Onstage This Week: 3 Premieres at PNB, The Washington Ballet Brings Back Modern Dance Classics, "Jewels" at Ballet West, and More!
Wonder what’s going on in ballet this week? In addition to the programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Ballet West and City Ballet of San Diego listed below, this week also marks Balanchine: The City Center Years, a five-day extravaganza bringing together eight companies from around the world. You can read more about it here. Also coming up is Boston Ballet’s black box show, BB@home: ChoreograpHER, which features six new works by women in the company. Peek inside the budding choreographers’ processes here.
Pacific Northwest Ballet Brings Three Premieres to Seattle
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s mixed-rep program titled ALL PREMIERE brings three new works to Seattle November November 2-11. The line up includes the world premiere of PNB dancer Kyle Davis’ A Dark and Lonely Space to a score by Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino and the company premieres of Alejandro Cerrudo’s Silent Ghost and Alexander Ekman’s Cacti. Above, catch a glimpse of rehearsal for A Dark and Lonely Space featuring PNB principals Sarah Ricard Orza and Jerome Tisserand.
The Washington Ballet Celebrates Three Contemporary Masters
October 31-November 4
, The Washington Ballet presents three modern dance classics at Washington, DC’s Sidney Harman Hall. The program includes Mark Morris’ Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes based on a 1616 English poem celebrating ethereal love, Merce Cunningham’s famous postmodern Duets to an abstract score by John Cage, and Paul Taylor’s beloved Company B, about young Americans going off to World War II to music by the Andrews Sisters.
Ballet West Opens Its 55th Season with “Jewels”
This week Ballet West opens its 55th season with Jewels, George Balanchine’s glamorous three-part abstract ballet. Jewels takes us through the eras of Balanchine’s history that helped shape his aesthetic: “Emeralds,” to music by Gabriel Fauré, refers to 18th century French courts; “Rubies,” to Igor Stravinsky is jazzy and all-American; “Diamonds” is set to Tchaikovsky and is evocative of Russian Imperial Courts. Salt Lake City audiences can enjoy “Emeralds,” “Rubies” and “Diamonds” November 2-10.
City Ballet of San Diego’s Tchaikovsky Spectacular
City Ballet of San Diego celebrates the music of Tchaikovsky with three works, November 2-4. The program includes two excerpts from Swan Lake—Act II and Black Swan Pas de Deux—as well as something more modern, co-director of City Ballet School Elizabeth Wistrich’s Tschai Celebration, set to Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons. Catch a glimpse, along with sections from the more familiar Swan Lake, in the above trailer.