Preview: PNB’s 2008–2009 Season
By Rosie Gaynor
Posted
September 22,
2008
None of my
favorites is being danced at PNB this season. Which (minus the
personal slant) is probably the point of PNB’s programming: 10
of the 16 works being presented this season are new to the
company. Who knows which will become new favorites for us?
Among them,
surely, will be Twyla Tharp’s two new works. They open the
season on Thursday. I can’t wait!
We got a
sneak preview of this amazing woman’s newest pieces last
Thursday, at an exciting, well-attended lecture-demonstration
(with live music, thank you, Maestro Stewart Kershaw and
company) at McCaw Hall. Her courtly Opus 111 expresses a
contagious energy and joy I wouldn’t have looked for in Brahms’s
pretty-but-used-to-seem-stodgy-to-me String Quintet No. 2 in G
major. Afternoon Ball is more Beckett than ballet: weird,
interesting, and definitely worthwhile.
We saw
Opus 111—or, an excerpt of it—on Saturday night, at the
company’s major fundraising gala, FIRST LOOK 2008: A
Signature Celebration. These season previews really count as
celebrations, even if you don’t shell out for the $375–$5,000
swank dinner afterwards. (Standard tickets: $75.) There is an
air of festivity, the black-tie crowd is excited for the season
to start, there’s a tantalizing glimpse of what lies ahead, and
there’s champagne in the lobby during intermission. Plus,
Artistic Director Peter Boal officially announces the
promotions. The elegant, capable, evocative Lucien Postlewaite
now ranks among the principal dancers. Promoted to soloist were
the solid and personable Benjamin Griffiths, the
stops-at-no-challenge James Moore, Seth Orza (who we’re just
getting to know out here in
Seattle),
and contemporary dynamo Rachel Foster.
Four other
works were given at Saturday night’s gala. Balanchine’s
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, a premiere for the company, got
the evening off to a fun start. Part musical comedy with a dash
of cartoon, it gives the dancers a chance to show what
accomplished, timing-sensitive actors they are.
An excerpt
from Balanchine’s Jewels (a pas de trois from
Emeralds) followed, then Opus 111, and then a look at
the pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s After the
Rain. I feel so lucky to have seen the last piece. I
remember reading about the premiere in the New York Times
three-and-a-half years ago, thinking it would be ages before I’d
get a chance to see it. Yet here it is, at PNB already, with the
exquisite Carla Körbes and quietly powerful Batkhurel Bold
matching perfectly the NYT’s account of its original
performers: “With her sinewy lightness and his muscular
solidity, this looked like a pas de deux of air and
earth.” The lifts in this piece are innovative—some almost
hidden, as though Bold were merely standing next to Körbes—but
what really got to me was the ending, where Körbes is in a
backbend and Bold slips tenderly, quietly, simply into the space
between her and the stage floor.
Symphony in C
closed the evening. It always takes me a while to warm up to
this Balanchine technical extravaganza for 50+ dancers. (Partly
this is because I confuse the name with his Symphony in Three
Movements, a different extravagant piece that I could watch
every night for the rest of my life.) However, our dancers are
so good and they have the benefit of being staged by Francia
Russell and so Symphony in C is undeniably pretty. Did I
mention the gorgeous white tutus? By the time the third movement
starts up, I’m over the disappointment and hooked again. Lucky
for me, it’s not too late: the exciting whirlwind fourth
movement is still to follow. When 50 or so dancers are moving in
unison to Balanchine’s steps, it takes your breath away.
Saturday
night’s preview gave a pretty fair indication of the season to
come. It’s balanced; there’s something for everyone.
(Personally, I’d swap out the Broadway Rep in March and
add in Four Temperaments, Concerto Barocco,
and Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven. Or, while we’re
dreaming, a whole evening of Rite of Spring: Glen
Tetley’s, Molissa Fenley’s, and Nijinsky’s. But then I wouldn’t
get to see the Broadway Rep’s West Side Story Suite, and
I’m really looking forward to that.)
What’s your
best bet? A subscription. You’ll see a huge swathe of ballet
styles, from Kent Stowell’s lovely
Swan
Lake
(one of his best) to William Forsythe’s loud and controversial
One Flat Thing, reproduced. If money’s tight, sign up for
the $5 Fridays (in-studio partial rehearsals—very fun—they sell
out fast). Then, click on “Special Events” at
www.pnb.org to see some
discounts to full performances of regular season shows—for teens
($5), students (1/2-price rush), folks under 25 ($15), and
seniors (1/2-price rush).
See you
Thursday at opening night!
PNB’s 2008–2009
Season
Rep 1 – ALL THARP
September 25–October
5, 2008
Rep 2 – NEW WORKS
November 6–16, 2008
- A Garden,
Mark Morris
- M-Pulse, Kiyon Gaines
- 3 Movements, Benjamin Millepied
- One Flat Thing, reproduced, William Forsythe
Rep 3 – GEORGE BALANCHINE’S JEWELS
January 29–February
7, 2009
Rep 4 – BROADWAY FESTIVAL
March 12–22, 2009
- Carousel (A Dance),
Christopher Wheeldon
- TAKE FIVE ... More or Less, Susan Stroman
- Slaughter on
Tenth Avenue,
George Balanchine
-
West Side Story Suite, Jerome Robbins
Rep 5 –
SWAN
LAKE
April 9–19, 2009
Choreography: Kent Stowell (after Petipa/Ivanov)
REP 6 – DIRECTOR’S CHOICE
May 28–June
7, 2009
- Dances at a Gathering, Jerome Robbins
- After the Rain pas de deux, Christopher Wheeldon
- Symphony in C,
George Balanchine
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