The second repertory of PNB’s 2023/24 season is a true mixed triple bill. We’re more than excited to showcase works by three choreographers with distinct styles. Read on for a few fun facts to get to know returning choreographers Donald Byrd and Alexei Ratmansky, and new-to-PNB-audiences Dani Rowe.
Donald Byrd
1. Donald Byrd has frequently been referred to as a ‘citizen artist’ in alignment with his use of “dance as an art form and as a social/civic instrument.”
2. Byrd began his undergraduate degree at Yale, majoring in Philosophy.
3. Byrd has worked in dance, theater, opera, and film creating over 100 performance artworks and one museum exhibition, Donald Byrd: The America That is to Be, for the Frye Art Museum.
4. Byrd is currently working on a redesigned production of The Harlem Nutcracker, which originally premiered in 1996, featuring big-band versions of Tchaikovsky’s classic score.
Alexei Ratmansky
1. A dancer for the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the Royal Danish Ballet before he became a choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky choreographed his first dance work in 1997.
2. If you can name a classical ballet, Ratmansky has reconstructed it. His versions of Romeo and Juliet, Paquita, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, and La Bayadere are in the repertoires of ballet companies around the world.
3. Ratmansky’s Wartime Elegy is the fourth work of his to become a part of PNB’s repertory, and it’s the first Ratmansky piece to be created for PNB.
