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March 13–22, 2008 Program Notes PNB’s Director's Choice program has become an annual showcase for contemporary works specially chosen by Artistic Director Peter Boal.
Music: Mikel Rouse (Quorum, 1984) Choreography: Ulysses Dove Staging: Nasha Thomas-Schmitt Lighting Design: William H. Grant III First performance: October 18, 1986; Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (Dayton, Ohio) Duration: 17 minutes PNB premiere Vespers was inspired by memories of Ulysses Dove's grandmother, her energy and the small wooden building where she met with other women to worship. Set to driving percussion score by Mikel Rouse, six women in black dresses assemble and reassemble themselves in and around wooden chairs. Choreographed in 1986 for Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Vespers has also been performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. "Ulysses Dove's Vespers drew tumultuous cheers in a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and it is easy to see why. Vespers is a series of ventures from and back to the ranked chairs that frame the dance's second half, and of brief, bursting, spinning solos and encounters in the black space between."Vespers is the third work by Ulysses Dove to enter Pacific Northwest Ballet's repertory. The others are Red Angels (acquired in 2005) and Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven (acquired in 2006). The Seattle premiere of Vespers is generously underwritten by
Carl & Renee Behnke and Aya Stark Hamilton.
Music: Arvo Pärt (1976) Choreography: Edwaard Liang Costume Design: Mark Zappone Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli First performance: September 16, 2006; New Ballet Choreographers (New York), with Wendy Whelan & Craig Hall Duration: 11 minutes PNB premiere Edwaard Liang's Für Alina is an episodic duet for a man and a woman set to Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's spare piano solo of the same name. R.M. Campbell of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer described Pacific Northwest Ballet's performance of Für Alina at First Look 2007 as "tumultuous," while Susan Reiter, writing about the premiere on New York's 2006 New Ballet Choreographer's program in danceviewtimes, described the pas de deux as "...so delicate and unforced that in retrospect one hardly remembers [the dancers] moving." Reiter continued, " ...Liang found a way to make the silences palpable through the choreography, and sustained a profound sadness, so that even as these two figures found strength through each other and flowed in and out of some more extreme shapes, their return to the despairing sense of lost hope of the opening felt inevitable." Für Alina is the first work by Edwaard Liang to enter Pacific Northwest Ballet's repertory. Discography: • Arvo Pärt: Alina, ECM Records 449958 The PNB Premiere of Für Alina is generously underwritten by Lyndall Boal.
Music: Philip Glass (selections from Symphony No. 4, "Heroes," 1996; The Secret Agent film soundtrack, 1996) Choreography: Paul Gibson Costume Design: Mark Zappone Lighting Design: Lisa Pinkham First performance: April 20, 2007; Pacific Northwest Ballet (Celebrate Seattle Festival), with Carla Körbes, Noelani Pantastico, Casey Herd Duration: 20 minutes Paul Gibson's Sense of Doubt premiered in 2006 as part of the Company's Celebrate Seattle Festival. Set to passages from American minimalist composer Philip Glass's Fourth Symphony, as well as from Glass's film soundtrack for The Secret Agent, Gibson has choreographed a solo, duet, trio and quartet that suggest suspense and intrigue. The pervasive noir effect is underpinned by Mark Zappone's diaphanous costumes and Lisa Pinkham's ambient lighting. "Skillfully choreographed, fast-paced and dramatic, Sense of Doubt was a perfect showcase for the finest dancing that PNB can offer."Sense of Doubt is the Fourth work Gibson has made for Pacific Northwest Ballet. The others are Diversions (1998), Rush (2002) and The Piano Dance (2005). Discography: • Philip Glass: Secret Agent, Nonesuch 79442 • Philip Glass: Heroes Symphony, Naxos American 8559325 Recommended Reading: Music by Philip Glass, by Philip Glass (Da Capo Press, 1995) The 2007 world premiere of Sense of Doubt was generously underwritten by Peter & Peggy Horvitz.
Music: Thom Willems (2000) Choreography: William Forsythe Staging: Ayman Harper, Jill Johnson and Richard Siegal Costume Design: Stephen Galloway Lighting Design: William Forsythe First performance: February 2, 2000; Ballett Frankfurt Duration: 17 minutes First performance by an American company/PNB premiere One Flat Thing, reproduced is a work for 14 dancers and 20 tables by American-born choreographer William Forsythe, set to a score by Dutch composer Thom Willems. With great theatrical intensity, the work oscillates between disorder and symmetry, beginning with a bang: Twenty tables are flung onto the stage, becoming the surface and horizon for all ensuing action. Fourteen electric bodies then traverse the space in alternately restrained and explosive fashion. Amidst this chaos ordered to perfection, the virtuosity of the dancers is rivaled only by the complexity of the choreography. For all its astounding rigor and its image of dancers moving amid straight lines of tables, One Flat Thing, reproduced is true to Mr. Forsythe's basic theme of contrasting order and disorder. The dancers are hemmed in by the maze of tables, but the maze is also the playground in which they break loose. The 14 dancers (augmented by extras) begin by dragging them forward, but the staggered pattern does not have the impact of the mass rush at the finale. Mr. Willems's richly layered score adds to the levels of constant activity. Games are played, but there is also an assembly-line image, especially when men slide a woman along from table to table. A domino effect is paramount as one dancer sets another into motion and one table bangs into another. The partnering is grandly maneuvered, and the encounters grow increasingly dramatic. Nothing is static, everything is alive.One Flat Thing, reproduced is the third work by William Forsythe to enter Pacific Northwest Ballet's repertory. The others are Artifact II (acquired in 1998) and In the middle, somewhat elevated (acquired in 2000). Recommended Reading: William Forsythe, by Senta Driver (Routledge, 2000) The Seattle premiere of William Forsythe's One Flat Thing Reproduced is generously sponsored by Jeffrey & Susan Brotman.
Notes compiled by Doug Fullington. |
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