Beyond Ballet at PNB

Beyond Ballet is Pacific Northwest Ballet’s second post-lockdown in-person program and the third in McCaw Hall, which also hosts Seattle Opera. I’ve attended all three programs, so by now you’d think watching shows in person would be back to normal. Or at least the new normal. It is not. But that does not mean it isn’t worth it. And it does get easier.

Beyond Ballet

Everything is not back to normal, but I think we’re all also tired of talking about it. So I’ll jump straight to the program. Because artistic director Peter Boal often programs pieces that straddle the line between contemporary ballet and contemporary dance, I would have expected a program called Beyond Ballet to comprise works that stretch the definition of ballet. The program features works by three very famous choreographers: Ulysses Dove, Jessica Lang, and Alonzo King. I’m familiar with the first two, and they are both artists who exemplify ballet.

Looking at PNB’s description of the program I see words like mournful and haunting and promises of “unmatched emotion.” So I went into the program with the idea that it is meant to express something of the human experience that goes beyond ballet. Maybe a statement on loss and resilience? Those seem to be common themes these days. Anyway, as much as I enjoy Doug Fullington’s preperformance talks, I’m still not ready to spend an extra hour fighting mask claustrophobia to find out, so I went into this program a little bit unprepared. (By now, though, the talk should be up on PNB’s Ballet Talk podcast.)

Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven: Odes to Love and Loss

Music: Arvo Pärt (Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, 1977)
Choreography: Ulysses Dove     
Staging: Eva Safström
Scenic and Costume Design: Jorge Gallardo
Original Lighting: Björn Nilsson
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Running Time: 24 minutes
Premiere: April 29, 1993, Royal Swedish Ballet
PNB Premiere: November 2, 2006; restaged August 19, 2009 (Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival)

When I hear Ulysses Dove, I automatically think of Red Angels, which is a pretty good association. Despite the name, Red Angels always feels a little Satanic to me (in a good way! A very good way) so it’s interesting that this ballet references heaven, too, although like the fallen angels, these dancers aren’t quite inside the gates either.

Boal is on record that this piece is about death, which many of us have seen a lot of in the past year. And an important critic is quoted as saying it “suggests a broken flow of relationships” which all of us have experienced.

The name of this ballet was so familiar to me, I felt like I’d seen it before. But the last time PNB staged it in Seattle was 2006, and I had no specific memories of it. But the church bell chime and cascading violins were instantly familiar. I had forgotten the movement, but I’d recognize that score anywhere. After last night, I don’t think I will forget the movement again. I can only describe Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven like Hemingway’s sentences: forceful, direct, angular, heavily punctuated with full stops. But where Hemingway was often full of shit, Dove is always profound. His sentences are Hemingway; his stories are Jón Kalman Stefansson’s Heaven and Hell. If a godless heathen like me can say so, Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven is a sacrament.

Cast I Saw

Amanda Morgan
Lesley Rausch
Cecilia Iliesiu

Dylan Wald
Christopher D’Ariano
James Kirby Rogers

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Ghost Variations

Music: Clara Schumann (Three Romances, Op. 11, 1839, I. Andante; Scherzo No. 2 in C minor, Op. 14, after 1840) and Robert Schumann (Ghost Variations, 1854, Theme, Variations II & V; Lierderkreis, Op., 39, No. 5 “Mondnacht”, 1840, arranged by Clara Schumann, 1872–1874)    
Choreography: Jessica Lang
Creative Associate: Kanji Segawa
Costume Design: Jillian Lewis
Lighting Design: Reed Nakayama
Running Time: 21 minutes
Premiere: November 12, 2020, Pacific Northwest Ballet (digital release)

The music for Ghost Variations combines pieces written by Clara Schumann with pieces written by her husband Robert Schumann while he believed himself haunted by the ghosts of other composers after her death. That backstory seemed so familiar to me when I first read it that I was sure I had seen this ballet years ago. I almost remembered sitting in the theater with a piano on stage… but the memory was a ghost as imaginary as Schumann’s.

Ghost Variations premiered during Rep 2 of PNB’s Digital season. Unlike other premieres last year, it was not intended to take advantage of the film format but was created in preparation for a return to live theater. It was always meant to be seen on stage. It was so satisfying to see Ghost Variations on stage after seeing it premiere on screen last year and wondering when or if live performances would return.

Two things that always signal good art to me are how many differing interpretations it can support and how many different directions it fires my mind. I don’t often feel compelled to dissect Lang’s choreography, which is always, above all things, beautiful. But I can never watch it without running off on flights of fancy and tangential lines of thought. I felt like the character Toulouse Lautrec in Moulin Rouge: a short ugly troll who yearns for beauty with every fiber of my being. Fortunately, while my mind raced off on tangents, my eyes found beauty on the stage right in front of me.

Cast I Saw

Leta Biasucci
Angelica Generosa
Elle Macy
Elizabeth Murphy

Kyle Davis
Lucien Postlewaite
Christopher D’Ariano
Dylan Wald

{This is exactly the same cast as last year’s film except that D’Ariano replaced Tisserand, who has since moved to France.}

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The Personal Element

Music: Jason Moran
Choreography: Alonzo King
Staging: Meredith Webster
Costume Design: Robert Rosenwasser
Lighting Design: Jim French
Running Time: 21 minutes
Premiere: August 5, 2019, Vail Dance Festival
PNB Premiere: November 5, 2021

This was the PNB premiere of Alonzo King’s The Personal Element. Although the name is familiar to me, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of King’s ballets before. The only description I saw of this ballet beforehand was that it is sober, elegant, and “allows the viewer to marvel at the movements” which was more in keeping with my original conception of the program.

The Personal Element didn’t have the loopy movement of a Drunken Master kung fu form, but it played with the same ideas. In contrast with Lang’s grace, King seems to be all about imbalance and clunky movement. Honestly, it took me a little while to get into this piece and see the artfulness behind the awkwardness. I mean, I’m awkward every day; is that really what I want to see on stage? Aren’t we supposed to relate to the big feelings expressed beautifully by ballet rather than be reminded of our own clumsy fumbling through daily struggle?

But behind those weird movements there was, absolutely, intention. And even if I didn’t immediately connect with it, I have never seen anything else like it. Is there a whole ecosystem of King-like dance that PNB is just dipping its toes into? Or is he really a choreographer unlike any other? Either way, I think the last time I saw a completely unfamiliar ballet I couldn’t find a referent for was Crystal Pite’s Emergence. And I am always pleased to see something entirely new. Even if the personal element is a little too, you know, personal.

The Cast I Saw
Cecilia Iliesiu
Elle Macy
Amanda Morgan
Miles Pertl
Lucien Postlewaite
Lesley Rausch
James Kirby Rogers
Dylan Wald

Good News

Congratulations to Elle Macy, who was promoted to principal dancer last night. It’s hardly a surprise after last season, and richly deserved. To Miles Pertl, who also made the most of the pandemic, and to Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan, congratulations on their promotion to soloists. It is always exciting to attend on the day promotions are announced, to get to cheer for artists whose work you’ve followed, and to hear the backstage cheers of support from their peers.

Also, you know how certain dancers just catch your eye and become favorites? I’m certainly not qualified to say it’s because they are better dancers, although they might be. But I think people are drawn to certain dancers on stage the same way certain people draw you in to conversation at a party. Whether it’s skill or style, the new soloist James Kirby Rogers stood out in this program the same way Angelica Generosa and James Moore stood out when I first saw them. So at least for me, he’s one to watch.

The Details

There are only four live performances of Beyond Ballet (it ends Nov. 7), so by the time you read this it will probably be too late to go. But Beyond Ballet is available for streaming Nov. 18-22 for $35. Subscribers get in-person tickets and streaming rights for all programs, which I think is a very sweet deal. I always want to see the performances more than once. But can rarely afford a second pair of tickets or a second night out. Watching a video on my own time later lets me see things I missed the first time and also lowers the stakes in case I’m not feeling up to attending in person on the night I have tickets. That’s especially important nowadays when we all need to be comfortable cancelling plans “just in case.”

{I attended Beyond Ballet as a season subscriber.}