Announcing our 2022/23 Season
Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal has announced the line-up for PNB’s 50th Anniversary Season, running from September 2022 through June 2023. Highlights include six world premieres, a major PNB premiere from Crystal Pite, and story ballets Giselle and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as works by George Balanchine, Edwaard Liang, Penny Saunders, and PNB Founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell. (Plus, of course, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®.) PNB plans to continue offering its digital subscription as well so audiences across the country and around the world can attend the show. (Digital season will not run day-and-date with the live performances.) PNB is currently accepting season subscription renewals, new subscriptions, and digital-season subscription orders; single tickets to the season, and George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® will go on sale to the public later this summer. For further information, contact the PNB Box Office by phone at 206.441.2424, or online at PNB.org. As always, everything is subject to change.
REP I – CARMINA BURANA
September 23 – October 2, 2022
What better way to begin our 50th Anniversary Season than Kent Stowell’s epic Carmina Burana? Experience the unmatched energy, spectacle, and exuberant dance of this PNB fan favorite, complimented by the concentrated passion of George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and a world premiere by Alexei Ratmansky (Don Quixote, Pictures at an Exhibition).
Allegro Brillante
Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Staging: Peter Boal
Costume Design: Karinska
Lighting Design: Mark Stanley
WORLD PREMIERE
Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky
Carmina Burana
Music: Carl Orff
Choreography: Kent Stowell
Costume Design: Theoni V. Aldredge; additional costumes by Larae Theige Hascall
Scenic Design: Ming Cho Lee
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
REP II – THE SEASONS’ CANON
November 4 – 13, 2022
A 50th Anniversary coup! This collection of innovative ballets beautifully demonstrates the vast landscape from which choreographic creativity can spring. PNB is thrilled to be the second company to present Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon, which joins Emergence and Plot Point in PNB’s expanding collection of Pite works. The Seasons’ Canon joins a world premiere by international choreographer and artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet Dwight Rhoden and George Balanchine’s musically-modeled Duo Concertant.
WORLD PREMIERE
Choreography: Dwight Rhoden
Lighting Design: Michael Korsch
Duo Concertant
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Staging: Peter Boal
Costume Design: Holly Hynes
Lighting Design: Mark Stanley, after Ronald Bates
The Seasons’ Canon (PNB Premiere)
Music: Max Richter (Recomposed by Max Richter: Antonio Vivaldi)
Choreography: Crystal Pite
Scenic Design: Jay Gower Taylor
Costume Design: Nancy Bryant
Lighting Design: Tom Visser
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®
November 25 – December 28, 2022 (NOTE: Not part of the 2022-23 Subscription season.)
Celebrate the holidays with renewed gusto! With its classic score, thrilling dancing, resplendent costumes, and magical scenery, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® is the perfect centerpiece for any holiday celebration. Cheers!
Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust
Costume & Scenic Design: Ian Falconer
Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls
REP III – GISELLE
Ballet’s preeminent ghost story returns to the PNB stage! Follow our protagonist as she navigates a sisterhood of spectral maidens, the Wilis, and comes to terms with her own untimely death. Giselle’s classic choreography embodies the vengeance, grief, and heartbreak of love gone wrong. Let Jérôme Kaplan’s sumptuous costumes and sets transport you to a romantic world, from the first notes of Adolphe Adam’s overture to the last majestic echo of the finale.
Libretto: Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier
Music: Adolphe Adam (1841), with additional music by Friedrich Burgmüller, Ludwig Minkus, and Cesare Pugni
Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by Peter Boal
Staging: Peter Boal
Choreography Reconstruction: Doug Fullington
Historical Adviser: Marian Smith
Scenic and Costume Design: Jérôme Kaplan
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
REP IV – BOUNDLESS
March 17 – 26, 2023
On the three-year anniversary of the March 2020 closure, some of PNB’s favorite pandemic-era collaborators share the McCaw Hall stage. Alejandro Cerrudo, Jessica Lang, and Penny Saunders consistently turn their creative minds toward the dance world and theatrical conventions. They seek to improve upon and play with our expectations, and push boundaries, both metaphorically and physically. Savor Saunders’ theater-roving Wonderland and premieres from Cerrudo and Lang.
Wonderland
Original Music & Adaptations: Michael Wall
Additional Music: Jean-Philippe Goude, Hugues Le Bars, Erik Satie, Camille Saint-Saëns, Stephen Foster Choreography: Penny Saunders
Costume Design: Melanie Burgess
Lighting Design: Trad A Burns
Sound Design: Penny Saunders
Premiere: November 12, 2020, PNB (digital season)
WORLD PREMIERE
Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo
Scenic and Costume Design: Karen Young
Lighting Design: Tom Visser
WORLD PREMIERE
Music: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Choreography: Jessica Lang
Scenic and Costume Design: Jillian Lewis
REP V – A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Get swept away to an enchanted realm with a ballet that’s equal parts drama, romance, and comedy. In George Balanchine’s witty adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, joy reigns supreme (no disrespect to Oberon). Add Felix Mendelssohn’s glorious score, lavish sets, and dazzling costumes and it’s no wonder this exuberant production has been captivating PNB audiences for over 25 years.
Music: Felix Mendelssohn
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust
Staging: Francia Russell
Scenic and Costume Design: Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
REP 6 – WORLDS TO COME
In the final production of our 50th Anniversary Season, we turn our eyes to the future. This mixed bill features choreographers on the cutting edge, who help us imagine what ballet may become over the next century. What voices will be featured? Whose stories will be told? Discover the beginnings of answers in world premiere works from Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Kiyon Ross, as well as the on-stage premiere of Edwaard Liang’s innovative take on human connection, The Veil Between Worlds.
WORLD PREMIERE
Music: Karl Jenkins, Georgs Pelecis
Choreography: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Costume Design: Mark Zappone
Lighting Design: Reed Nakayama
The Veil Between Worlds
Music: Oliver Davis
Choreography: Edwaard Liang
Scenic and Costume Design: Mark Zappone
Lighting Design: Reed Nakayama
WORLD PREMIERE
Music: Christina Spinei
Choreography: Kiyon Ross
Scenic and Costume Design: Pauline Smith
Lighting Design: Reed Nakayama
Featured photo: PNB Company dancers in Edwaard Liang’s The Veil Between Worlds, photo © Lindsay Thomas.
Photos: PNB Company dancers in Kent Stowell’s Carmina Burana, photo © Angela Sterling. Olivier Wevers and Louise Nadeau in George Balanchine’s Duo Concertant, choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust, photo © Angela Sterling. Cecilia Iliesieu and Dammiel Cruz in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust, photo © Angela Sterling. PNB Company dancers in Giselle, photo © Angela Sterling. Elle Macy and Dylan Wald in Penny Saunders’ Wonderland, photo © Lindsay Thomas. PNB Company dancers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust, photo © Angela Sterling. PNB Company dancers in Edwaard Liang’s The Veil Between Worlds, photo © Lindsay Thomas.
Why do I have to confirm my password and info every single time I sign on
I don’t like new program format (extra page where you have to find your event. Then coordinate with old style program that offers little about the performance of the moment.
Last night’s performance of The Seasons’ Canon, along with Catching Feelings and Duo Concertant was fabulous. Well done PNB and Peter Boal !!!
When will PNWB be returning to New York?