Pakledinaz is represented in this program with costume designs for Pacific that literally create choreography from fabric. We’ve just applauded his designs for Cinderella and will sing his praises again in April’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His range is remarkable and his use of color sublime. Mark Zappone’s designs appear in four works this season and two works on this program. Mark’s a homegrown talent, having worked for PNB in our costume shop on and off since 1983. His designs are seen in San Francisco and Portland as often as they are at the McCaw Hall. He’s offered “brilliance on a budget” time and time again and his contribution to our repertory has been profound.

We take great pride in being able to present a wealth of new works, contemporary works, and treasured classics. The balance of both challenges and enchants audiences and artists alike. It is this balance that defines PNB.

Meet choreographer Alexei Ratmansky Tomorrow Night

The Seattle Times recently named Alexei Ratmansky "one of the hottest balletmakers around". Tomorrw night, Seattle audiences have the opportunity to hear the Concerto DSCH choreographer speak about his work before dress rehearsal for CONTEMPORARY 4.

For details about tomorrow night's lecture and dress rehearsal, CLICK HERE

Alexei Ratmansky
Choreographer, Concerto DSCH

Born in St. Petersburg, Alexei Ratmansky trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. He was principal dancer with the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. As a choreographer, Mr. Ratmansky has created ballets for Dutch National Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and the State Ballet of Georgia. His 1998 work, Dreams of Japan, earned a prestigious Golden Mask Award by the Theatre Union of Russia. In 2003, Mr. Ratmansky was invited to mount a full-length ballet, The Bright Stream, at the Bolshoi Theatre, a production which led to his appointment as artistic director of Bolshoi Theatre in 2004. For the Bolshoi Ballet, he also choreographed full-length productions of The Bolt (2005) and re-staged Le Corsaire (2007) and the Soviet-era Flames of Paris (2008). Under Mr. Ratmansky’s direction, the Bolshoi Ballet was named “Best Foreign Company” in 2005 and 2007 by The Critics’ Circle in London, and he received a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for The Bright Stream. In 2005, Mr. Ratmansky was awarded the Benois de la Danse prize for his choreography of Anna Karenina for Royal Danish Ballet, and in 2007, he won a Golden Mask Award for Best Choreographer for his production of Jeu de Cartes for the Bolshoi Ballet. During his Bolshoi tenureship, Mr. Ratmansky also created works for New York City Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. Since joining American Ballet Theatre as Artist in Residence in 2009, he has created On the Dnieper, Waltz Masquerade, and Seven Sonatas for that company in addition to a new full length, The Nutcracker. Dutch National Ballet also premiered his full length Don Quixote in February 2010.


CONTEMPORARY 4
March 18-27, 2011
206.441.2424 or PNB.org

Mark Morris' Pacific featured on CONTEMPORARY 4 March 18-27

CONTEMPORARY 4
March 18–27, 2011
Pacific (Lou Harrison/Mark Morris)
The Piano Dance (Cage, Chopin, Ginastera, Bartok, Ligeti/Paul Gibson)
Place a Chill (Camille Saint-Saëns/Marco Goecke)
Concerto DSCH (Dmitri Shostakovich/Alexei Ratmansky)




Pacific choreographer Mark Morris.
Photo by Rosalie O'Connor

Mark Morris was born on August 29, 1956 in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980, and has since created more than 120 works for the company. From 1988–1991, he was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. Among the works created during his tenure were The Hard Nut, L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and Dido and Aeneas. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. He has created six works on the San Francisco Ballet since 1994 and received commissions from American Ballet Theatre and the Boston Ballet, among others. His work is in the repertory of the Geneva Ballet, New Zealand Ballet, Houston Ballet, English National Ballet, and The Royal Ballet. Morris is noted for his musicality—he has been described as “undeviating in his devotion to music”—and for his “ability to conjure so many contradictory styles and emotions.” He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for the New York City Opera, English National Opera, and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Mr. Morris was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991. He has received numerous honorary doctorates including the Boston Conservatory of Music, the Juilliard School, Long Island University, Pratt Institute, Bowdoin College, and George Mason University. Mr. Morris is the subject of a biography by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). In 2001, he opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York, his company's first permanent headquarters in the U.S, housing rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children, as well as a school offering dance classes to students of all ages.

 

PNB principal dancer Lucien Postlewaite in
Mark Morris' Pacific. Photo © Angela Sterling

“Lou Harrison’s Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano provided the musical inspiration of the Morris commission for San Francisco Ballet's participation in the United We Dance Festival, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. I saw it twice. ...it is translucent with references not only to the sea, but to the cultures residing on the shores against which the Pacific Ocean surges.”—Renee Renouf, ballet.co magazine

PNB principal dancers Carla Körbes and Batkhurel Bold
in Mark Morris' Pacific. Photo © Angela Sterling

 “Like the title of the dance, the work has multiple connotations, which are underscored by the costumes of Martin Pakledinaz. The bare-chested men wear culottes—full, skirt-like pants that suggest the native dress of Pacific Island and even Indian cultures; the women’s outfits have the same full skirts with simple tops. Blues and greens predominate, with red used for the central couple. The colors evoke the ocean as well as tropical climes. The movement Morris uses also incorporates suggestions of Asian cultures, particularly the Kathak style of southern India: the men (and later the women) repeat a gesture of one arm raised in a curve, the other pointing straight in the opposite direction with the head turned towards the pointing arm. ...This is a work that makes you think about its meaning.”—Larry Campbell, culturevulture.net

Paul Gibson's The Piano Dance featured on CONTEMPORARY 4

CONTEMPORARY 4 at Pacific Northwest Ballet March 18-27

Ten works for solo piano by five composers accompany the contrasting dances for four couples in Paul Gibson’s The Piano Dance, choreographed for Pacific Northwest Ballet. Although the composers chosen lived during a span covering more than a hundred years, Gibson sees in their works a common respect for the expression of melody. He has devised a series of solos, duets, and pas de trois for his dancers, set to music chosen for variety and for affinity to the dance impulse. The Piano Dance offers a sharp contrast to Gibson’s earlier works for the Company, in which he favored large-scale orchestral scores and required big ensembles. This new creation demonstrates his wish to convey the clarity of ballet performance in a setting of intimate and brilliant miniatures.

Former PNB  principal dancer Louise Nadeau in Paul Gibson's
The Piano Dance. Photo © Angela Sterling

Paul Gibson, former principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet, joined PNB in 1994 as a soloist and was promoted to the rank of principal mid-season in 1996. Upon retirement from the Company in June 2004, he was immediately named Ballet Master.

Paul Gibson Pacific Northwest Ballet Master since 2005.
Choreographer, The Piano Dance

Originally from Altoona, Pennsylvania, Mr. Gibson trained with Allegheny Ballet Academy and later with summer programs at the School of American Ballet. He won a scholarship to San Francisco Ballet School and joined that company in 1988. His six-year tenure at SFB included leading roles in a varied repertory, ranging from Russian classics to the innovative works of Mark Morris, William Forsythe, Helgi Tomasson, James Kudelka, and Jiri Kylian. During his performing career with PNB, Mr. Gibson was known for his numerous roles in the Balanchine repertory, including Agon, The Four Temperaments, Chaconne, Mozartiana, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as his mastery of contemporary pieces by a variety of choreographers, such as Nacho Duato, José Limón, Kevin O' Day, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, and the works of PNB Founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell.


Mr. Gibson’s choreographic work includes four world premieres for PNB: Sense of Doubt (2006), Rush (2002), Diversions (1998), and The Piano Dance (2005), which was awarded the Choo San Goh Award for Choreography, and works for PNB School's Professional Division in the Annual School Performance. After the premiere of Rush, Mikko Nissinen (artistic director of Boston Ballet) nominated Mr. Gibson to participate in the New York Choreographic Institute, where he created a new ballet, titled E.R.A.R., that premiered in PNB's 2004 Choreographers' Showcase. Other works include ballets for San Francisco Ballet School, the San Francisco Ballet Choreographic Workshop, and Allegheny Ballet Company.