Onstage This Week: The World Premiere of Milwaukee Ballet's "Beauty and the Beast," Eugene Ballet's New "Peer Gynt," and More

April 8, 2018

What’s going on in ballet this week? We’ve pulled together some highlights.

Story Ballets, New and Old

The world premiere of Milwaukee Ballet artistic director Michael Pink’s Beauty and the Beast opens April 12. The ballet features nearly 80 children from the company’s affiliated school and is set to a score by contemporary composer Philip Feeney. Take a deep dive into Pink’s creative process in the video below.


April 14-15 Eugene Ballet presents the world premiere of artistic director Toni Pimble’s Peer Gynt. A retelling of Henrik Ibsen’s play, the ballet is described as a “journey through the real and the surreal.” Catch a sneak peek in this trailer.


Houston Ballet’s
Don Quixote is back after a 12 year hiatus. The revival of former artistic director Ben Stevenson OBE’s production runs April 13-15. The company has posted a series of videos of dancers discussing their roles. Hear from Charles-Louis Yoshiyama as Basilio and Linnar Looris as Don Quixote below.

Mixed Bills Galore

Five companies present diverse mixed bills this week featuring a slew of premieres and a reverence for classics.

Atlanta Ballet
‘s
Tu Tu & More
program (we love the punny title) runs April 13-15 and includes the company premiere of Stanton Welch’s Tu Tu, the world premiere of Tara Lee’s Blink and Ohad Naharin’s Minus 16. Lee’s new work touches on constellation formations and stars moving in the cosmos; check out the rehearsal shot below.

Pacific Northwest Ballet
presents three hyper-contemporary works April 13-22. The program includes Crystal Pite’s Emergence, Alejandro Cerrudo’s Little mortal jump and the company premiere of San Francisco Ballet resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s RAkU. RAkU pulls from Japanese theater forms Noh and butoh to tell the story of two lovers, a monk and four warriors.

Oregon Ballet Theatre
presents a five part program April 12-21 titled Man/Woman, which juxtaposes all female and all male ballets to explore gender stereotypes. The program also includes Left Unsaid by resident choreographer Nicolo Fonte, which features a coed cast. The other four works are Michel Fokine’s The Dying Swan (think Anna Pavlova), the world premiere of Darrell Grand Moultrie’s Fluidity of Steel, the revival of James Canfield’s Drifted in a Deeper Land and the OBT premiere of Jiří Kylián’s Falling Angels.

April 11-15, The Washington Ballet presents a triptych of classics in their Mixed Masters program: George Balanchine’s Serenade, Frederick Ashton’s Symphonic Variations and Jerome Robbins The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody) in celebration of his centennial. Listen to artistic director Julie Kent explain the importance of these works in the below video.

April 13-21 Ballet West presents The Shakespeare Suite, a mixed bill of vastly different works which artistic director Adam Sklute describes as “unexpected favorites.” The program includes Jiří Kylián’s Return to a Strange Land, Merce Cunningham’s Summerspace and David Bintley’s The Shakespeare Suite, a series of pop culture vignettes of different Shakespeare plays set to the music of Duke Ellington.