Rachel Foster and James Moore in After the Rain pas de deux. Photo © Angela Sterling

"The first really interesting choreographer to turn up in American ballet after the death of George Balanchine...a hot ticket."  (The New York Times)

Carousel (A Dance)©  (Richard Rodgers/Christopher Wheeldon)
After the Rain pas de deux©  (Arvo Pärt/Christopher Wheeldon)
Polyphonia©  (Gyorgy Ligeti/Christopher Wheeldon)
Variations Sérieuses©  (Felix Mendelssohn/Christopher Wheeldon)

PNB's season-opening mixed bill confirms the scope of Christopher Wheeldon's prodigious talent as well as his artistic influences. An all-dance synopsis of the famous musical, Carousel (A Dance) pays homage to composer Richard Rodgers and to Jerome Robbins' love of Broadway. A large ensemble cast rotates around the ill-fated lovers, who reach for each other in a tender duet "so enriching that one hungers for more" (New York Times). Another study of intimacy unfolds in After the Rain pas de deux, the couple's tangible physicality acting as metaphor for deeply nuanced emotion. Sleek and technical, Polyphonia's cool abstraction suggests George Balanchine's influence, especially the pure lines of its centerpiece, a sinuously sustained duet. In Variations Sérieuses, Ian Falconer's (author/illustrator of the Olivia series) ingenious set design turns comedic tables on ballet—both literally and figuratively—by offering the audience a view from the wings. The interplay of an hysterical and hilarious cast of characters, on and offstage, evokes Wheeldon's unerring instinct for entertainment. "as much a theater piece as a dance work...filled with intricate personalities." (Seattle Times).

ALL WHEELDON Details