One Thousand Pieces

Choreography

Alejandro Cerrudo

Staging

Jessica Tong (2024)
Ana Lopez (2020, 2021, 2024)
Pablo Piantino (2020, 2024)

Costume Design

Thomas Mika

Lighting Design

Michael Korsch

Scenic Design

Thomas Mika

Duration

70 minutes

Premiere

October 18, 2012
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

PNB Premiere

September 24, 2021, excerpts
March 15, 2024, full work

Music

Philip Glass
(“The Illusionist” from the motion picture soundtrack The Illusionist; “Tissue No. 7”; “Song VII” from Songs & Poems for Solo Cello; “Renfield,” “When the Dream Comes,” “Seward Sanatorium,” “The Crypt,” “Renfield in the Drawing Room,” “Carriage Without a Driver,” and “Dr. Van Helsing & Dracula” from the motion picture soundtrack Dracula; “Movement II” from Musical Portrait of Chuck Close; “Cassandra’s Dream” and “The Land” from Second Piano Concerto; “Mad Rush” from Glass Cages; “Knee Play No. 5” from Einstein on the Beach)

PNB’s 2024 performances of One Thousand Pieces were supported by Lynne Graybeal & Scott Harron. The 2020 Pacific Northwest Ballet premiere of Alejandro Cerrudo’s One Thousand Pieces was generously underwritten by Susan Brotman.

“For me, a stained glass window is a transparent partition between my heart and the heart of the world. Stained glass has to be serious and passionate. It is something elevating and exhilarating” — Marc Chagall

One Thousand Pieces was created in celebration of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s 35th anniversary in 2012. Choreographed by Alejandro Cerrudo, the work was inspired by Marc Chagall’s America Windows, stunning panels of glowing stained glass created by the Russian-French artist and donated to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977—the same year Hubbard Street was founded—to commemorate America’s bicentennial.

When asked during the creative process why he chose the title One Thousand Pieces, Cerrudo replied, “Literally because of the symbolism of the work, observing how each piece of glass combines to make a whole larger piece made from many individual pieces, the same way human beings come together to create a project. The windows have inspired my choreography, but I’m not intending to teach anyone about this artwork. Instead, it’s my personal interpretation. The set designer, the music by Philip Glass, and the dancers have all inspired me. I’m not trying to tell a story or represent the art. The work will have three sections, and the scenic design is quite abstract, yet I hope everyone will be immersed in the images that will appear and connect them to the windows.”

Artist Biographies

Alejandro Cerrudo

Choreographer

Alejandro Cerrudo is a Chicago based-choreographer born in Madrid, Spain. His professional career includes work with Stuttgart Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 2, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC). Cerrudo became HSDCʼs Resident Choreographer in 2008 and held that position until 2018. In 2020, Peter Boal named Cerrudo the first Resident Choreographer of Pacific Northwest Ballet, a post he will held for three seasons from 2020 to 2023.

Cerrudo’s body of work has been performed by more than 20 professional dance companies around the world. In March 2012, upon receiving the Joyce Theater Foundationʼs second Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance, Cerrudo was invited by Pacific Northwest Ballet to choreograph his first work for the company, Memory Glow. Additional honors include an award from the Boomerang Fund for Artists (2011) and the Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work from the Prince Charitable Trusts (2012) for his acclaimed major work, One Thousand Pieces. In 2014, he was awarded the USA Donnelley Fellowship by United States Artists.

Mr. Cerrudo was one of four choreographers invited by New York City Balletʼs Wendy Whelan to create and perform original duets for her program Restless Creature. In 2017, Cerrudo was invited by Daniil Simkin to choreograph a site-specific performance for the Guggenheim Rotunda, a Works & Process Rotunda Project commission featuring Daniil Simkin, with original costumes by Dior. Cerrudoʼs Sleeping Beauty, created for Ballet Theater Basel in 2016, was nominated as Production of the Year in Switzerland in Tanz, Jahrbuch 2016 by Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

In 2022, Mr. Cerrudo was appointed artistic director of Charlotte Ballet.

Alejandro Cerrudo’s choreographic residency with PNB was sponsored by Susan Brotman.