Pages

Music

David Lang selections: “When I am Alone” (edited), “Wed”, “Short Fall”, “These Broken Wings Part 2 “Passacaille””

Choreography

Jessica Lang

Scenic Design

Jessica Lang

Costume Design

Jillian Lewis

Lighting Design

Brandon Stirling Baker

Premiere

World Premiere: Pacific Northwest Ballet, September 25, 2026

The 2026 world premiere of Jessica Lang’s Pages was generously supported by Bob Benson.

Inspired by a week-long residency in the cabin of Ernest Hemingway in Ketchum, Pages explores the private landscape of artistic creation – the isolation, repetition, and relentless internal dialogue that accompany the act of making art.

Surrounded by books, unfinished thoughts, and the physical presence of language, the work became a meditation on the contrast between silence and inner noise. Through the wordless medium of ballet, Pages embodies the hesitation, repetition, obsession, interruption, and memory that shape the creative mind, reflecting on what happens to consciousness when a person devotes themselves to making something.

Note by Jessica Lang

Artist Biographies

Jessica Lang

A celebrated choreographer of her generation, Jessica Lang is Resident Choreographer of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Artist in Residence at Sarasota Ballet. She has created over 115 original works on companies worldwide including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, PNB, The Royal Ballet, Vienna State Ballet and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance of which Lang was Artistic Director from 2011-2019. For opera, Lang has directed and choreographed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater for Glimmerglass; choreographed Aida for San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera (WNO), Seattle Opera, LA Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago; and choreographed Salome for Des Moines Metro Opera. In 2024, Lang co-choreographed with Kanji Segawa WNO’s new production of Turandot, directed by Francesca Zambello.